"Don't have a reason for being happy, because that reason can be taken away"

originally posted by: zackli
I heard that quote on facebook a while ago in a nice little picture with some kind of dramatic background, and it's been on my mind for some reason. I think there's something wrong with the logic behind it, but I'm not sure specifically what. It's just a feeling.

Is it hypocritical to have a reason for not having a reason for being "happy"? It may seem silly, but this is the sort of thing my days are spent thinking about, rather than petty day-to-day issues that will most likely not have any sort of meaning in the grand scheme of things.

It seems like someone's attempt to say that desire is the cause of all suffering. The cynic in me interprets a convoluted manifestation of a Buddhist perspective mangled as it is run through a mind immersed in a social paradigm built around consumerism. I don't really know at the end of the day why they said that exactly but that is what I see.

Sounds like the person the Op quoted need some help with clinical depression.

I found out years ago, if you NEED a reason to make you happy - you will NEVER be happy. You must make yourself happy.

Happiness is a CHOICE, not a condition of circumstances. People need simply learn not to dwell on the negavtive but concentrate on the positive - there is Always a positive side no matter how bad things seem. Even if you are laying on your death bed there is plenty reason to find happiness if you're willing to look.

I think we'll be a lot happier if we find a way to love this beautiful work of art called Earth.

Sure there are things we do not like, but there is a lot that we do that we don't usually think about because we are too busy being distracted by things we don't like.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Sounds like the person the Op quoted need some help with clinical depression.

Not that I know of; though she does post that sort of thing quite a bit. Maybe she's hiding something... *stares off into the distance, trying to look deep in thought*

I don't know about you or the "mental health" system you have around your area, but when someone trained in treating people knows nothing about someone other than one of their Facebook status update tendencies, they typically try to reserve judgment before trying to diagnose one of several hundred/thousand psychological disorders.

Even if you are laying on your death bed there is plenty reason to find happiness if you're willing to look.

What do you mean "even"?

a reply to: zackli


Happy doesn't mean you have to be smiling all of the time....

originally posted by: JohnPhoenix
Even if you are laying on your death bed there is plenty reason to find happiness if you're willing to look.

So true....

When you are dead you won't have to put up with this BS anymore...that alone is comforting.

Well...presumably EVERYTHING can be taken away, good OR bad...so based on that theory, you wouldn't be able to base either happiness or unhappiness on a single thing.

But given that we are human and that's how humans operate, it's silly to suggest otherwise. You'd make yourself crazy thinking that these things aren't permanent so why bother with them.

a reply to: SnarkySheep

Well, happiness is an extreme, just like sadness. In the middle is contentment and that is where real peace is found.

@olaru12

When you are dead you won't have to put up with this BS anymore...that alone is comforting.

Yeah, that's why I asked:

What do you mean "even"?

@Kosmicjack

Happy doesn't mean you have to be smiling all of the time....

Then what DOES it mean? If it means a general feeling of well-being, I'm like that 99% of the time but I don't see the significance of striving for your entire life to reach this "state". The "big" things in life to most people are literally the most insignificant of all of them. The universe doesn't care about your petty day-to-day experiences or feelings, and in the long run they won't be a big deal to anyone. Why does experiencing them first-hand matter so much?

forcing oneself never lasts long and brings no natural benefits, to be happy is essential and to repress happiness is foolish to say the least.It hard to generalize because each individual is different and a lot of acting in falsetto mode is happening in all cultures. Happiness comes and goes so I all for letting it come when it comes.

a reply to: ancientthunder

to be happy is essential

How do you rectify such statements with the attitude that

forcing oneself never lasts long and brings no natural benefits

Do you consider how your messages will be received by other people? Does the idea that happiness is essential not strike you as something that might encourage an attempt at forcing oneself to try to be happy? I understand that you are not responsible for what people attempt to do with your ideas, just as Jesus is not responsible for all of the deaths that he, as an ideal (without assuming his existence or nonexistence), has caused; it simply strikes me as odd that such consideration is not second-nature for someone who appears to be or wants to appear to be or wants to be enlightened.

a reply to: SnarkySheep

What evidence do you have that suggests that you'd be crazy thinking these "things" aren't permanent? I have yet to see compelling evidence that ANYTHING is permanent, and you know what they say about making assumptions, right?

Your deflection of serious consideration of these "things" (I don't know which things you're talking about) and your assumption that you would make yourself "crazy" thinking about them and assign a negative quality to the term "crazy" lead me to believe that you may have had mental health issues in the past and I don't care either way, but whatever they were or were not, you don't have to worry about them because everyone is crazy. We're all lunatics living in an insane asylum whether we like it or not, and our knowledge of this fact does not stop us from being lunatics.

Your protecting yourself from getting hurt by trying not to set up ideas of what would make you happy, and that might make you happy , who knows... Maybe if you don't have any expectations of what happiness should be and you one day experience happiness by force it will be even better than trying to be happy and it not happening because of all the expectations you had put around happiness.

a reply to: zackli
Well really my post is pretty open in many ways, but I say to be happy is essential. (but do not say to be happy always is essential) also if you read you will see that I say that this state comes and goes. The idea of negating happiness is where I was pointing at.

a reply to: zackli
You create your world by your thoughts and your beliefs
So by thinking you shouldn't be happy because it can be taken away will make you see the world negatively.
But the best way to think of it is happiness and beauty can be found anywhere but if you always see the ugly of lifeyou will never see the beauty of life.