|
A GUIDE
|
HAPPINESS
Etymologically,
the French word for happiness, “bonheur”, comes from the word
“heur” meaning “good fortune”. The definition of happiness,
according to the dictionary, is “the state of fully satisfied
consciousness”. I will go further by saying that happiness is a state
of harmony, because harmony implies the idea of relationships, relations with other
people, relations between the different parts of a whole, as well as
relations with ourselves. Happiness exists when these different
relations are good, healthy, balanced, peaceful. The idea that one can
find happiness without caring about others or the state of our
environment is an illusion. That one can find happiness while both
exploiting nature and living at the expense of others is an even bigger
illusion. The present problem of the world is that a greedy minority
thinks that it can find happiness while maintaining the majority of the
world population in servitude and poverty and squandering the planet’s
natural resources. This simply doesn't work! It is critical to fully
understand that we are not separate beings, but that we live in
interrelationship, not only with all other forms of life, but with the
entire universe. Happiness encompasses all aspects and levels of the
whole and the interrelations between its different parts. What
are these different levels? On
the individual level, our being is composed of four levels: the
physical, emotional, mental and the spiritual. These four levels must be
in harmony if we are to be happy. Each has its particular requirements
and needs that we disregard at our own peril. The
physical level includes our physical body and its essential needs, such
as air and food, and our material comforts. In rich countries, most
people enjoy a comparatively high level of material comfort, which they
are led to believe is the source of happiness. But if they fall into
poor health, or they constantly breathe polluted air and eat unhealthy
food, the conditions for their happiness on that level are not
fulfilled. The
emotional level includes all our feelings and the ways in which we react
to the circumstances of our life. Some emotions are beneficial to our
health, our inner well-being and our relationships with others. Others
are, on the contrary, extremely harmful. To learn to manage our emotions
is, therefore, one of the most essential tasks to master before one can
find true happiness. The
mental level houses our ideas, opinions and beliefs. These colour our
concepts of reality and our perception of the world in which we live.
If, however, we are conditioned from cradle to grave and manipulated by
our education, the media and those who rule us, then our beliefs are not
in agreement with the truth and with the laws of nature. We will thus
always be in conflict and in disharmony. The
spiritual level connects us to the divine, to the source of all life, to
the subtle forces that govern the universe. In our materialistic world
we often disregard this connection, probably the most important to
finding true happiness. It is this which allows us to overcome the
suffering and the difficulties that manifest on the other levels. Besides
these four levels of our individual happiness, we should not neglect our
relationships and harmony with the various sets of which we form part,
such as the family, our groups and communities, society, the planet and
its ecosystem, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe… Our
personal happiness depends on our healthy and harmonious relation with
all these different sets. And it also has a significant influence on the
harmony of these different levels. It
is our own individual happiness that produces the peace and the harmony
in the world – and in the universe. The quest for happiness must
become our priority if we want to live in a better world.
|
