The First Time

Let me just start by saying that I really like thought experiments. Even more, I like thoughts that provoke me to change myself for the better. Because I like to be thorough, and I have a scientific background, I have fun thinking about the math behind a given argument. So I use the language of math to be more explicit in framing the thoughts. If you are not a math person, please bear with me.

Your happiness, it has been said, is equal to the ratio of your Satisfactions and your Desires.

From this formula you can find two approaches to becoming infinitely happy (Read completely happy). The first approach says that if your satisfaction is much greater than your desire then you can get close to approaching infinite happiness. {What is a limit?}

You can see here that this approach is contingent upon becoming infinitely satisfied, where the number or quantity of your satisfaction goes to infinity faster than your desires do.  The only person that could do that is God. This must be why God is so happy! (s)he is the richest (wo)man in the universe!

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Finally! A Formula for Exaltation!

Right!?!?

It is hard to believe that this particular type of approach could even be feasible given the human condition; the more we have, the more that we want. This is evident in the anecdote of the rich man who, with all the money one could ever dream of, attempts to buy himself happiness. His number of possessions grows innumerably and each one of his possessions provides him with fleeting satisfaction. Why is it that he can never seem to be happy (he has so many things)? Because his number of possessions, successes, and satisfactions grow at essentially the same pace as his desires do.

(Watch out…Here come the Jesus quotes)**

In comparison to infinite happiness, one just seems pretty close to none.  What this brings to mind is the young prince who asked Jesus how to get to heaven.

“I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” {Matthew 19:23-24} {Click here to read more about this}

(Here I do draw parallel between infinite happiness, and getting to heaven, or being exalted, although I do concede that, if you believe in such things, to you they may not be exactly the same thing. Although “getting” to heaven has always conjured up infinite happiness in my mind).

So where does that leave us? The first approach, getting happy by accumulation of satisfaction, doesn’t seem to work very well since we are not immune to wanting more and more and more. The illusion of this mindset manifests itself in two prominent thought habits. The first is the tendency to strive for continual satisfaction by perpetually seeking out higher quality experiences, accomplishments, and possessions; possibly giving rise to [Snob]. The second tendency is the thought that happiness can be bestowed upon one who is “worthy,” without effecting some transformation by one’s own accord. Those that believe in “getting to heaven” view this first tendency as sinful behavior because of its inability to delay gratification. They more often than not are engulfed in the idea of heaven as a place or destination where some higher being bestows eternal gratification as a result of living in a manner that scrutinizes in just which particular pleasures in life one may partake.

Both of those two approaches strive for happiness in a most ineffective manner, one rooted in the past, attached to a previous metric that defines the level of pleasure one can draw from current experience, and the other rooted in the future immersed in a pious self denial for hope of eternal glory. Let’s delay no further, then, in analyzing the second and simpler approach to the happiness equation. Simply stated, eliminating your desires can provide complete happiness.

Viola! The virtue in this approach is that it is founded on the present moment. That is, if, in this moment, you can limit your desire then you can be completely happy. This does take a considerable amount of mental force to accomplish, but as with any exercise the muscle of your will grows with repeated use. Desires here are not in any way synonymous with needs, you need not have everything that you need to be happy so don’t wait! Wave a kiss goodbye to Maslow.

This approach is not dependent on some higher being bestowing a change upon you, or granting you infinite access to the universe or whatever, this is you taking control of yourself. You can change yourself. Complete happiness is yours for the taking. No dogma, no illusions. Consider, however, that this happiness, regardless of completeness, is not permanent. Why? Because it is only in the present moment that you can be completely happy. Continuation of this happiness is dependent upon continuing to bring awareness to your happiness again and again, every waking moment. I hate to break it to you, but happiness is work and discipline! (maybe this is why it is easier to settle into an I’ll-wait-‘til-God-does-it-for-me attitude) But with practice you can become a mental ninja. It does get easier.

Here is one practice that I have learned recently to really help shift our focus away from our desires:

Pretend for a moment that whatever you are doing right now you are doing it for the very first time.

Stop.

Do it.

This is the first breathe of air that you have breathed. Pay attention to it. Enjoy it! Let it fill you deeply. Become the breath. Next time you take a bite of something, remember that it is the first time that you have ever tasted anything before. Let yourself become absorbed in the whole experience! Next time you pet an animal, or visit a garden, or walk barefoot on the grass, or smell a flower. In these instances or moments of pretending, pretend to be like a little child who has never had the delight of experience that you are having. The profundities of the shift in reality that you feel in those moments will help effect a change from mundane to divine. Another Jesus quote,

“And said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (read “be completely happy”).” {Matthew 18:1-6}

Why become a little child? Because little children have no prejudices, no previous past experiences that tell them that what they are experiencing is of some undesirable quality. Because little children who are untainted from their past also have no fear, and aside from their basic needs they have no desires. Little children learn, in the purest sense, from their own experiences, have no thoughts of the future that distract from their current state, and are completely invested mentally in the present moment. Obviously I am speaking of the ideal “little child” here, but with this picture in mind you can envision yourself taking in life’s experiences just as wholly.

Finally consider the fact that even though an experience isn’t new, that doesn’t mean that we have never experienced it quite like we are experiencing it now. The real mental discipline required for happiness is in increasing our capacity to appreciate the quality of the experience that is given to us now.

** I hesitate to quote the bible here because I disagree with the dogma surrounding the tenets of Christianity. I would like to point out that Jesus was a great thinker even though much of what he said is just a repeat of what loads of great thinkers before him have said. But my purpose in using biblical quotes, I am hoping, is to show how there is a duality of interpretations in what he said, and that viewing the philosophy from the opposing perspective will help to cut through the illusion of what motivates current dominant religious piety.