We live in bizarro world. We do everything backwards. We try to get to the foundation by focusing on things. Things are the outflow of the foundation. Thoughts flow from being. Yet we focus on thoughts, rather than being. Facts stem from good thinking. Yet our educational system focuses on facts, in hopes that it will result in good thinking, which is the goal. Shouldn't we focus on the goal, which is the foundation? In education, wise thinking, using facts along the way to assist in the ultimate goal. Happiness is the goal, but it is also the foundation. If we are happy, then we can be happy no matter what. If we have things, we can be happy with them. Whatever we have, we can be happy with. If we search for our happiness in things, we will never find it; there are always more things available. You'll get some new things, be happy for a bit, but then you'll want more. "Things" get boring eventually, if you use them for a source of happiness, and thus a sense of self. Is this not the basis for our entire "consumer society?" People will buy things to be happy, it won't be enough, and thus they will buy more, and continue to perpetuate the system. People go searching for their true self, as if it exists in some future place, and it is the ego that is naturally, inherently existing. If our true self is not that which we naturally and inherently are, then it is no true self at all! It is a goal, of the future. It is a mental construct. Mental constructs are of the ego. True self must inherently exist, or it is not true self. The ego is our creation, which flows from true self. We live in a world where everything is done backwards. Where are we? Bizarro world!
it's true, what people need(think they need) to make them happy has become artificial and monetary as a result of society's growth.. but i implore you to be a happy, fulfilled person if you were dirt poor and struggling through each day to make ends meet and support yourself (and family) unfortunately some shackles are hard to break free from, and the need for money is one of them (which as you would put it, really distracts from the "true self").
solid post, great insights . I do believe you can create a foundation of happiness to live your life on, I personally experienced that for maybe a month while undergoing roughly a shit ton of physical pain, and looking inward to find that deep calm got me there. The pain was worse than usual for 3 weeks but I mean after it lightened up I was able to grab hold of a base of contentedness and felt like I could be okay without a girl or being able to walk without a limp at the moment. I lost that under the stress of the end of the school year but I think you made a lot of good points here.
I <3 that there's some guy on this forum that pays me so much attention that he/they go on every one of my threads and gives them a 1 star. Haha. Egos FTW. When you have haters, you know you're doing something right