Humans have a tendency to conserve energy.
If there is a shorter road, an easier way,
a simpler method our mind is
programmed to embrace it.
Unless you are a Kipchoge. 😊
And so, it remains a mystery as to why
humans spend the bulk of their energy in complicating their life.
Is the total happiness in the world, a
fixed number?
Is happiness, then, a zero-sum game? That, if someone is happy, it has to be at the misery of someone else?
Looking at certain people I would be
compelled to come to that conclusion.
Are you happy is not just a simple question
anymore, it is rocking the very foundation of human society.
It used to be a simple question and is
still a simple question when posed to a child.
Though the threshold of the age
of the child is dropping continuously which is a major concern.
"Of course, I am – fit as a proverbial
fiddle" – this answer is certainly fake. A happy person does not explode with
happiness. Cheery demeanour, back slapping merry and outward manifestations are
usually a fake screen to hide the real disappointment brewing inside.
"I don’t know, probably I am, no major
concerns" – this is in all prospects a human being as close to happiness as we
know it.
"It can be better" – this is just a micron-thin coating begging to be scratched. Scratch it and you will encounter
Armageddon. Wisest thing is to absorb
this and slink away.
Instances of happiness are multitude. Each
happiness is attached to some material thing or other.
The absence of happiness with a person of
such disposition is still manageable as this can be compensated by more, albeit
meaningless, possessions.
Beware, however, the person who is perennially
unhappy, whose countenance is a scowl or a knitted brow, whose eyes dart around
locating emotional chinks in the armour, and who has a false big laugh, whose
eyes never smile, the one that is constantly scheming, who spends all the time
evaluating if others are happy or miserable, whose happiness is derived by the
equation
X- (sum of others happiness),
the starting X itself too meagre to
satisfy one individual of normal composition; for, this person has an inherent
non capacity to feel happy or to nurture positive thoughts.
And like a black hole sucking everything
that passes by, this person is almost a dementor from Azkaban, sucking out
happiness from those around.
There are happy people and unhappy people.
The world is full of them. Then there are people who are incapable of being
happy. Like the school bully, who derives pleasure by kicking the sand castle
built by other kids, or the proverbial monkey that climbed a tree and destroyed
the nest of the birds because the birds could have a place to stay dry in the
rains while the monkey did not.
Or like the tale of the magic fish
emanating from Russia where the peasant, on being offered whatever the peasant
wanted by a benevolent Angel in the form of a magic fish, with one caveat that
the neighbour gets double, pleaded that his one eye be gouged out.
J.Krishnamurti said that Truth is a
pathless land, the same is true for happiness too. It is natural too, as, can
there be happiness without truth?
Darkness is dispelled with light. Thus it
will be simpler to eliminate causes to bring in a greater level of happiness.
What is a life lived if it was not lived happily?
Things to eliminate – as a simple ABC to
happiness
Anger
Bitching
Comparison
The best things I learnt in my life I
learnt from reading.
So, to quote Atticus Finch “Whatever the
provocation Scout, I forbid you to fight”
Ignore the provocateur and move on, for the
happiness of the provocateur hinges on you losing your composure and your
happiness, stemming from the belief that happiness is a zero-sum game.
