When one is at peace and 'happy' in themselves, then that is only when they can confront the rest of the world and reject fear, or use it to their advantage. the reason I have placed quotation marks on the word happy is because I do not like this word much - it seems to undervalue the feeling of happiness. If I had it my way there would be a perfect word to describe the feeling of complete content coupled with peacefulness, which would describe happiness. Perhaps this word is simply 'being' or 'sensing', 'pure sensation'. Not just satisfaction (happiness as understood today perhaps, temporary gratification) . Pure sensation is the one to strive for and revel in once felt. Of course one can experience or sense 'bad' things, is this to be embraced with open hands? I argue that these bad sensations are similar to that of temporary gratification - a somewhat temporary dissatisfaction, a mask of just 'being'. Feelings, emotions are in flux. It is that which is not in flux - which we tune into when we are sensing purely that is the state of being which is what brings us closer to ourselves.
We try too hard to reach this state. Yet all we have to do is the opposite.
When I mention using fear to one's advantage I am referring to seeing the fear that is in fact unnecessary and disposing of it. Fear swallows us up, takes us away from who we truly are.
1 comment:
Happiness is fleeting, and to chase after happiness is to chase after a memory or an imagined specter. When philosophy approaches the question of human happiness the answer always leads to the same: ataraxia, apatheia, detachment.
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