Want to be happy? Really? I'm not so sure. Many people like being sad. Some people enjoy anger and envy Othere people look for gloom and depression. Still other people live off thrills, but mind you, they would not say they were happy. In fact many times great achievers and people who are highly productive find happiness very elusive.
It is interesting, that as a young man living in the UK, you would even note that you have much but are not happy. I'm not sure the pursuit of happiness is even a major part of British existence. Not because these people don't experience happiness but because they "just get on with it" as they say here.
America's founding fathers thought the pursuit of happiness was a right which should not be denied.
I believe myself that happiness, joy, contentment, fulfilment are all facets of one gem. This can only be gotten at great cost.
Matthew 13:44 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field – and to get the treasure, too! 45 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. 46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!
I once heard a story about a greedy monkey it went something like this:
I’m going to tell you how to catch a monkey. Just make a hole in a coconut big enough for a monkey’s hand to go in but not big enough for its clenched fist to come out. Put food in the coconut and tie it to a tree or something firmly planted in the ground. Lured by the food, the monkey will put his hand into the coconut and seize the food. When he does that, he would not be able to pull his hand out. Neither can he run away with the coconut since it is tied to a tree. Actually, he can easily free himself. All he has to do is to let go of the food. That's all. However, most monkeys would not do that. They’d rather struggle and struggle in vain. That is how the monkey allows himself to be caught by its own greed.
We are all greedy monkeys! So what holds us fast? What do we grip which we will not let loose of even to easily escape?
I think we must fasten our greed on nothing less than the approval of a God who loves us and gave himself for us. We must trust he wants our best and that obeying him will not only bring him pleasure but us fulfilment.
Daniel, let go of the rotten food in the coconut trap of this world and roam free among every other tree of the garden God has planted for you to enjoy. Don't sell your soul pursuing your own desire. Trust God. If you pursue his desires, in time you will know unfathomable happiness.
This was what the great mathimaticion, Blaise Pascal, wrote about in his thoughts called Pensees,
"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.
"That is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much."
It is interesting, that as a young man living in the UK, you would even note that you have much but are not happy. I'm not sure the pursuit of happiness is even a major part of British existence. Not because these people don't experience happiness but because they "just get on with it" as they say here.
America's founding fathers thought the pursuit of happiness was a right which should not be denied.
I believe myself that happiness, joy, contentment, fulfilment are all facets of one gem. This can only be gotten at great cost.
Matthew 13:44 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field – and to get the treasure, too! 45 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. 46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!
I once heard a story about a greedy monkey it went something like this:
I’m going to tell you how to catch a monkey. Just make a hole in a coconut big enough for a monkey’s hand to go in but not big enough for its clenched fist to come out. Put food in the coconut and tie it to a tree or something firmly planted in the ground. Lured by the food, the monkey will put his hand into the coconut and seize the food. When he does that, he would not be able to pull his hand out. Neither can he run away with the coconut since it is tied to a tree. Actually, he can easily free himself. All he has to do is to let go of the food. That's all. However, most monkeys would not do that. They’d rather struggle and struggle in vain. That is how the monkey allows himself to be caught by its own greed.
We are all greedy monkeys! So what holds us fast? What do we grip which we will not let loose of even to easily escape?
I think we must fasten our greed on nothing less than the approval of a God who loves us and gave himself for us. We must trust he wants our best and that obeying him will not only bring him pleasure but us fulfilment.
Daniel, let go of the rotten food in the coconut trap of this world and roam free among every other tree of the garden God has planted for you to enjoy. Don't sell your soul pursuing your own desire. Trust God. If you pursue his desires, in time you will know unfathomable happiness.
This was what the great mathimaticion, Blaise Pascal, wrote about in his thoughts called Pensees,
"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.
"That is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much."
Let us see. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing), and you would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain.
But there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were an infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you, if there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. It is all divided; wherever the infinite is and there is not an infinity of chances of loss against that of gain, there is no time to hesitate, you must give all...
Posted 1/24/2006 at 2:57 PM by williambode
2 comments:
I am pleased to see a response from you to your son. Time is short. It would appear that Daniel will shortly be on his own, 18 in less then a year. He will not be moving on with you, nor living under your roof.
Praying for mercy and grace, BunnyB45
It really got me thinking what you wrote today, so these are my thoughts on how I think, we might obtain happiness…
I do think that people on the whole want to be happy but they have lost, indeed if they ever had in the first place, the tools with which to allow themselves to be happy…
I read a few years ago now ‘The Art of Happiness’ by the Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler and I really did for a while whilst reading it and after feel more contented with my life. I have occasionally since dipped into since and it has sometimes given me comfort. Even though I do not follow the Buddhist faith myself, much of what the Dalai Lama speaks of in the book can be carried over into anyone’s life if they so choose it of course.
The premise as I see it from reading the book is that we are in a way in charge to a certain degree of our own happiness, and that we do expect that having more will make us happier when its having less that actually will… The Dalai Lama seemed to think that training ones mind was a way of seeing our lives differently.
“happiness is determined more by ones state of mind than by external events.”
This puts things into perspective for me, in that many things (not ‘all’ things…) can be seen in some positive light by having a healthy and optimistic way of viewing, not only your world, but the whole of the world…
I have also read another book which has given me some form of support…
‘When I loved myself Enough’… by Kim McMillen with Alison McMillen... (mother and daughter) It’s only a short book but each page starts with the words ‘when I loved myself enough …’ and a short description of what the author Kim McMillen thought and did how she had learned to love and show compassion for herself.
I do think that people cannot be happy unless they learn to love themselves because it really is I believe true, that unless they do, they will not accept or allow anyone else to love them as they will not believe what they are hearing… And I do think that because we predominately are social creatures, that we do want desire and need to be loved.
My favourite entry in this book is …
“When I loved myself enough I began to see my purpose and gently wean myself from my distractions.”
Every time I read the above words, I do think that we are distracted by too many petty things, a bigger house, a better card, designer clothes etc… materialism these days seems to me to be developing on an ever increasing wider scale.
To end I will just say that I don’t think happiness is as transient as I once thought that it was.... just that I think we really have lost sight of the really real! important things in life.
Even though I am perplexed about religion as a whole, I can understand and am trying to see what very positive effects it can have on people’s lives, further thoughts on this matter I will continue to have.
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