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The Science Of Happiness
Hogwash McFly writes "There's an interesting article over at The Times that attempts to answer the question 'So what do you have to do to find happiness?' by exploring the biology and psychology behind this highly sought-after emotion. This article opens up new insight into the common perceptions of what makes us happy, such as having more friends and more money. Detailed in the article is the idea that our early ancestors' struggles against adverse weather and predators have led us to instinctually focus on what is wrong or out of place in order to react with more efficiency, then going onto autopilot when things are going well."
Is a successful FP.
I hope high gas prices are depriving your children, you fucking dumbass.
Enjoy every day as if it was your last, life is a big party, Work is slavery
I'm such a black hearted emotionless wreck at this point, looking for happiness is a fruitless endeavor.
After having been chronically depressed for the past years i found out that happiness is just a balance of the right drugs.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
No matter where you are or what you acheive, one is never truly happy. To be happy is to be content.. and to be content is to lack the craving to better oneself. And to lack that craving is to lack a fundamental part of 'survival of the fittest.'
Yes.. It's human nature to be discontent.. and that separates some of us from the apes.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
For happiness levels are probably genetic: identical twins are usually equally bubbly or grumpy.
This doesn't mean it's genetic. Twins most likely grew up together, right? Couldn't it have something to do with the environment/family instead of genes?
Bradley Holt
I'm surprised the article doesn't explore Religion and it's affect on people's happiness.
That's funny, I thought happiness was a picture of Natalie Portman covered in hot gritts.
Money always seems to make me happy.
Saw a message of the day at the bottom of the slashdot page a few weeks ago:
"Men don't know what happiness is until they are married, but by then it's too late".
Good for wedding toasts...
Happiness is a warm gun.
For many of my co-workers here in the bible belt, hapiness is letting their worries be "god's" worries. IF thats so for most religious people, i would cynically say that hapiness is letting someone else have repsonsibilty. The article seems to concretrate heavily on the religous "values".
:(
I look it a different way:
When i die, i want to fly, sliding on my side at 100 MPH into the pearly gates, wearing a huge smile smile, yelling "WOW! What a ride!".
I hate for my life to be dull and unispiring - that for me is happiness.
I wonder if they did a case study on Adrenaline junkies, priests, and people like Linus Torvalds. Only then could i trust the science of happiness
Anyone concerned with happiness might want to consider reading Happiness is a Serious Problem by Dennis Prager.
He devotes an hour a week (called the "Happiness Hour") on his radio program to the question of happiness.
Agree or disagree, he is thought provoking. His approach is also interesting in that he values clarity over agreement and has callers and guests from across the ideological / political spectrum.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Dogs who experience electric shocks that they cannot avoid by their actions simply give up trying. They will passively endure later shocks that they could easily escape.
Wow, sounds like a really nice guy. Isn't this cruelty to animals? Oh wait, it's for science so it's OK.
Bradley Holt
...but usually twin studies take this into account, including identical twins who were for one reason or another raised in different families (often as a result of adoption). Researchers are not all stupid; they tend to take these things into account when designing the study.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Soma
true happiness is a formula you never know what ingredients, or how much or every one am a chronically depressed man, i blame love and bad windows installations i wish, she loves me back (and is not a jpg)
i have found, you can find,happiness in slavery!
--
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
Warning: Wishy-washy bullshit approaching. Proceed with caution.
Learn that you do not need anything except the biological neccessities for survival. Appreciate the present, but don't be considered with the future. Give up all attachments. Take only what you need to live.
The fact is, the more you have, the more you want. Do you ever see anyone without a TV lusting after a big screen plasma TV? Do you ever see someone without a computer lusting after the latest AMD processor? They spend time with those they care about, they read things, they think, they learn. Not only can you not buy happiness, buying actively makes you unhappy.
Think about all the things that get us angry and upset. How many of them are really justified? People get angry at things that don't matter much at all. Like getting your old posts that are not read any more modded down, or the annoyance a person gets when they see a mistake in spelling or grammar. When the read an article basing Linux, Mac OS, or GNU. Even if every linux distribution company went out of business or just stopped and the Supreme Court declared that Microsoft is the only software distribution company in the US. Why should this stuff boil our blood? While it may effect us it is no major reason to get angry about it. If every program has to be made by Microsoft you get a job with Microsoft. If you can't get a job programming get an other job, if it pays less the make due with less. Most of the things that makes us unhappy doesn't effect our ability to survive comfortable. When you realize that things are not as bad as they seem and you know that life will never be perfect, you usually live a happier life. Don't strive for a Perfect life just a manageable one.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Who needs all that when you've got...
heroin?
(spoken in a Scottish accent of course)
Sometimes my arms bend back.
As a guy, I am very happy when I play with my wife's nice large breasts. Sexist? No, I'm just a typical guy. Yum! ;) Why am I on Slashdot right now. Gotta go...
Interesting article...especially given my recent reading on the Hindu/Buddhistic concept of "detachment". These traditions prescribe detachment from wordly/materialistic desires in order to achieve contentment in life.
In short, anything that you're sufficiently attached to, that can give you enough happiness, can cause you as much pain when taken away. The solution therefore, is to follow a middle path practising detachment from all wordly desires, so as to walk along the middle path - neither be swayed emotionally toward too much towards happiness, nor being overly susceptible to sadness.
Happiness is a short lived emotion, (often accompanied by a potentially negative emotion of sadness) while contentment with what you have is usually a longer lived state of mind.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I have a Mac Mini, a fast server, a SUV. I am still always regarded as a jerk, and I am never happy. I am always in a bad mood. The only that makes me mildly happy is Big Mac sandwiches, donuts, and Mountain Dew. But it is temporary. Happiness is not an adult emotion, it is a child's ignorant emotion. Adults are all angry and demoralized like me. :|
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
Yep, that's the ticket!
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Happiness isn't having what you want, it's wanting what you have.
The question "what do you have to do to find happiness?" is a Philosophy question, not something that can be answered through Science.
Drugs don't really make people happy. Happiness must come from within.
The Happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing in us.
-- Aristotle, "Nichomachean Ethics"
What I get out of that, is that people are happy when they have a sense of purpose and feel like they're doing "what they need to do". Of course, sometimes that is very bad for everyone else. But think about what happened to that guy from Fight Club, who was working at the convenience store but wanted to be a veterinarian.
They say money can't buy happiness. However true this may be having the bill collectors call day in and day out certainly doesn't contribute to happiness either.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
We are designed to focus when we are under duress, and coast when things are going good. No wonder I work so much better when the boss is mad at me.
"Kids, we're going to the happiest place on earth - Tijuana, Mexico!" 8F24
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Because Slash has finally started working on its HTML/CSS. I thought it would never happen. Now if it could only catch up to other CMSs and similar platforms.........
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Happyness or Pleasure? Which is really being pursued by most? How many even know the difference?
Oh yeah, also food, sex, and money.
Not necessarily in that order, though.
There's a big difference between temporary happiness and true satisfaction.
Can I get a little +1 Insightful too? Thanks!
Getting laid on a regular basis sure doesn't hurt... and if that doesn't work, try Prozac!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I only have one, but I bet in every single Dalai Lama book, he says that the only way to lasting, true happiness is to help others who are in need. All other forms of happiness do not last (especially vengeful, selfish ones).
I thought about it for a while and looked into my own experiences in life (that's what Buddha says to do with his ideas before deciding whether or not to accept them), and I have to agree. Think about it for yourself.
I have the solution for unhappiness: ask yourself as often as you can if you are happy.
(ok someone smarter than me said that, don't remember the name and maybe is not even relevant)
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
Along this lines, I will put in a plug for a cellular biologist named Bruce Lipton PhD [former medical school professor (University of Wisconsin) and research scientist (Stanford University School of Medicine)].
:).
From his site (woohoo look at that it's dead atm sorry):
http://www.brucelipton.com/
His experiments, examining in great detail the molecular mechanisms by which cells process information, have revealed that genes do not in fact control our behavior, instead, genes are turned on and off by influences outside the cell.
These influences include our perceptions and beliefs. He shows that our beliefs, true or false, positive or negative, affect genetic activity and actually alter our genetic code. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful work, being hailed as one of the major breakthroughs in the New Sciences, shows how we can retrain our consciousness to create healthy beliefs, and by doing so create a profoundly positive effect on our bodies and our lives.
We all somehow "know" that the mind/body connection is key to real health. Are you tired of trying to find the words that describe how the mind and body are related, and why their relationships are important for proper health? A renaissance in Cell Biology now provides the cutting edge science - real science - to prove how holistic health therapies work! Research scientist Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., introduces a long-awaited paradigm shift in the biomedical sciences. The new science will inspire your spirit, engage your mind and challenge your creativity as you comprehend the enormous real potential for applying this information in your life and in your profession.
I just watched his video presentation called "Biology of Perception" yesterday and it really dropped my jaw. He's schooled me on his research into the mechanics of the mechinations of cellular processes and corrected some errors in my perception. This does relate to happiness at the end of the train of thought, but you have to invest some time to understanding the mechanics to appreciate the conclusions.
I'll try to express it in a nutshell, but he's the expert, not me (and I'll make no claims to my ability to articulate anything coherently
It was believed that the cell's nucleus was the "brain" of the cell. But he's demonstrated this is a false assumption. He explains how the cells are input/output machines and triggers that change the state of proteins to get them to manifest work. That basically cells operate as machines based on inputs which are signals based on the filter our perception. So, based on belief and attitude (happiness or fearfulness), your cells will respond to this perception, including the ability to mutate and create to genes to try and survive in the perceived environment. He claims the cells can either function in a growth mode or a protection mode. So in general happiness = growth, fear/stress = protection.
One of the fascinating things, is the cell apparently already has all the mechinations it needs to function. He equates the nucleus to the gonads of the cell. When it needs to produce a new protein, that's when it goes into the DNA to extract the blueprint it needs. Another point he makes, is that humans have been so focused on the study of DNA, that they forgot about all the protein it was encased in, and would throw it away while they focused solely on the DNA. So for some gene to manifest (this goes into cancer as genetics etc), the cell needs some signal input, in order to manifest it. If you had a cancer gene in your family, you'd be born with cancer. It's not something that is latent and waits to pounce on you 30 years later. It may be more your negatively oriented lense that filters the world, a belief that you have a weak heart, or everyone in the family gets lung cancer, or whatever, that can cause cells to respond to these signals and manifest these mutations or negative/destructive genetic information.
So, that's a pretty mangled i
Serenity, on the other hand, stays with you. When you stop looking for happiness, you'll have it. :)
Been a Journal of Hedonics since 2001. "Happiness: The science behind your smile," ISBN: 0192805584 Among others. Please try to keep up.
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
Only for old people in Korea
as remembering our lives before about three years old.
Why is it we consider it normal to have "blacked out" our entire childhoods, when such a blackout is considered a symptom of psychosis?
Could our culture itself be psychotic? If so, what would be the symptoms of a psychotic culture? Frequent wars, famines, early sickness and death, personalized unhappiness, generalized misery, systematic abuse and periodic "ethnic cleansings"?
We are bigger than the culture that tries to confine and contain us, so we become folded, stapled and twisted when forced to "fit in."
Happiness is remembering our childhoods entire.
It is possible; I have done it.
We are not humans in search of a spritual experience, we are spirits out to find the human -- and happiness is nothing more or less than knowing this.
Whoever said money couldn't buy happiness... didn't know where to shop.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
nuff said.
Sarcams is a bloody joy and irony is jolly good too =)
According to the historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, in Lydia Solon offended Croesus when he was asked "Who is the happiest man you have ever seen?", instead of complimenting the king he said "I can speak of no one as happy until they are dead". It was recalling this story which, again according to Herodotus, saved Croesus from execution when his kingdom was overcome by Cyrus's invading Persians.
From wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon
"I'm such a black hearted emotionless wreck at this point, looking for happiness is a fruitless endeavor."
.45 magnum
Ah! A recent divorce?
Here let me cheer you up.
*(to the tune of Barney's 'I Love You')*
I hate you
You hate me
Let's chase Barney up a tree
Grab a
Shoot him in the head
Look everybody, Barney's dead!
"Learn that you do not need anything except the biological neccessities for survival."
Why are you posting on /. and engaging in higher thought processes and abstract conversation then? What has that to do with biological necessities?
"Appreciate the present, but don't be considered with the future."
Really? You don't care about the future? I'm glad you value your present so much as to not be concerned with the future. Strictly speaking as going by your first comment, survival machines worry about the future. Their biological necessity for survival as you put it is very much concerned with the future. Looks like you have a value conflict here eh?
"Not only can you not buy happiness, buying actively makes you unhappy."
Says who? Do you have any scientific evidence that states that the brain state is unhappy when buying products? Or are you just playing to the /. groupthink so you get modded up?
Really, happiness is subjective, but it like so many emotions is largely controlled by your attitude. If you're a cynic and prone to expect the worst, you can expect that to colour your outlook. If you think about it (at least here in the western world), most of our problems are transitory in nature. Things you sweated bricks about 10 years ago have little impact to how you feel today. Things that seemed insurmountable change with perspective and distance. It's the in-the-moment gut wrenching that take a lot of us down. If you can keep things in perspective, even your worst problems will not drag you down to the mud. If you can stand your ground and hold your attitude, your sense of self respect will keep you above water.
Simple perhaps, but the saying goes that you are only as happy as you decide to be
Emotions by their very nature are transitory.
Happiness is what happens when we're doing something else.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
C.S. Lewis
Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
Happiness itself is a philisophical question as to whether or not it exists/is attainable. I saw somebody post something about the 4 noble truth's, hey thats a good start. Pascal uses God but really you can use any silly old thing you decide to but faith in. Whether it be your friends and loved ones or a favorite toy or blanket. Anything you trust enough can be a source of happiness (IMHappyOpinion).
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
Simply, "Follow your Bliss."
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
Neo-Darwinist 'survival of the fittest' would suggest that the people who leave the most offspring are the happiest. "Fittest" turns out to means leaving genetic decendents (this means bothers, sisters, nephews and nieces count as well as children and grandchildren.)
Of course, if 'craving to better oneself' means screwing your brains out as often as possible, that would be entirely consistant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfish_gene
To find a complete science of happiness, we'd need to find out a master formula to create/rate good music, a formula for art, one for thought and games (sport, console or otherwise), and the various other senses (touch, smell, taste).
Those are the fundamentals.
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
"The question is not happy or unhappy, it's blessed or unblessed."
- Bob Dylan
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Don't eat them. :)
Plenty of exercise works. Seriously. Exercise cures depression. It's really that simple!
(This doesn't apply to people with screwed-up brain chemistry.)
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
I never forgot my childhood. I remember crawling around, I remember breast feeding, (somethings I wish I could forget) and I even remember being born. (as well as an undeterminable duration of being inside my mom)
The reason, I'm sure, has part to do with the fact I was born a full month late, and part to do with the fact that I'm both autistic (I clearly remember visual things very well) and I have ADD. (I tend to repeat things in my mind over and over)
I must say, the memories themselves have never brought me happiness. What makes me happy is improving myself by learning new things and new skills. And there will always be an abundance of things for me to learn. If I didn't have to worry about money, I'd be happy my whole life. This past year on paid leave, then unemployment has been wonderful, not counting the occasional meeting I had to go to.
Work, and by association, money, are the root of unhappiness. (esp. working at a state job)
"That's so plausible, I can't believe it!" - Leela
http://www.tmcm.com/comics/webcomics/186_thinkhapp y
Why are you posting on /. and engaging in higher thought processes and abstract conversation then? What has that to do with biological necessities?
/. groupthink so you get modded up?
/. these days. All it shows are /.'s groupthink values more than any objective analysis of happiness.
I didn't say be concerned only with biological requirements. I said learn that that is all that you need. Anything else is nice, but not required.
Really? You don't care about the future? I'm glad you value your present so much as to not be concerned with the future. Strictly speaking as going by your first comment, survival machines worry about the future. Their biological necessity for survival as you put it is very much concerned with the future. Looks like you have a value conflict here eh?
If you are only concerned with biological survival, it is a lot easier not to be overly concerned with the future. Of course you still have to worry about having biological needs fulfilled. You still have to be concerned with the future, but many people are too concerned. Too many people stress about the future. The first point makes the second a lot easier to acheive.
Says who? Do you have any scientific evidence that states that the brain state is unhappy when buying products? Or are you just playing to the
It's all my own experience. I never suggested it was anything other than that. I see how buying things makes me feel, and how those with fewer things are generally happier. It could be because they don't want more things, but it seems entirely consistent to me to say that when you have one thing you want more. Witness all the people who hold off buying computers until the next thing comes out. It shouldn't matter if a better one comes out: if the current one does the job it is worth the price.
I'm glad to see platitudes are being modded up on
I was just saying what works for me. I think that is the point of the comment system, no? Or can we not have anecdotes? Is this a scientific journal? I even put a disclaimer at the top.
This is not a topic for science to address - somewhat similar to addressing consciousness. For science to address a problem, the problem needs to be defined first, and the definition has to be agreed on. Each mind/body is different and has its own definition of happiness, and the time and space (place) also matter for the feeling of happiness.
However, the lack of definition will be a good topic for the media, as the media thrives on creating discussion/chatter on controversial topics without any fruitful result.
Oh man, this is deep stuff... I'm think I'm going to have to sit down for a minute.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
a good cup of tea. (:
happy
Koufuku no kagaku means litterally "the laws" or "the science" of happiness :-)
Serious question: how do they sort out cause and effect? They observed a correlation between happiness and social interaction; but which is which?
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Happiness is supposed to be good because it makes us more succesfull, harder working and engaged? What the hell? That is totally backwards. IWe should only be working harders, and being socially engaged if it makes us happy not the other way around! What the hell is the point of turning out widgets for their own sake?
If only we could get over this puritanical ethic that tells us it is wrong to aim for enjoyment, in general not just selfishly for ourselves, I think we would be alot happier. For instance by focusing government programs on what made people the most satisfied rather than work the hardest and produce the most we could probably make this country alot more of a pleasent place to live but as long as the goal is just making more crap we will likely acheive that goal while making ourselves more miserable.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
Ya right, it is just a marketing tool to get you to buy stuff, it really doesnt exist.
Never has.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Mama says that happiness comes from little rays of sunshine that shine down when your feeling blue, not from selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
is the first five minutes after you level and you get to use your new spells against the same mob youve been fighting for the last four hours and you take it down 10% faster then before. Then it fades and your back to working long hours again for that next five minutes.
Don't talk to me about life...here I am, Brain the size of a planet...
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
...is bound to be wrong.
Catholicism on Happiness:
"Man has one ultimate purpose of existence: eternal happiness in a future life. But man also has a twofold proximate purpose: to earn his title to eternal happiness, and to attain to a measure of temporal happiness consistent with the prior proximate purpose."
This is from "State and Church," in New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia.
Outside of temporary emotions like anger, joy, there seems to be a more permanent condition called happiness.
I notice, that I keep wanting more as my life gets better; and satisfaction seems the solution to be perfectly happy. This should be able to be accomplished at any time (no matter how bad your life is; how often you get temporary anger/sorrow/pain).
The question is; what is satisfaction?
I'm sure you're convinced of this yourself and want to help. This theory makes a lot of sense intuitively, and its sound advice, clinically. But there's philosophical, etymological problems here about what constitutes "happiness." In a strictly materialistic philosophy, perhaps proper Serotonin levels in the brain IS happiness. Kurt Vonnegut has explored in fiction some of the issues about the consequences of happiness= mental health hygeine. Long term maintainence of healthy brain chemistry might be good advice, but does it really lead to "happiness?"
In other words, "what's it all about, Alfie?"
i was about to write some code here about blood THC content being relative to happiness but all i can master right now after a few bongs is this W33D > j00
Back in my day we were disgruntled and we liked it..... uphill both ways!
No further analysis is necessary, and is in fact counterproductive!!
Join the Church of the SubGenius
http://www.subgenius.com/
-Call no man happy until he is dead.-
Think about it. It's not that dead men are happy.
Is this guy the son of your god, or is he your god in human flesh? Did your prophets write the bible, or did some unnamed people write about your prophets?
My kingdom for some consistency! If evangelising is your job, at least all of you can have a meeting first and agree on what you're going to say.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
Maybe it "accurtly" does, but certainly not accurately. Evangelicals have been lurking on /. for a long time, VeggieTales man. (Yes, I know who Larryboy is!) Unfortunately posting "born-again" propaganda is one of the things spoiling it. Don't be encouraging this crap.
Bash.org
I simply have a constant craving for sex with a beautiful woman who desires me as much as I do her. That kind of "happiness" I've only experienced a few times in dreams. It felt so incredibly good, like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold night. The expectation that I might be intimate with a woman in the near future, or far future for that matter would radically raise my level of whatever happiness is.
Since I've never had sex yet at 40, in general I'm just a walking "comfortably numb" zombie. Never truely happy, just existing. It's a terrible feeling, like having constant acid in your stomach you can never get rid of. Most of my friends simply say even if I had sex I would still be in the same state of mind. Maybe, but as of now, I can only see the green grass on the other side of the fence.
Being a geek/nerd/scientist/computer technologist, the only reason I enjoy existance otherwise is because I'm curious and want to know things. But as great as knowledge is, it simply doesn't seem to have the staying power. Before long, I'm back in the state of being numb again. God, I wish I could just be with a woman! The knowledge of future sex would give me a lot of contentment...I think. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe all the problems that fall out of having a sexual partner would override my craving. Sure, there have been many songs about the experiences of such.
The modern media certainly doesn't help at all. Certainly I think I would be much happier never knowing about things I can never possibly have, whether they be fast cars, big houses, and beautiful women. My dreams are always greater than what I can possibly attain, so I am unhappy otherwise.
"Sorry, did I say something wrong? Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway, so I don't know why I bothered to say it -- oh God, I'm so depressed."
Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_Pyramid
Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, Actualization.
Fulfill these needs and you'll find happiness. (An interesting thought is that this view does not oppose christianity at all, they seem to fit very well)
A personal observation upon myself is that the darkest times of my life were the ones where none (or only one) of these needs were fulfilled. If I didn't believe in God, i would surely have killed myself - so maybe Maslow's pyramid could also be used as an indicator for potential suicides. Just a thought.
Note that this doesn't say "earn eternal happiness", but rather "earn title" to it. Christ did earn our salvation for us, and we could never have earned it for ourselves. However, Jesus did explicitly say that we are rewarded for the good we do once we are saved; with the help of God's grace, we do earn a reward for ourselves. See the Catholic Encyclopedia article on merit.
Neil: [reading] "Understanding Poetry," by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D. "To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech, then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and two, How important is that objective? Question 1 rates the poem's perfection; question 2 rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining the poem's greatness becomes a relatively simple matter. If the poem's score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness. A sonnet by Byron might score high on the vertical but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great. As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows, so will, so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry."
John Keating: Excrement. That's what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard! We're not lighting a pipe! We're talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? "I like Byron, I give him a 42 but I can't dance to it!"
Stolen shamelessly from IMDB
I have to say, though, that I agree with John Keating - you can't describe poetry like this. The other quote about this sort of thing is this:
"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture" -- Laurie Anderson (I think)
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
I'm not sure what they meant by "earn", unless they want to take it up with the Bible itself:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
Of course, Christianity has a "glutton for punishment" sort of happiness:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."
James 1:2-3
As a somewhat practicing Buddhist, I always cringe when someone says "life means suffering (dukkha)" when Sanskrit word "dukkha" means so much more. The translation "life is unsatisfactory" is perhaps more accurate. Dissatisfaction is not just caused by suffering (i.e. the personal experience of loss) but also by the failures of expectations to be met and the innate mature of our mind -- especially knowledge of our own mortality.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
If you don't take the "free gift" of "forgiveness" for perceived sins of any magnitude, you get an infinite (all eternity) amount of punishment in God's private dungeon, which is disproportionate to *any* amount of sin one could conceivably commit in a lifetime. This is the definition of coercion.
Maybe if you knew the truth, you wouldn't waste your time with Christianity (or any religion for that matter):
l
http://www.taivaansusi.net/historia/mithraism.htm
For me, you cannot be happy until you have been horribly unhappy first.
I am now approaching the second year of my divorce. My marital breakup was equivalent to the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs. I lost massive weight before working out and putting back on muscle. I learned to jog and became a better father. I read book after book on relationships, divorce, psychology and religion and finally came to the conclusion that most, if not all, of my unhappiness in life came from the fact of trying to control the free will of others. I happened upon a theory I call "reality philosophy." I mainly base this on Robert Ringer who points out in his theory of reality:
Reality isn't what you hope it would be. It isn't what it even appears to be, but with careful investigation it is what it is. You either go with it and benefit from it or fight it and suffer.
I have learned to let go and stop trying to control things. I think Fight Club says it best when Tyler tells the narrator in the car as he's trying to keep it between the lines, "look at you! you're pathetic! just let it go...." Truly, it isn't until we've lost everything that we are free to do anything. I am a living example of this.
Looking back, if anything made me a man it was my divorce. I went through a crash course of the legal system, the hell of financial trauma, work stress, single-fatherhood, on and on. Divorce hits you on every level imaginable. But I was determined to survive and thrive. I now am in the third basketball season as a YMCA children's coach. I have found one of the most therapuetic things is to volunteer my time for something like this. The kids are my doctors, counselors as I watch them grow, learn and each season as I've coached basketball, soccer, etc. I find the practices and the games are the highlights of my life. I am better at my job, my appearance, my relationships, name it. I wouldn't trade my divorce for anything because I never knew that I wasn't even happy before it.
I am now leaner and wiser than ever and am a far better person to be around. I dove into religion and books as I said. Here are some qoutes I carried in my pocket for a solid year and committed to memory. Each chance I got -- if waiting somewhere with nothing to do for example -- I would get them out and go over them:
Attitudes are more important than facts. -Karl Menninger
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:6-7
Stand up to an obstacle. Just stand up to it, that's all, and don't give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won't be you, it will be the obstacle. -Peale
Do not take the attitude that you are in a situation in which nobody has ever been before. There is no such situation. -Peale
People have overcome every conceivable difficult situation. -Peale
A clean engine always delivers power. -Peale
Never tell me the odds. -Hans Solo
A mind free of negatives will always produce positives. -Peale
There is no spoon. -Peale
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain. -Emerson
If you had faith... nothing would be impossible. -Matthew 17:20
Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow. -Peale
The rough is only mental. -Peale
There is a time when we must decide and act and never look back. -Phillips
If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge. -Hawkes
When worrying about something always ask two questions: 1. What am I worrying about? 2. What can I do about it? -Litchfie
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
from The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, as written by Saint Perpetua, 203 A.D.
(Background: Perpetua was a young upper-class woman of the Roman Empire. Felicita was her former slave. They were converts to Christianity. Because they refused to renounce their faith, they were sentenced to be killed by animals in a public spectacle. For this they rejoiced. Perpetua wrote an interesting document, linked above, to tell about their approaching martyrdom and what led to it. This account of their deaths was appended by an eyewitness.)
Now dawned the day of their victory, and they went forth from the prison into the amphitheatre as it were into heaven, cheerful and bright of countenance; if they trembled at all, it was for joy, not for fear. Perpetua followed behind, glorious of presence, as a true spouse of Christ and darling of God; at whose piercing look all cast down their eyes. Felicity likewise, rejoicing that she had borne a child in safety, that she might fight with the beasts, came now from blood to blood, from the midwife to the gladiator, to wash after her travail in a second baptism. And when they had been brought to the gate and were being compelled to put on, the men the dress of the priests of Saturn, the women the dress of the priestesses of Ceres, the noble Perpetua remained of like firmness to the end, and would not. For she said: For this cause came we willingly unto this, that our liberty might not be obscured. For this cause have we devoted our lives, that we might do no such thing as this; this we agreed with you. Injustice acknowledged justice; the tribune suffered that they should be brought forth as they were, without more ado. Perpetua began to sing, as already treading on the Egyptian's head. Revocatus and Saturninus and Saturus threatened the people as they gazed. Then when they came into Hilarian's sight, they began to say to Hilarian, stretching forth their hands and nodding their heads: You judge us, they said, and God you. At this the people being enraged besought that they should be vexed with scourges before the line of gladiators (those namely who fought with beasts). Then truly they gave thanks because they had received somewhat of the sufferings of the Lord.
You wouldn't by any chance happen to have meant "its effect", would you?
Everybody knows that Catholics aren't Christian!
Seriously, though, you're right the Catholic church sold golden tickets into heaven for a long time. But it's not like that had anything to do with Jesus or anything.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
coke. duh. easier than wires into your cerebellum, more effective than prozac.
I think the worst part of the whole experience was attempting to be something I'm not. Trying to conform to other people's ideas of how I should see things. When you have a "bad" attitude, people feel free to tell you that you shouldn't feel that way. Family, friends and coworkers will tell you to "get help". This is who I am. If I changed, I'd be someone else. I have never had such intense anxiety as I had during my "happiness crusade". I'm talking chest-pain, tingly finger, hiding under the desk anxiety.
It is just not worth it to try to please people by being "happy" for them. Perhaps, as the article suggests, happy people live longer. Good for them -- But honestly, I'm not happy for them. If your creator, who- or what-ever you believe that to be, wanted you to be happy, [he] would have made this world a better place. But it isn't a better place. As it is, I'm not too thrilled with the world. Unlike you happy people, though, I'm not just sitting there wallowing in self-approbation, I'm trying to do something about it. So perhaps there is something worthwhile in being unhappy.
Take a look at all the things that make you happy, that make life more pleasant and less difficult. Were music, art, medicine and technology all created by people who were able to find contentment in the way things were? Or were they possibly the work of the discontented, the dissatisfied, and the unhappy? So I'm sorry if I bring you down, but I'm a lot happier being unhappy.
I am not a crackpot.
Of course your whole statment relies on the fact that both "Sin" and "God" make some rational sense, which they don't. In reality, neither "Sin", nor "God" have justified meaning because the words themselves can't be explained in any manner that will allow __________ (fill in the blank). I might fill the blank with "verification", but others generally accept that "connection" would be a better term. You cannot describe what the word god means without having notions of physical things or emotional experiences. A word "god" does not exist independently of the words used to describe it. Therefore what is "it"? About the only thing close that makes any sentence at all is the simple utterance "I am", which simply recognizes being itself. So, in being, since we are, therefore, we are it, or everything is it. But it is very likely that "it" has no intentions whatsoever, that are at all, in any way, described by most modern religions. There are simply too many possiblities for what the word "god" stands for that we are unlikely to be correct about any of them as they relate to the way things really are.
There is also no such thing as sin. As a child you are "taught" to believe that if you do a bad thing, then you have "sinned". Ok, so what's a bad thing? No one really knows. As for the concept of god, it is also equally tenuous. What are the properties of this thing that is described by such a word? People spout off such things as "infinite" this, or "unlimited" that, as if those remarks make any sense whatsoever.
Life is utterly simpler than any religous teachings. Just be constructive in your day, stay away from "destructive" tendencies, and you might be happy. Of course there are a lot of random elements to everday living that get in the way. Just continue to work "against" the tide and things "should" shape up. In the end, everyone has a different life to live. The final word is that...
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need." The Rolling Stones
That's a dandy, short explaination. It likely is spot on, too.
http://www.taivaansusi.net/historia/mithraism.html
Well, we do know the truth (here is a page that includes real sources):
http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html
Kind Regards
Simon Harvey
At first glance, the article read as "The Science of Hippies". But even so, we can still learn about our subjection to established order which may, in turn, be a cause for unhappiness, even unhippiness!
So what I'm wondering is how some of you more experienced (read: older) members dealt with that and whether your happiness really ever got back to where it was at during your carefree days of college?
I mean, where I'm at now, I want to work as little as possible, make about $40k, and have fun with my life. Its impossible to do that with my current schedule.
Any suggestions? And if you're going to say change jobs...kindly suggest some in line with what I just explained, since the thought's come up more than once but I'm stuck with the problem of being worked so hard that I don't have time/energy to look for a new job. I don't know what to do and I signed a yearlong lease on my apartment!
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This is really a blind test on how much disposible income slashdotters really have because Taco is looking for some marketing research on his new slashdot products to compete with google.
I suggest you donate way way to much so Taco had very inaccurate figures and when Slashdot.com finally launches it will be sure to fail right away and uh.. ok I think this has gone to far..
Just send me some damn money.. please
I am curious as to what people have experienced with psychedelic drugs. I have personally done mushrooms and lsd, and both changed my perspective on life for the better. I wasn't happier, but I was less anxious and more willing to try more things. Going out wasn't such a chore. I've read in many places about shamans as the original psychologists of ancient culture and while their practices were risky, I think they might have had more success than many modern day psychologists. I recommend research into this for anyone who is interested.
I'm currently in therapy and I don't do any drugs any more, but I don't discount what I've "learned" from my drug use. Some day, I'll try mushrooms again and see if I can't open my mind in places where I'm currently repressed. I think that those repressed areas represent a lot of pain for me and I can't get there normally, but with the help of these drugs and a qualified therapist I hope to explore these areas and unlock them for my every day life.
Reply if you have had any experience in this area, I would be very interested in hearing your response.
maaaan. As someone who gets lots and lots of pussy, I say truer words were never spoken. more proof the moderators here are complete fucking losers (unhappy losers, if you know what I mean). that jesus blabber above gets "Insightful" and this divine wisdom bestowed down upon us by the gay niggers from outer space is thought to be a flame?
... yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
just think: what would make you happy right now? would pussy make you happy right now? you know it would. and yeah, I realize there are women out there too, and what would make them happy, huh? well,
First off, even in the article, there is some confusion between happiness and contentment. I believe that happiness per se is that transient state of pleasure we abide in for some time when, one way or another, things are going well. It is transient because if the situation that made us 'happy' maintains for any length of time, that becomes the new baseline. Humans are incredible adaptable emotionally. There is an awfully lot of good situations that people can manage to take for granted, and 'bad' circumstances in which people still find happiness. Happiness cannot be perceived except in contrast to sadness. You can't have one without the other. Why would tragedies and other such drama be so popular, otherwise. ;)
According to scientific research posted here at the BBC website, the Buddhists faith looks as though it might have something going for it. The research says that brain scans show that Buddhists are the happiest people. There is some stuff on meditation helping to ease the symptoms of depression here
Good luck sometimes arrives disguised as bad
Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is the way to true happiness! Besides their heaven has a Stripper Factory and a Beer Volcano.
Before I knew God I had a fear of death from like when I was 6 years old. Before I knew everyone died, I thought people just got old. I wanted to be content to just live forever playing newer and better video games. When I learned about death, my whole priorities changed. I felt that I had to live more for the moment and get as much in this life as possible so I don't miss anything.
People told me God exists and I went to a Christian Church, but it was hard for me to grasp and I never understood it well. My faith wasn't so good, then in 2003 God spoke to me,"Good News", and I recieved a Good News bible soon after. When I found out God exists for a fact, Jesus is Lord. I also learned that he promises eternal life. I didn't go looking for a way to avoid death and thusly believed in Christianity because it was the only possible answer. I found out God exists for a fact then I realized he promises eternal life!
You can speak for yourself and say that God doesn't make you happy. But for me knowing death isn't the end of things makes me a very happy person.
God spoke to me.
Just beware of that scheming alcohol.
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
Sex, alcohol, and rock 'n roll.
(I don't do drugs. (Unless I'm really drunk.))
However, due to bad karma, you will suffer at least a few more incarnations as a Windows(tm) user.
I may be mixing up my religions here, but hey, when you make stuff up, how can it be wrong?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Fuck Happiness!
For me, happiness doesn't come from what I can get, only from what I can do.
You must find God.
A place for everything, everything in its place. - Ben Franklin
The article was rather interesting, but didn't discuss my favorite theory:
Happiness is often thought of being connected to one's health or economic well being, but I have considered it more connected with the rate of change of one's well being. A poor or unhealthy person can be happy if things look like they are getting better; a rich or healthy person can be unhappy if things are getting worse.
No matter where you are or what you acheive, one is never truly happy
And then he was enlightened =)
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
Such as the book Destructive Emotions(No, not an affiliate link, you can click on it).
There's thousands of years of research out there, and no, it doesn't have to be a religious change, and hell, you don't even have to call yourself one.
1. RTFA
2. ???
3. Prof^wHappiness
Happiness = Beer and Pot. They don't make you happy forever, but they make you happy long enough to get more Beer and Pot!
Partial Credit: The Engineer's Best friend
"Well, the bridge didn't fall all the way down!"
lol
There's nothing like preaching pharmaceutical pronouncements from an anonymous perch on the fucking internet.
I think that the grandparent's description brings up a deep problem in Eastern religions. Its simply against human nature to want to deny yourself everything. That simply isn't satisfying. But it also isn't satisfying to say "yes" to every urge and desire that comes our way. Instead, given the correct description of the Christian way of life, God invites us not into emptying ourselves of every happiness, but to rejoicing ourselves in the many blessings he's given the world to enjoy. He wants us to enjoy him; thats why he blesses us and has sent his son to die for us, so that we could spend eternity learning the infinite number of cool things that he knows and praising him for how wonderful he is. He doesn't want us to be unhappy, he wants us to be fulfilled. Problem is, most of us think the mediocrity he explains in the Bible deprives life of its pleasures (sex, drugs, getting drunk, "owning" ourselves). Instead he shows us that sex is only best when its in the confines of marriage (thats where it means the most to us and can thus satisfy us most); that drugs, while they feel good for a time, inevitably lead to death like all other sin; that getting drunk, while it may be fun at the time, hurts later, has physical consequences, and simply isn't going to satisfy us like he can; and lastly (and by no means the least, more likely the greatest and best), willingly submitting our consciousness to him is infinitely more satisfying than controlling our life could ever be. I can't hold on to my life, nor can I ever value it enough; but God can keep it for me and love it and fill it with so many more joys than I could have possibly imagined.
Owning one's self is so much more boring.
We are the only one to blame for our own unhappiness.
Happiness comes from the inside, not out. So if you think happy thoughts, you'll be happy.
Try not to let life get in the way of living.
... that we can finally fix Marvin?
There is a somewhat related topic on the c2 wiki:
http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?HappinessIsElusive
Snippet:
Follow-up to WeDontNeedDrugsToBeHappy. I think happiness is elusive. Assuming we take a Darwinian model of human behavior, there is no reproductive advantage in long-term happiness because a happy person just sits there and does nothing. Our brain will simply up the ante when we achieve something that makes us happy. And, I think this fits with observations about human nature in general. The rich gripe almost as much as the poor about something or other.
Table-ized A.I.
Some of the unhappiest people I know are followers of christianity and islam. I'm don't know about other religions.
I think some people are happier after becoming religious while it brings a lifetime of misery to others.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Is a first post so hopelessly late that even the most dedicated Troll gives up.
Netbooks, they come with Linux or a $3 copy of Windows. Either way, Microsoft loses.
---Before I knew God I had a fear of death from like when I was 6 years old. Before I knew everyone died, I thought people just got old.
Actually, I remember when my great-grandmother died. I was 2 and 1/2 and a "crazy toddler". Yet, with no pictures and no telling what happened, I can vividly describe her, her clothes, the room, the way leading to her room (in the hospital), and countless other facts. I remember holding her hand, and her skin was like tissue paper. My parents (and grandparent there, her mother) thought I was going to really hurt her. I could speak some, but there was no speaking necessary.
There was compassion. I knew she was going to die, and die she did. She passed the next day, after seeing me. She knew of nobody in the room, but she recognized me as her baby boy.
I never had a fear of death, even being close to those who were near. It's not sad or despairing. It's peaceful, tranquil.. melancholy. I feel sad for those who do think terrible and dredging thoughts with somebody near death.
---I wanted to be content to just live forever playing newer and better video games. When I learned about death, my whole priorities changed. I felt that I had to live more for the moment and get as much in this life as possible so I don't miss anything.
What is there to learn? You die. Maybe now, maybe later, but you WILL die. Nothing your parents/teachers/church leaders can tell you and give you an "informed view". Some believe that you only have 1 chance, and then you go to an absolute good or bad place. I dont like that. I wish to better myself and share compassion to others, but I might take many lives to do that. If, somehow, I attain enlightenment here now, I wont have to live again. Eternal nothingness will be freedom, or is that eternal everythingness?
---People told me God exists and I went to a Christian Church, but it was hard for me to grasp and I never understood it well. My faith wasn't so good, then in 2003 God spoke to me,"Good News", and I recieved a Good News bible soon after. When I found out God exists for a fact, Jesus is Lord.
If you dont mind, what was the fact that God exists (seriously, not from a flaming point of view). I have personally witnessed 'concidences' that fell together all to well. Point in being is thus: After my grandmother died (from cancer), later on came my mothers birthday. She was almost to tears remembering how my grandmother would always send her a card, get her some thoughtful present, and call her. At the store (with my sister), she went and bought a lottery ticket (not 5, 10, or 50, just 1 single ticket). As she scratched it, she won 20$. Looking underneath the ticket, at the local paper, it had the small headline, "grandmother gives after death".
That day was my mothers birthday (when that happened). Take it as you wish.
---I also learned that he promises eternal life. I didn't go looking for a way to avoid death and thusly believed in Christianity because it was the only possible answer. I found out God exists for a fact then I realized he promises eternal life!
Eternal anything sounds like fun after the first 100 million years, but after that sounds like an "amusement park prison". I would rather, for eternity, not exist, or blend my consciousness with the universe. For many people, they want a pretty place to call good (heaven). The other absolute is Hell. Once you in either, you're stuck there for ever. Even the idea of an absolute good or bad seems... bad. Does your sect of Christanity allow do-overs, or are you condemned to wherever you are "judged" to go?
---You can speak for yourself and say that God doesn't make you happy. But for me knowing death isn't the end of things makes me a very happy person.
After reading much of the Bible, and finding I disagree with the very conduct of "God", I determined that he wasnt honorable. Jesus, on the other hand, was honorable. Soddom and Gomorrah could have been easily dealt with, if "God" was to show the evil to each person there. No viol
I don't know if you spend much money on your medication, or if you have noticed any unwanted side-effects from it at all, but the brunt of what follows is simply a rant about why you really don't need to be taking any such medication. Although this implies that you would have any desire to remove your dependency upon the drugs, and that you're willing to perform the necessary self-experimentation (or, at the very least, research) to discover what the true root cause(s) of your problems is(/are).
The body is an intricate machine. I truly hope that at some point you become aware that your imbalances are due largely to the myriad consequential effects of the various substances you ingest, inhale, absorb, or otherwise take in. Additionally, recent studies (and I have to say I'd arrived at this conclusion just from my own experiences) seem to indicate that your mind-set (whether it feels as though you have control over it or not) will have a large impact on your physical well-being; the more you feel angry/upset/helpless/stressed/afraid or various other sensations, the harder it can be (and seemingly almost always is) for your body to recover from injuries, produce white blood cells, cleanse toxins from the colon/sinuses/lymph glands, and a whole slew of other adverse effects.
Certainly there's a lot more to be known in these areas, but there's one idea which I perceive as blatantly clear: any dependency on any sort of drug is an indicator that something deeper is going wrong to prevent the body from functioning as well as it is capable.
I remember reading a book by Dr.Paul Hauck on Self Discipline. Its titled How to do what you want to do.. The title itself says that when one does what he wants to do, then he is happy. Depression, Set backs, failures everything accompany in the path, but with Self Discipline and a Hard nosed attitude if one treads along towards what he wants, he finds a sort of needed contentment. :-)
Of various self-help books, I have read, this one turned out true to (atleast) me more than once. Recommended reading for anyone here!
If you get hold of a copy, let me know as well.
Senthil
Happiness is:
A wonderful woman on your lap,
a lit joint in your lips,
a cold highball in your hand,
a leather wallet full of cash,
and the knowledge that
you don't have to set
the alarm clock for tomorrow.
5. ...
6. Profit!
I was/am going through a bit of rough patch on a number of fronts. I happened to have bought The New Science of Happiness Issue a while before. The key ingredient that jumped out at me was "gratitude". Relearning that was one of the keys to turning my situation around.
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
Don't talk to me about happiness. Brain the size of a planet, and I spend my day typing meaningless drivel into a Perl script.
"When Jean-Paul Sartre wrote 'hell is other people', the arch-pessimist of existentialist angst was wrong."
Chicken or the egg? Maybe you have to be happy to enjoy other people. Stupid Journalism majors...
When I found out God exists for a fact, Jesus is Lord. I also learned that he promises eternal life. I didn't go looking for a way to avoid death and thusly believed in Christianity because it was the only possible answer. I found out God exists for a fact then I realized he promises eternal life!
Wow, slow down. If you want to believe in your "God", fine. If you want to believe that you're more than a lump of cells and you're going to "eternal life", fine.
But when you say "God exists for a fact", you're nothing more than a stupid liar.
Believe in what you want if it gives your little life any meaning. Just don't influence others by lying to them.
I don't want to be picky, but Daniel got thrown to the lions AFAIK, not David.
I used to be pretty down all the time in my teens, low self esteem and all of that. Then I found out that I could turn it all around by start to enjoy pain and suffering (my own and others). I dont bring pain and suffering to others and I dont inflict it onto myself but when it does happen I just think that its a part of life and I might as well like it. The feeling of satisfaction comes from feeling that you're pushing your limits and expanding your boundaries.
Because without evil there can be no good right? Therefore you should learn to enjoy both.
our early ancestors' struggles against adverse weather and predators have led us to instinctually focus on what is wrong or out of place
My mother...is the ubermensch.
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
If, somehow, I attain enlightenment here now, I wont have to live again. Eternal nothingness will be freedom, or is that eternal everythingness?
Eternal anything sounds like fun after the first 100 million years, but after that sounds like an "amusement park prison". I would rather, for eternity, not exist, or blend my consciousness with the universe.
It's both! It's the recursive fractal nature of all polar opposites - good/bad, light/dark, one/zero, female/male, yin/yang - all defined in terms of each other. Existence, in all it's glory, is still a zero sum game.
As for enlightenment, I think you're going to be disappointed. Being at one with the universe is realising that because you are the universe, you're eternally trapped within it.
I am happy....when its happy hour in the pub around the corner every friday after work.
I was a stranger for the thing, i wasn't facing the crowd, ive been riding on empty with my head in the clouds
Happiness is just a pointer that a lot of people are missing..... *(happiness[0])?
RUPERT! I TOLD YOU TO WATCH THE BAGS! You were looking at the boys again, WEREN'T YOU.
The above is a convoluted grasp at an alternate explaination of how and why their deity/messiah was executed by the Romans.
It makes little sense. Did the people who died before Jesus all go to hell no matter what they were like? Prior to that, was God so cruel that he would punish you for something Adam did?
It seems strange that the Jews believed you'd go to heaven if good, hell if you were bad, but Christians think that rule was only made possible by the crucifixion.
Now that Jesus took one for the team, does that mean we can sin all we like?
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
...because you always give what you have.
The unhappy people can't stand happy people. So if you're unhappy, you will more likely seek depressing and complaining company, than cheerful, vibrant and active people. That doesn't mean they don't exist, you just shut everything positive away, so you can live what you think you are right now. Depression leads to dullness and stagnation, and is also fueled by it, while the way to come out of it is to become active and seek out good company/do good things for others etc. It's really very simple! Yet, when you're stuck with your unhappiness, it seems so hard. You think that 'you' are unhappy, so you stay there longer. We know what to do, yet, we find so many excuses for not doing it. This is mainly because we have been trained to do so, and have perfected its mastery very well. The mind is pretty sneaky actually!
Don't fall for the truth of unhappy people about what is our true nature. Have you seen a child? It is never depressed. A child cannot be depressed. It learns that behaviour from the environment, which it eagerly emulates, and when put under stress for a long time. The younger the child, the more happiness, creativity, laughter, playfullness, innocense and all the other good qualities.
So we need to get rid of our stress and negative patterns that lets us be stuck with a worldview that dictates we shouldn't be 'too happy'. That is truly an art, and then we will discover WHO WE TRULY ARE.
'Old trite arguments'? There's no such thing. It depends on the listener!
Are you your stress?
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
... a cigar named Hamlet.
Happiness: The science behind your smile
Despite the trivialised jacket, this is a good book covering the subject. Basically fills out the article with a real review of the science. Worth the money just for the titbit that one way to a lasting increase in happiness is breast inplants;->
set realistic boundaries with people, and stick to them.
don't involve yourself with unhealthy social behaviour.
set aside time to yourself everyday.
appreciate what you have, not what you have not.
flying muppet yoda would say:
simple things are they, improve life they will.
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does not bring about happiness (at all)
But have a small one - does bring much unhappiness.
I would trade my generous-sized schlong for being a millionaire anyday.
Women don't care about penis size - they care about money really.
What I mean by that is the attainment of happiness is an ongoing process, not a destination that you arrive at by fulfilling certain requirements. Just like network security is something that can only be maintained by constant effort, and not something that can be momentarily achieved and then be expected to remain forever...
Isn't buddism the science of happiness?
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http://www.bswa.org/modules/mydownloads/singlefil
Ven. Jhanrato
Before I knew God I had a fear of death from like when I was 6 years old. Before I knew everyone died, I thought people just got old. I wanted to be content to just live forever playing newer and better video games. [...] I found out God exists for a fact then I realized he promises eternal life!
Yay, back to just playing newer and better video games it is!
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
a C++ compiler and a cup of coffee.
Oh, great, now I have that song stuck in my head. You know the one
I mean...
It's difficult to be happy if your life has no sense and if everything you've done cease to exist when you die.
If you help building a sustainable future for the children, then you found a real meaning for your life, one that will survive you.
Happy is a yuppie word.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
I'm happy and I didn't solicit it from god (or satan or any other "non-human" being).
If you search for happiness in the external world, you'll never find it. Because, logically, happiness comes from the mind itself. If you consider the rich, the famous, and even, the successful, they aren't necessarily happy because happiness doesn't depend on external things. I think if more people realized this truly, there would be less focus on materialism, and *more* peace in the world. As far as finding happiness through drugs... the brain is not the mind. It's related to the mind and it *can* affect the mind. How we feel is determined by what we believe in, not by our current predicament.
Buy my tapes!
1. Avoid fight or flight
2. Satisfy survival needs
All else is rationalization.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
People told me God exists and I went to a Christian Church, but it was hard for me to grasp and I never understood it well. My faith wasn't so good, then in 2003 God spoke to me,"Good News", and I recieved a Good News bible soon after.
What did this deity say to you?
The most frequently quoted studies of "Identical twins raised together and apart" are probably based on entirely invented data. Do you think it's likely that Sir Cyril Burt could have really found 53 sets of identical twins raised apart since birth? If so, shouldn't other people be able to find them too?
What really triggers the alarm bells in my mind is that the researchers who study twins always seem to confirm whatever they wish to be true...
Simple question, anything but simple answer. There is no fundamental love, it is not like a laugh. Love is the most complicated human emotion. Ignoring the hormones involved (the chemical aspect which *is* shared) is love the same for everyone? No. Love is the only human emotion which is grown and cultivated by your past experiences. Your expectations are entirely set by previous relationships - both the ones that worked and the ones that didn't. When you are in love with someone, it has more to do with them mostly falling into your expectations of how they should act. You put in what you expect to, and get out what you expect to. If they don't match, then you'll move on until you find something that is ameable.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
... a warm gun.
For me, _Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience_ by Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi defines happiness. I'm happiest when I'm actively engaged in an activity that is neither so difficult that it's frustrating nor so easy that it's boring. If I'm mentally and psychologically engaged in doing something that's near the limits of my abilities, so that success is possible but not guaranteed, then life is good.
Oh, thats right. I know most of the things in the bible, but I just got mixed up. ;)
Silly me.
OMG! They threw the wrong guy to the lions!
You BASTARDS!
I hope his family sues.
The Bible has many, many things to say about "good works," and it would be fair to say they at least tend in different directions on this point. Here's a nice little Googled synopsis of the many and varied mentions of "good works" and "works" in the Bible.
For the resulting doctrinal ambiguity, one can also see those same google results (for "good works" and "Bible") to read lots of explanations like:
The expression "necessary but not sufficient" would just about sum that up. How would those works, then, not be "earning" one's way into heaven? The answer provided is all sorts of murky doctrine about how works are not the cause of salvation, but rather a sign of it. All of which seems to almost completely dispense with individual moral will in favor of obedience to divine will -- a point which I would describe as profoundly disturbing to me personally.
Frankly this seems to me like the sort of mess one comes across when trying to reconcile authoritarian ideas about God with any sort of active moral life. And different Christian groups come to quite different balance points for that. My Southern Baptist relations would see that very, very differently from my Northern Baptist ones.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Life is too short be chronically unhappy.
Life is too short to drift through it in a haze.
I tend to be either happy or content, both of which are good. When I am bored it is usually because my mind is not engaged in doing something, anything. For instance, when I am at work, I have a great deal of responsibilities and I tend to keep my mind active on putting together a solution to whatever the problem(s) at hand may be. On the flip side, when I have 30 minutes of time but cannot seem to find anything to fill the time with, I get very bored, and tend to get sad or frusterated.
I know lots of people say that if they did not have a job or that if money was of no concern, they would be happy a great deal more often, but I find that if I did not have a job, I'd probably be very bored. Sure there are times, many times in fact, where I wish I could just call in sick and do whatever it is I want to do, including doing absolutely nothing if it so suits me, but generally speaking, my job keeps me engaged in doing something which helps pass the empty time.
I find the best times of my life are when I am hanging out with a couple of people, no more then 3 or 4, who are all interested in the same topics I am and we are engaged in interesting discussions. Even if we completely disagree on the topics, we are communicating and engaging our minds.
So keep your mind engaged on topics of interesting and you will find yourself a much more content or happy person.
In a microeconomics class I took a few years ago, the prof introduced an interesting concept that plotted happiness against wealth following a logarithmic curve. The idea was that with each additional 10k, the happiness associated with the increased wealth decreases with each increment until it becomes almost negligible. The converse also was illustrated in that each 10k of reduced wealth is associated with an ever growing decrease in happiness, which at some personal point assumes a negative value (sadness) and ultimately reaches a final personal fixed point of maximum misery - usually expressed as suicide.
Not everyone behaves this way (some odd people feel accomplishment with the loss of wealth) and the plot requires wealth to be the only influence on an individual's emotional state, but I found it to be an interesting take on the subject in a way similar to Pascal's Wager on the existence of God.
Very strange: the captcha for this post is 'gamble', the example act used by the professor for this very subject.
This is not my sig.
"Conan! What is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
If anyone were completely happy, they immediately have two problems.
1) Feeling guilty for being happy when others are not.
2) Worrying about when this happiness will end.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
Misery makes people self-obsessed and inactive.
My experience is the exact opposite. Self-obsession and inactivity make people miserable. And it IS a positive feedback loop.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Catholicism also has heaps of dogma that litter its teaching material, such that many sections of it are remnants of the church, not from the faith. Man's ultimate purpose of existence, from a Christian perspective, would be to serve God, and to serve others. This is exemplified in how Christ lived his life, which was pure.
If it doesn't come from the Bible, it is best to be circumspect of it.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
I think religion can help you when life sucks and there is no way out.
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But it made me a miserable doormat when I was Christian. I have often thought that societies where people were less religious were often happier. Either because they had a better life-style or lack of religion leads to a better lifestyle. One thing I can say for sure, is that it makes you take care of your life here on earth a bit better.
Here's a great article with statistics to back up the damage of religion;
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944
Just look at anywhere in the world with the most religious control, and you'll find more war and suffering.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Frankly this seems to me like the sort of mess one comes across when trying to reconcile authoritarian ideas about God with any sort of active moral life.
The works or faith thing is easily dispelled in the Bible itself in 1 Conrinthians:
If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
1 Cor:12-15
Simple. Saved makes it to heaven, works grant rewards when you get there. Seems only fair right?
"She's not a girl who misses much.
She's well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane.
The man in the crowd with the multi-colored mirrors on his hobnail boots.
Lying with his eyes while his hands were busy working over time.
A soap impression of his wife which he donated to the national trust.
I need a fix 'cuz I'm goin' down; down to the place that I left up town.
I need a fix 'cuz I'm goin' down.
Mother Superior jumped the gun...(3 times)"
hey, I probably missed a couple licks, but that ain't bad considering I haven't even owned the White Album in 15 years...
some variations:
Money isn't happiness, but poverty is misery. Misery loves company, and companies love misery...
Yes, he did. However, quoting like that is problematic because it is decontextualized and so leaves out the sentiment behind the statement. Perhaps it should be something like:
"All life is pain. All life is also happiness. One cannot have one without the other, for the two are inextricably tied to one another. Recognize that life also means death, that happiness also means unhappiness, that joy also means suffering. Our attachment to something/someone causes us joy when it is fulfilled, but pain when it is taken away. Most people go through life alternating between extremes and never achieve balance, like a child who is gleeful for candy but cries when it is taken away. But there is a balance, and in this balance is not indifference but a kind of secret yet overflowing happiness to relish. If you wish to experience this stable, eternal, and enlightened "happiness", and if you want to pierce the illusion of reality, then you can study the Buddhist path if you so wish."
This is why Buddhism and Taoism go together so well. The Yin/Yang symbol is a Taoist symbol, but is also used in Buddhism. Note that I put quote marks around the second "happiness", because it is a higher order of happiness, so much so that it deserves another name. It is happiness and bliss, but also enlightened and unshakable, on a level where there is nothing that can overcome it. I wish there was a name for it. Oh wait, it does:
nirvana
true happiness is only attained through enlightenment, however you want to personally describe that. psychdelic drugs, and i include cannabis in this, are the perfect tool to disassociate yourself from societies ideals and worries, and let you stand back and see things from a different perspective. i would almost use the analogy of seeing the world from a new dimension, it is that profound.
check out http://www.erowid.org/ for more info.
... is like trying to build a machine for which the only
specification is that it should run noiselessly.
"Money can't buy you happiness. But it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it."
> Is this guy the son of your god, or is he your god in human flesh?
Yes (both). The second part is why we call Jesus the first...
> Did your prophets write the bible, or did some unnamed people write about your prophets?
Again, yes. But it depends on which book(s) you're talking about.
That said, I can find plenty of inconsistancies among the atheists if the only requirement is that I find some who claim one thing and some who claim another...
That, unfortunately, would be me. I'm the moron who has to be conscious of his own attempts to block out his existential intelligence by running on what I believe some call a "hedonic treadmill" but is perhaps more sensibly referred to as "The Wheel of Samsara".
As Steven Pinker convincingly explains in 'How the mind works', happiness, laughter, grief and other emotions are expressed facially thru' involuntarily controlled muscles. Laughter is a way of cementing friendships (you can't fake laughter well if the muscles that control genuine laughter are involuntary).
Or maybe laughter has extra-terrestrial origins and this is all one big experiment for some bugs from mars (read that in an Asimov, I think).
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I thought it was that we used toilet paper. Or most of us anyway.
Seriously,
>" the rituals, the idea that people should suffer, that only bad people are poor, that only bad people are rich, that we should hate certain people,"
None of that is tought by Christianity; whoever told you so was lieing through their teeth!
Christianity is about Jesus Christ. Plain and simple. Christ--fully God and fully man--loved us so much he died to pay the price for our sins. That's a price that we *can't* pay, folks! It is true that God hates sin; but God does *not* hate the sinner!
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
What's more, Jesus calls his followers to love *everyone* just as he loves us. That means loving even those who are hard to *like.* As for being poor and rich, wealth has nothing to do with righteousness. Often bad people do become rich, but their riches won't help them when they die. Often God blesses good people with wealth, as he did after his trial of Job. Often bad people are poor, but they are seldom poor *because* they are bad. And often good people are poor, but I have seen some amazing blessings given to such people through their lack of "stuff."
My point is this: you have been seriously mislead as to the heart of Christianity. If this was done by someone calling themselves a Christian, then I am truly sorry. It breaks my heart every time I hear stories like these; there are so many people out there who just don't get it.
If you have any other objections, or would like me to clarify something for you, please send me an email: essorg_nire@yahoo.com.
But one day Tom, he went and caught the River-daughter, in green gown, flowing hair, sitting in the rushes
If it doesn't come from the Bible, it is best to be circumspect of it.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14:
"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house."
Or does the Old Testament condoning the rape of innocent victims of war not count? You're going to tell me it's a metaphor, or something, or Jesus overruled it? Odd that it's still in the pews.
I'd agree that it's hardly evident the bible's primary aim is universal human happiness. It's ok if you happen to be the side God picks.
For my senior project in college (Sociology major), I used a program called SPSS to do a regression analysis using data from the General Social Survey (an enormous and comprehensive survey regularly conducted by the government on the US population) to determine if there was a statistical correlation between wealth, income, & economic status and happiness (using several variables which generally indicate happiness and life satisfaction).
As it turns out, there is a strong positive correlation between the two. Obviously other factors play a role as well, and it doesn't conclusively determine causality, but wealthy people are much more likely to be happy than poor and middle-income people.
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
---It's both! It's the recursive fractal nature of all polar opposites - good/bad, light/dark, one/zero, female/male, yin/yang - all defined in terms of each other. Existence, in all it's glory, is still a zero sum game.
Although it is a bit late after this article, so only you'll see this, but you're wrong. Karma is the zero sum game. Even the basic idea of life brings death. All you can do is spread "stuff" to other dying others before you die yourself. Enlightenment is the way out of that zero sum game.
It allows you to "not to play the game". There are some beliefs that you, as a Buddha, can create an infitude of universes or observe any of them. I dont know.
---As for enlightenment, I think you're going to be disappointed. Being at one with the universe is realising that because you are the universe, you're eternally trapped within it.
You think? Are you enlightened? I strive to attain enlightenment. I make no reservations on what "it might feel like", or "what to expect". Those are against the fundamentals of Buddhism. What I do after attaining it, is for me to decide after I am one.
IMHO, the curse of enlightenment is after having become one with the infinite, there is no more. For all the universes you could create and observe, there's no point. True freedom is found in the simple hope that there is something more, and not simply understanding that it's yet another metaphor for the same underlying concepts. Enlightenment is the souls eternal scream of horror at totality.
I found enlightenment, but by the wrong path. A bad decision, my one true regret, that haunts me, to a greater or lesser extent, at every moment, awake or asleep.
I should go to bed, before I'm consumed by my own uncontrollable thoughts.
---IMHO, the curse of enlightenment is after having become one with the infinite, there is no more. For all the universes you could create and observe, there's no point. True freedom is found in the simple hope that there is something more, and not simply understanding that it's yet another metaphor for the same underlying concepts. Enlightenment is the souls eternal scream of horror at totality.
From what I have read, enlightened individuals were very serene, calm, and at peace with everything. Is what you found surely enlightenment, or something more omnious? I fail to see how I wouldnt be overwhelmed by the absoluteness of everything if I ever attain it..
---I found enlightenment, but by the wrong path. A bad decision, my one true regret, that haunts me, to a greater or lesser extent, at every moment, awake or asleep.
There have been stories of people attaining Buddhahood different and quicker ways than originally noted. Might I ask when you first knew.
Is enlightenment that terrible of a burden on you?
I'd imagine those who've taken the proper path have mentally prepared themselves over the years, and moved towards their goal a little bit at a time.
For me, it happened when experimenting with things I shouldn't have been. About ten times the amount of things I shouldn't have been. Infinity hit like a sledgehammer. An eternity was spent finding the infinitesimal pieces that used to pass for me, but they don't go back together quite right, and I'll never find them all.
At the time, I was found headbutting a wall, screaming "I exist!". I've been screaming that inside ever since. If I wasn't certain it wouldn't help, I'd have committed suicide long ago.
This is all a bit of an over simplification, but I don't really want to go into the nitty gritty detail of the separation of observers, identities, physical form as metaphor, etc., lest I be stuck here for hours convincing myself that even though nothing exists, I have to accept this metaphorical reality is, for all intents and purposes, real, in order to find any respite.
Still, very interesting. I, if anything, am interested in raising my consciousness to its peak.
Still, I thank you in going into dialogue with me about this. It gives me an insight into one facet of what it might be like for me.
Ill still be around, but thank you.
The time has come, the song is over; thought I'd something more to say.
I find it amusing that every argument against Christianity comes from the OT. Were it not for the events in the NT, Christianity would not exist. Those arguments are more against Judaism than they are against Christianity.
Before you say "Christianity *is* Judaism," you should really take into account that the theology of the testaments are very different. The God of Judaism is the conqueror and king, the God of Christianity is the compassionate and forgiving ruler. "This is the new testament of my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." There is nothing in the old testament that even comes close to that face of God.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
So it's a different god? Wow, do the two get on? Or is it like good-Kirk bad-Kirk in that Star Trek episode?
Someone should mention this to the countless priests and vicars who continue to preach from the old testament, declare Christ's coming as the fulfilment of Old Testament blood-strewn prophecy, and Gideon's, who continue along with every other publisher to include this testament from an alien god in your own bible.
Don't get me started on where the NT clashes and patently disagrees with itself. How many loaves and fishes was it? I've had christians tell me Jeez must have done the trick *twice*, as the bible is infallible, so if the count was wrong in two accounts, it must have been two conjuring tricks not one. And if it's *not* infallible, where exactly do we draw the line?
It's a good yarn, along with Jonah and burping whales.