Is Seeking Enlightenment for Happiness Wrong?

[Moksha]

11 hours ago, JayySur said:

The real kicker is realizing that the Truth is beyond the dog, its tail, and the sun. 

That realization is what allows the dog to enjoy the dream, while in the dream ?

[Breakingthewall]

1 hour ago, Moksha said:

That realization is what allows the dog to enjoy the dream, while in the dream ?

Sure, all the dogs in the world are happy, but it's difficult for humans. If you love someone, your partner, your children if you have them, you know that this life can get very ugly. I was reading before about the wars between Protestants and Catholics. crucifixions of babies at the doors of houses, things like that ... the dark side of life, suffering. how to embrace that? I know that all this is ego, that they are images in the mind nothing more. but I don't want to bring anyone into this cruel world of fragility, we, as God, are too jokers. we make up jokes like war and leprosy for children. What a speech more .... not illuminated, I know. The good thing is that I can center myself in the present moment and forget all those histories, but what about your sons if you have? Difficult

[Moksha]

@Breakingthewall Dogs know the secret of living: they are entirely present. They are free from suffering, because they resist nothing.

We make it so difficult for ourselves as humans. What are we trying to accomplish by resisting what is? Does the resistance change anything, ever?

The irony is that by letting go of resistance, we are in a higher state of Consciousness that allows us to change whatever needs to be changed, with more quality and efficacy than would have been possible otherwise.

It is not about embracing the dark side of life, but about accepting that there is a dark side, and doing what Consciousness demands.

Life is absolutely ugly, but it it is also absolutely beautiful. Creation demands both. Every duality that can exist, must exist. The alternative is destruction, which dissolves the ugly, but also dissolves the beautiful.

I love my partner, my children, and the rest of my family. Since I have learned to suffer less, I am able to love them more. I hope that I can help them also learn to suffer less.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Moksha

[SamueLSD]

4 minutes ago, Moksha said:

@Breakingthewall Dogs know the secret of living: they are entirely present.

I get the analogy, but don't forget about abused dogs

[Moksha]

11 minutes ago, SamueLSD said:

I get the analogy, but don't forget about abused dogs

Yes  That is the difference between pain and suffering. The former is unavoidable, the latter is not.

[Breakingthewall]

dogs suffer when they suffer and when they don't, they don't. it's the good thing about having no ego mind. I had been very present for a few days, and I think that today ... I missed my ego! Too much simplicity and peace ... I suppose that would have led me to do something that I forbid myself: reading fiction, and fiction of massacres, etc. so I'm "enjoying" my dear ego again, inventing, asking, complaining and do the things that the egos do

[Moksha]

1 minute ago, Breakingthewall said:

dogs suffer when they suffer and when they don't, they don't. it's the good thing about having no ego mind. I had been very present for a few days, and I think that today ... I missed my ego! Too much simplicity and peace ... I suppose that would have led me to do something that I forbid myself: reading fiction, and fiction of massacres, etc. so I'm "enjoying" my dear ego again, inventing, asking, complaining and do the things that the egos do

Your ego missed you too. It is a sneaky bastard, hiding in the shadows when you are Conscious, and waiting to jump out when you finally start to feel safe.

My suffering has reduced 95% for the past 6 months. Even then, I have had some ego attacks, accounting for the remaining 5%. It is going for the jugular now, playing the strings that go the deepest. I have realized some fundamentals about my personality that I never truly understood before. The deconditioning is disorienting sometimes, but I am determined to ride it out. Fucking ego has to (mostly) die.

[Breakingthewall]

46 minutes ago, Moksha said:

Fucking ego has to (mostly) die.

Yes, it has to die, it is a stupid and deluded ego that we build in this society, it inevitably leads to suffering and neurosis, keeping it until old age as almost everyone does is a guarantee of madness

[Insightful27]

@snowyowl

On 11/28/2020 at 9:36 AM, snowyowl said:

yeah, like hedonistic happiness = conditional, impermanent; and deep happiness = unconditional, timeless. 

But when we start on this path, all we know is hedonism and can't imagine what unconditional happiness or love is like, being content whatever the external circumstances. Like, we think nirvana means going to heaven where's there's no challenges, but in reality it means keeping equanimity in the middle of challenges. 

yeah exactly, it took me a long time to learn that.

[Mafortu]

If thats your main drive then all then all the more power for you.

If someone tells you otherwise, then thats THEIR path, not yours.

[RedLine]

Truth and Happiness are the same. If somebody is seeking for Truth it is because they think that the fact of knowing the truth is gonna bring them happiness, even if Truth would not be "good news"

[Insightful27]

On 11/28/2020 at 1:05 AM, Beginner Mind said:

Seeking happiness through enlightenment is what it's all about.  Although I'd say the happiness that is available is more akin to peace.

That's exactly how I feel at this point anyway.

[Insightful27]

On 11/30/2020 at 3:10 PM, Mafortu said:

If thats your main drive then all then all the more power for you.

If someone tells you otherwise, then thats THEIR path, not yours.

Thank you for explaining it that way that makes a lot of sense