Is happiness accidental?

[l1ndsaystarr]

Some people spend their entire lives trying to attain happiness and others have it but cannot really explain it.



Accident:
1. any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.
2. chance; fortune; luck: I was there by accident.
3. any entity or event contingent upon the existence of something else


Happiness:

1. Characterized by good luck; fortunate.

Therefore:

Accident: any entity or event contingent upon the existence of something else
+
happiness: as it is viewed today (I am happy because of A.)

Then Happiness = Accident?



If happiness cannot be achieved through 'seeking' it, is it then achieved by 'accident' and therefore can explain the common struggle to attain it and the struggle to explain it if one does obtain it?

*Keep in mind, I mean to get across the idea of true happiness as--not things which make people happy but happiness its Self much like a child's happiness.)

It seems to me happiness could possibly be a random act of nature.

[mahabaratara]

Bliss is...

[bulgariaole]

its all inside

[moondancer]

The more happy you are, the more happy you feel.. and so the cycle goes on.

You have to search for the positive, lessons to learn, fun and laughter in situations.. and and your past.. so you can be as happy as you can be right now. Sometimes I slip.. but most of the time, im living by those rules..

Manifest destiny

:)

[Anders Lindman]

It seems to me happiness could possibly be a random act of nature.

I doubt that it is random. I don't believe anything in nature is random. The universe is way too advanced to be based on randomness. Just look at space which contains huge amounts of energy in every cubic millimeter yet it appears perfectly clear and transparent to us. That's almost like a miracle!

Maybe the problem is that most people, including myself, start our actions from a state of unhappiness. With a reprogramming of the mind it should be possible to start from happiness instead of unhappiness.

[l1ndsaystarr]

I doubt that it is random. I don't believe anything in nature is random. The universe is way too advanced to be based on randomness. Just look at space which contains huge amounts of energy in every cubic millimeter yet it appears perfectly clear and transparent to us. That's almost like a miracle!

Maybe the problem is that most people, including myself, start our actions from a state of unhappiness. With a reprogramming of the mind it should be possible to start from happiness instead of unhappiness.

I agree with what you are saying. However, I cannot still, get passed the idea of 'accident'. If you reprogram and start from happiness instead of unhappiness, along the way, the reason behind finally 'achieving happiness' would be accidental. In that I mean, during the reprgramming process it's most likely you will 'stumble across' something that makes you believe, act, and think that you are experiencing happiness. And because of that, you have 'attained it' which does not yet, limit the idea of 'accident'.

It was by accident that I achieved my own happiness. And I struggle with people everyday who think I am arogant for believing they too, can achieve such a state of mind. Perhaps I didn't 'choose it', perhaps it just 'happened'.


??? I am probably putting my foot in my mouth, but does that makes sense?

[steevo]

*Keep in mind, I mean to get across the idea of true happiness as--not things which make people happy but happiness its Self much like a child's happiness.)

It seems to me happiness could possibly be a random act of nature.

Define Happiness.

[le chuck]

Define Happiness.


OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Anders Lindman]

I agree with what you are saying. However, I cannot still, get passed the idea of 'accident'.

I believe happiness is our natural state and that society reprograms our minds and pushes us down into a state of unhappiness. Maybe in your case society hasn't managed to reprogram your natural state of happiness.

[l1ndsaystarr]

I believe happiness is our natural state and that society reprograms our minds and pushes us down into a state of unhappiness. Maybe in your case society hasn't managed to reprogram your natural state of happiness.




I suppose... I guess to me, achieving hapiness is much like death. Surprising to those who are affected by it and do not understand it.

[Anders Lindman]

I suppose... I guess to me, achieving hapiness is much like death. Surprising to those who are affected by it and do not understand it.

If happiness is our natural state, then we can think of unhappiness as a disease. Somehow you are immune to that disease called unhappiness. :D

A disease can be explained, but how do we explain the absence of a disease? We can think of unhappiness as a flu. What do we say when we don't have the flu? Flu-free? Non-flu-infected?

So what you are is perhaps unhappiness-free. That would explain why happiness is so difficult to describe since it then is the absence of something.

[Anders Lindman]

What unhappy people like myself need to do is not to seek happiness but instead to get cured of the disease called unhappiness.

Is unhappiness a meme virus? :eek::confused:

"Virus of the Mind is the first popular book devoted to the science of memetics, a controversial new field that transcends psychology, biology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Memetics is the science of memes, the invisible but very real DNA of human society.

In Virus of the Mind, Richard Brodie carefully builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett, and others who have become fascinated with memes and their potential impact on our lives."

http://www.memecentral.com/votm.htm

[orbandsceptre27]

Happiness is an imposter - Sadness is an imposter.

Observe your imposters. :)

[tracker]

Some people spend their entire lives trying to attain happiness and others have it but cannot really explain it.



Accident:
1. any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.
2. chance; fortune; luck: I was there by accident.
3. any entity or event contingent upon the existence of something else


Happiness:

1. Characterized by good luck; fortunate.

Therefore:

Accident: any entity or event contingent upon the existence of something else
+
happiness: as it is viewed today (I am happy because of A.)

Then Happiness = Accident?



If happiness cannot be achieved through 'seeking' it, is it then achieved by 'accident' and therefore can explain the common struggle to attain it and the struggle to explain it if one does obtain it?

*Keep in mind, I mean to get across the idea of true happiness as--not things which make people happy but happiness its Self much like a child's happiness.)

It seems to me happiness could possibly be a random act of nature.

all this is a wrong assumption and is false .

happyness is a state of being .

just because "luck" or an "accident" might make people feel happy .

happyness has nothing to do with design or accident .

happyness is a state of mind as where the other two are events and explinations of those events .

i am happy with or with out luck , with or with out accidents .

happyness is a state of mind .

[impermanence]

Contentedness is our natural state, I'd call contentedness happiness. If your mind is not content it's because of your false perceptions and exceptions, discontent is absence of truth.

Step outside of your self, watch your reactions to situations, why do we allow external things to push our buttons? Why do we cling to ideals and perceptions? Most people are trapped between fear and desire, memory and fantasy, they never observe the glorious moment without preconceived expectations and labels, they are living asleep, they just don't get it. The felt presence of immediate experience without opinion and thus erratic emotion, is ALWAYS as it should be, it's always perfect, only our perceptions are false.

[orbandsceptre27]

Contentedness is our natural state, I'd call contentedness happiness. If your mind is not content it's because of your false perceptions and exceptions, discontent is absence of truth.


Wise words! :cool:

[Anders Lindman]

Contentedness is our natural state, I'd call contentedness happiness. If your mind is not content it's because of your false perceptions and exceptions, discontent is absence of truth.


Yeah, that's like what I had in mind. I don't fully agree that discontent is the absence of truth. I believe it's more like a form of morphic resonance (see Rupert Sheldrake). There are morphic fields in society that cause unhappiness and other morphic fields that cause happiness. If we start to resonate with the happiness fields, then we will become happy (or contented is perhaps a better word).

[tracker]

Contentedness is our natural state, I'd call contentedness happiness. If your mind is not content it's because of your false perceptions and exceptions, discontent is absence of truth.

Step outside of your self, watch your reactions to situations, why do we allow external things to push our buttons? Why do we cling to ideals and perceptions? Most people are trapped between fear and desire, memory and fantasy, they never observe the glorious moment without preconceived expectations and labels, they are living asleep, they just don't get it. The felt presence of immediate experience without opinion and thus erratic emotion, is ALWAYS as it should be, it's always perfect, only our perceptions are false.

sounds about right to me .

good words , make sense , too true .

[angel147]

As in all things, happiness is a choice and is found/not found within us, not in our environment.

[impermanence]

Yeah, that's like what I had in mind. I don't fully agree that discontent is the absence of truth. I believe it's more like a form of morphic resonance (see Rupert Sheldrake). There are morphic fields in society that cause unhappiness and other morphic fields that cause happiness. If we start to resonate with the happiness fields, then we will become happy (or contented is perhaps a better word).


That's interesting, I've listened to dozens of the Sheldrake, McKenna and Abraham trialogs, every one available through extensive searching of the net actually. I very much enjoy Sheldrakes point of view, not as much as Terence though. :D

I have a hard copy of 'The Sense Of Being Stared At' that I never finished years ago, I must read it again. I think I have some of his other books in PDF, I literally have thousands of stolen books in PDF format, it's hard enough to keep track of what I have never mind read them. :D

Cheers for inspiring me. ;)

[clozaril]

isn't happiness a chemical in the brain ?

interesting thread !