I was sitting on a bench listening to some audio, petting my dog, and watching the world walk by... Then it occured to me that maybe not everyone has found the same deep inner happiness that I have found. Everything is beautiful, and even the biggest jerks in the world don't phase me.
There was a time when I was always depressed and life sucked for whatever reason, but now nothing could bring me down. Every bit of bad news is just an opportunity for good. It's a crazy state of being and I was wondering how many others have found it.

SO.

Have you found happiness? Post your thoughts.

Yes. Once.

I would be happy if I wasn't sick.

Truth.

No, I haven't been happy since I was 9.

I've never really been content with myself, I always feel out of my element.

No, and I doubt I will.

Meh. No one's happy all the time.

I tend to value truth over happiness I guess.

You can't be truthful and happy? Huh?

The birth of civilization was the death of contentedness.

I guess you are always happy, running around in the wild without food or water.

Enkidu.

What about the story of Enkidu?

But as you climb the pyramid of personal attainment, you'll ALWAYS have something to be discontent with unless you focus your mental energies on being content. If you have ample food and water, then you'll be discontent because you have no shelter. Once you have shelter, you'll want a woman. Once you have a woman, you'll want a PS3. Once you have that, you'll want enlightenment. And you'll never get that. Sorry.

I don't know. We evolved for millions of years to be proficient at surviving. Now with modern society thrust upon us we are completely out of our element. It's so damn easy for me to survive in this lifestyle that I was born into. It kind of makes everything I do seem frivolous.

Actually, I think that theres not much we could do to change our overall happiness. But if I was actually struggling in life I would have justification for being unhappy.

Mainly, happiness is defined by three things.

1. Level of companionship. If you're alone, you're probably not as happy as you would be if you're not.

2. Level of money. If you're poor, you're probably not as happy as you would be if you were not poor.

3. Level of intoxication. This door swings both ways.

Bitter, sullen, and angry. Yes you may call me :emo: but honest truth, that's how I've been feeling these days.

meh, depends on the day, but I'd have to call myslef generally happy. Being constantly stressed, tired, etc... are pretty temporary and don't necessarily mean I'm unhappy. However I don't know if it's possible for people to ever be completely happy. Human nature seem to go in escalation. If your actual state reaches your desired state, your desired state gets higher. Probably something about human nature thriving in at least some adversity. but overall, I'd definitely say I'm happy.

My pseudo-deep thoughts.

Depends on this "happiness". I can find things that get me happy everyday but in general I'm pretty much bored.

But what you are saying is there will never be a true sense of contentedness, ever. In being part of a civilized society, with resources to carry us, atleast we know, more than others, what its like to be content for awhile. Sure we always want more, but we can find some form of contentedness in what we are given. I just fail to see, being stuck in the wild with nothing to help us, how we can be more content in struggling to survive every waking hour than living in a civilized world that supports us. We should be able to appreciate many things civilization gives us, day by day.



Well, being apart of a society has always been a part of "our element". The only true reason as to how we were able to survive for countless generations was our unique ability, as humans, to group together, and start civilizations. One man can't survive on his own in the cold reality of the wildness. He can never be Enkidu, animals don't give a care in the world about raising him.

If you feel that your actions are "frivolous," why not try to help those who aren't as fortunate as you are, who aren't given such a wonderful lifestyle. Then you might unlock some feelings of contentedness for what you have when you see how society doesn't treat everyone equally.

Yes but past societies were much smaller and were much more connected with nature. Living in a small hunter gatherer community you would actually be able to see the impacts of the individual on the entire group.



Good question. I guess because it is socially expected of me to be in college right now and because this culture separates me from those people quite well. I don't know, really I am just rationalizing.

Maybe I should do what everyone else does and cling to ignorance by pretending to believe that the poor brought poverty upon themselves and could pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they really wanted to.

But is that an essentially good thing? Should we, as civilized beings, try to strive to obtaining a lifestyle like those people had countless years ago? Yes, it's true that the "impacts of the individual" may have easily affected an entire society, but we must consider the context. It's not hard to picture violent and harsh times at the mercy of the wildness. Disease and famine, literally unseen in our modern society, could easily wipe out such small societies. It's romantic to rediscover our "element" with nature, but we can't fully depart from our civilized homes. That's why the quote "The birth of civilization was the death of contentedness" bothers me. We need to be apart of a society, that's how we stepped up from nature. The statement, while ever so profound, needs explanation.

Hell yes I'm happy, brother. Things could be in the crapper, too, and I'd still be smiling.

PS: Happiness depends on only one thing: Whether or not you want to be happy. If you want to be happy, you'll make it so. Trust me, I've been to both ends of this spectrum. Happiness is just LIVING, without worrying about all the other stuff. I was heading the wrong direction a few months ago, started getting unhappy because of it, so I got to work fixing it. It's not fixed, not even close, but I'm working on it, and that's all you need. Hope, a purpose, whatever you want to call it. Also, stop worrying.

My experience anyway.

i don't think happiness has anything to do with material possession, in fact material possessions can be the cause of some of the worst unhappiness, or at least the pursuit of material possession.

some of the poorest people i have ever met were also the happiest.

I'm going to have to agree with BobTheMasher here. Happiness isn't the end, it's the means.

Personally, I'm quite happy sometimes, not so much at other times. I rarely get depressed though.

I'm mostly happy. Today I'm bouncing.

I'd be happy if I'd get better.

I'd be happy if I wasn't depressed.

Or hungry.

Why not just combine the two and get truthiness? >_>

yar

I usually don't feel happy (except when I'm "high" on sedatives), but whenever I'm not depressed I'm usually very glad to be alive.

I'll feel happy WHEN I CAN FIND A WII.

I found one:

Yep. Turns out, it was a cigar called Hamlet.

Yea, mostly thats true. For me its not living where I want to live. I just want to be on a sailboat all day in the caribbean where its always warm...and golf my days away.

'Among human beings, when someone is successful and rich, ruling over others and enjoying to the utmost all human pleasures -- that is the highest bliss of human beings. Now a hundred measures of such bliss equal a single measure of the bliss enjoyed by the ancestors who have won their world. And a hundred measures of the bliss enjoyed by the ancestors who have won their world equal a single measure of bliss enjoyed in the world of the Gandharvas. A hundred measures of bliss enjoyed in the world of the Gandharvas equal a single measure of bliss enjoyed by gods-by-rites, that is, those who have become gods by performing rites. A hundred measures of bliss enjoyed by the gods-by-rites equal a single measure of bliss enjoyed by the gods-by-birth -- and by, one might add, by those who are learned in the Vedas and who are not crooked and lustful. A hundred measures of bliss enjoyed by gods-by-birth equal a single measure of bliss enjoyed in the world of Prajapati -- and, one might add, by those who are learned in the Vedas and who are not crooked and lustful. A hundred measures of bliss enjoyed in the world of Prajapati equal a single measure of bliss enjoyed in the world of brahman -- and one might add, by those who are learned in the Vedas and who are not crooked and lustful. Now this undoubtedly, is the highest bliss. This, Your Majesty, is the world of brahman.' So said Yajnavalka.
-Brihadaranyaka Upanisad 4.3.33

This explains quite a bit.

For quite a while now I've been drifting between true happiness and depression.

I completely agree. A couple years ago, I was really depressed. Life wasn't going well. I constantly had no money, a girl I'd been in love with and dated for over a year broke up with me and turned crazy, I didn't have a great relationship with my parents, etc. etc. However, I soon learned that happiness doesn't depend on your circumstances. You can't control the things that happen to you, but you can control how you react to those things, and, while my life is far from perfect, I'm happy with what I have. That's not to say that I wouldn't like things to be different, but I can live with the way things are and be content, because I choose to be.