Seasonal Nonsense
At this time when most people make desperate efforts to be happy, real happiness can be got by doing exactly the opposite of the crowd.
Human life can be defined quite easily; it’s not difficult, although most will find it unpleasant:
1. Our lives consist of pleasures and pains followed by death. The pleasures tend to be fairly trivial and fleeting and the pains can be intense and long-lasting.
2. We live in a prison, as Plato explained so well. The walls of this prison are made from our sensory capabilities and the nature of our minds.
3. We are driven exclusively by the desire to persist in our existence and to procreate. This is all nature really asks of us - to strive and to reproduce. Having achieved these things we are left to deteriorate and eventually die.
4. The world in which we live is indifferent to suffering and destruction. It also has no inbuilt morality or purpose.
5. The greatest pleasure available to human beings is that of understanding our situation and the realities of our existence, although the vast majority of people will have no interest in pursuing this pleasure.
The Christmas holiday season is an excellent opportunity to see how flimsy and superficial the lives of most people are. If people were happy with their lot they would not display the desperate need to behave in ways they have been told will bring about happiness - rampant consumerism, drunken states, excessive consumption of food, and strict social behaviors that have been prescribed for the attainment of happiness. In truth, the holiday season is a display of how very unhappy most people are by the very fact that they strive so hard to become happy.
A message such as the one just outlined will be deeply unpopular, and will provoke a hostile response from most people; no one likes to be told that their formula for happiness is just so much nonsense. So, it pays to give lip service to the holiday season and not create bad feelings, although it is also wise to avoid people as much as possible during the season of “goodwill” less we should accidentally create “bad will”.
The truly tragic aspect of all this is that real happiness is on offer to everyone through understanding themselves and life as it really is; not as some marketing agency has decided it should be. The dynamics are very simple: power is synonymous with happiness and most people make the mistake of seeking external power - social approval, money, fame, sensual indulgences. The problem here is that such power is outside our control and the pleasures it brings can easily turn into pain - disapproval, isolation, hardship, disease. In contrast to this, we can create a power within us that is our own and cannot be taken away. If we come to understand ourselves and life we can navigate it much more skillfully, and such understanding is a power in its own right. So, here is a simple example of real understanding and, if remembered frequently, can reduce the suffering in life and bring pleasure of its own:
Your sufferings will always be associated with a decrease in your survival power, no matter how indirect. Your pleasures are associated with an increase in survival power.
This is a pure act of understanding, and we make no attempt to change anything. If we are miserable we acknowledge the fact and understand that the state will have come about through some adverse circumstance. This is a simple act of understanding that can transform a life, even though it may seem trivial. It will bring more pleasure than any amount of consumerism, over-indulgence, or phony socializing. Try it for yourself.