By If you are actively searching for happiness, it may be worth it to consider stopping your search. This is not an encouragement to fill yourself with sadness, or to fill anyone with hopelessness; quite the opposite. Before running after something so abstract, we need to try to understand what happiness is. And the sooner we truly grasp what it means to be happy, we can use our short time on this earth productively. Yes, we need to embrace the nature of happiness — the beauty and the benefits of it. We need to respect it. We need to adore it, to hold it up high. But to do all of this, we need to understand what it is.
Happiness is a side effect of authenticity.
Often, people confuse happiness with ignorance, hence the old saying “Ignorance is bliss.” More often, and even scarier, is when we as humans mistake enslavement for freedom. These are the two observations I will share.
Happiness versus ignorance
Happiness, as I am sure you understand, is such a delicate part of our lives. It’s the most wanted state. It’s the next big thing, that never seems to be there when we get to where it was last! It is not constant. It can come and go. For this reason, as I mentioned in my previous post on love, this too is a state which is unrealistic to maintain. For that reason, relying on something as delicate as this is dangerous, and not going to give you stability. A tall sunflower in the garden is beautiful, but it’s delicate. So you wouldn’t lean against it for support. You’d find something sturdy, something solid, something that doesn’t move with the direction of the wind.
Happiness. Similarly, it is delicate like the sunflower in your garden. It is beautiful, and it is to be enjoyed during the season where it can sustain itself. But it is foolish to expect this flower to survive the winter. It is against nature. Again, similarly, when hardship comes in life, it is okay to not be happy and we cannot force ourselves to chase that state of happiness. We cannot govern nature to engineer itself in a different way. Wait. Sure, we can in a greenhouse. But it would not be natural. It would not be authentic.
To be authentic, we must welcome the natural processes of human nature, and we must understand our minds. We must welcome different states of our minds and we must master it! Will you trust a man who has never studied medicine to do surgery on your body? No. So how can you trust yourself, if you have not studied your own mind, that one thing that governs your behaviour, emotions, and actions?
Let me say this: Lack of happiness does not mean despair. It does not mean we must give in to sadness or depression, but it means, that when we do feel these emotions, we must find genuine combatting tools. One which encourages self-reflection and self-acceptance.
Wow. So much “self.” Yes, the process of the authentication of your soul can be a selfish one. But in the bigger picture, it is not. As you discover your authentic self, you will start to realise that you will have a stronger, more impactful, and positive effect on those around you.
To be authentic, we must welcome the natural processes of human nature, and we must understand our minds.
The problem is when we don’t understand happiness. We fall into traps thinking that ignorance of a certain complexity within ourselves is the way forward. Perhaps, we haven’t done as I mentioned, self-reflected, and for this reason, we have not yet discovered ourselves in such a way that we can accept ourselves and welcome our own being into our authentic journey as human beings.
Whoever said “Ignorance is bliss” needs to have a word with him/herself. Ignorance is the pavement to dark places within yourself that you are too ignorant to understand. Ignorance is a form of fix for cowards who do not have the balls to even meet themselves; it is a fake form of liberation that lazy minds use to run away from the realities of their existence because truly they are enslaved to their own ego.
Enslaving the soul
The behaviour of a human is like happiness, it is a side-effect of what is within ourselves. Our thought process and our level of authenticity will ultimately be exposed in our behaviour. This is why, when we discover something within ourselves that causes complexity, we need to self-reflect. After we have studied our behaviour and after we have studied our preferred outcome, we must accept ourselves, we must love ourselves and welcome our being with joy and care. Only then can we achieve an acceptable behavioural outcome– one that is closer to our authentic self.
The concepts of purpose, happiness, and authenticity are very often not fully understood. Too often, these three elements of a human are oversimplified and for that reason, the navigation around these elements become dangerous. They enslave us, instead of guiding us. Which brings me to the recipe of authenticity….purpose.
Now, the purpose of a human being, you see, is something that is being mistaken for happiness. Many people think that the purpose of life is to be happy. I can understand why someone would think this, and I can appreciate why someone would want this. But really, if life’s purpose was to be happy, you’d be restarting your purpose quite often and you’d have so much exhausting damage-control to do all the time and you’d quite frankly drive yourself mad.
The purpose is one — and happiness is not it. Humanity is confused, we are losing our morals, our dignity, and we are slowly but surely becoming passive and unable to change even our own lives, so we become so hopeless to even think of the rest of the world (so individualism takes over and we seek refuge with ignorance to cope).
Let me say this: Lack of happiness does not mean despair. It does not mean we must give in to sadness or depression.
The misconception of purpose is becoming nothing but toxic to society as a whole. If a doctor gives you medicine, the purpose is to cure you. You could tape the medicine on your ceiling with some ducktape, and write ‘I am free’, and it would work as some symbolism of freedom while you lay in your bed, but it would be pretty pointless. Firstly, because nobody really cares as it is not beneficial. Secondly, because you won’t be healing from the medicine. This is merely a metaphorical expression of what we are seeing today.
We see people going in different directions with so much conviction. Everybody wants to have their say and everyone wants to be heard. People parade all opposing values as purpose, but think for a second, if we could narrow down purpose to the core— what would it be? Authenticity. Although we are all very different in our behavioural outcome, we are very similar deep in our cores. If you break down two cars of different brands, you will come to understand that the mechanics of these two cars will be similar in many ways in its core structure. Similarly, we as human beings must be better at reflecting and accepting ourselves so that we can discover the common core of authenticity within every soul.
Beating the ego
We all want to be right and important. What a dangerous phenomenon within humanity, which will lead us astray from our authentic selves!
If you are in the process of soul authentication, you absolutely must self-reflect and create a lot of space for self-acceptance. Ego is like heated charcoal, it will ignite the fire of arrogance which ultimately burns your authenticity to dust.
But through self-reflection, you will become the master of your own mind and only through this, will you be able to manage your ego.
An ego to each person is individual and it may reveal itself in many behavioural forms. As we get further in the process of self-authenticity and as we discover our soul, only then can we celebrate the bright colours of our being, the beauty of happiness and only then will we understand that authenticity in life is not to seek happiness but to accept our minds and to organise our behaviours in favour of our authentic core-self.
Breathe and think. Now, meet yourself. You’ll be surprised to discover that the core of a human soul — authenticity — is beautiful.