Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Obtaining happiness
Examples of pursuing happiness
How to achieve happiness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Obtaining happiness
Sometime, to say the least, I am dissatisfied with the life I live, dissatisfied with the present. I find it painful, difficult to live. Thus, I often embrace Pascal's thoughts that once said, "If we examine our thoughts we will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming or we recall the past, to stop its rapid flight. While the past and present are our means, the future alone is our end. So we never really live, but we hope to live. Therefore, as we are always preparing to be happy in the future, it is inevitable it should never be so." Religion implies life everlasting, but is it not a fantasy of the religious mind? Especially when one realized that the past and future have duration but no existence and the present, which does not endure in time, seems to exist! So what is time?
-As far as happiness is concerned remember that it is only experienced in the inner part of yourself. Happiness is a mind phenomenon related to one’s relation with the TRUTH only. Happiness is not related to time but to your present life and its understanding. You may be temporary happy, because of particular events, but it won’t last unless you understand that time is the amount or sequences that one use to comprehend his or her life. Time is related to past and future experiences: in other words, time is the awareness of change (sequences between events) or the condition on which one’s perception of time’s flow depends. You should not be overly concerned by time. Even Augustine, the great theologian, was like you perplexed by time for he wrote: "I have been talking for a long time, and this long time would not be long time unless time has passed. But how do I know this, since I do not know wha...
... middle of paper ...
... what we do to one another. Reality (God) exists and is reflected partially through the manifestations of, and in space, but not all the partial manifestations of space (time conditioned phenomenon) are necessarily true. In the beginning God acts; “Be as perfect as I am”, but when the panorama of life unveils in response to the will and mandate of the infinite (the whole) every part of the infinite, present and willing, in the cosmos takes an active role in space actualization: we have the power of choice. You can chose what you want and reflect your decisions through your actions. To recognize God omnipotence (supreme, ultimate and even absolute authority) is to enjoy security in our experience of cosmic citizenship: in other words it is our assurance of safety in our long journey to eternity even if we have to make difficult choices, even not always wise, in time.
The concept of happiness has been argued for thousands of years, and will probably be argued for thousands more. Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, a 20th century Polish philosopher, wrote an interesting paper, adding to the age-old debate, called, Happiness and Time. This essay correctly claims that for one to look at happiness one must also be aware of its relation to time.
To begin, happiness is viewed as the ultimate goal in the life of an individual and highest good, Aquinas believes that no human can achieve higher wisdom and happiness during their time on earth due to the fact that man’s ultimate happiness would only be achieved by passing on and being in the presence of the lord, or as he terms it: “Along with natural happiness, there is a supernatural happiness of comping to “see God as he is”. (P.77) by living a just and moral life, we will eventually know true happiness in the next life. In fact, he goes on to argue that our happiness during life is bound by what God reveals to living souls, and thus, drastically limited. While our human faculties provide some happiness, only in our heavenly vessels will
...appy no matter what is going on. People can be truly happy, but they have to work at it every day. If people are unhappy, then they need to change whatever is inside them in order to be happy. Individuals who are in the pursuit of finding happiness, which more than likely is everyone, need to have faith in themselves and a calm voice in their heads. If people keep those two things on their minds, then there is no reason why they cannot predict their happiness, even if it’s in short time frames. Even if predictions of happiness are not always right, at least people get that temporary sensation of feeling something special. A temporary sensation is better than having no sensation of feeling special at all.
"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" by Jon Gertner was published in September of 2003. It is an essay that discusses the difference between how happy we believe we will be with a particular outcome or decision, and how happy we actually are with the outcome. The essay is based on experiments done by two professors: Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. The experiments show that humans are never as happy as we think we will be with an outcome because affective forecasting and miswanting cause false excitement and disappointment in our search for true happiness.
Happiness isn’t measurable or quantitative by any means of surveys, questioners, or any science. A passage from “leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman writes “Happiness is not in another place, but in this place…not for another hour…but this hour”. This is a great simplistic view that happiness is only in the present, not planed but discovered. Being in a reverie, a slice of time that only exists in the present is like being a god. We think of gods of being a happy entity that has no concern for time, troubles of the soul and experiencing calmness in anything. Being happy and being a god can be thought interchangeably.
The concept of God can be a difficult one to grasp especially in today's world - a world in which anyone that believes in God is trying to define exactly what God is. To even attempt to grasp such a concept, one must first recognize his own beliefs in respect to the following questions: Is God our creator? Is God omnipotent (all-powerful) or omniscient (all-knowing) or both? Does God care? Is God with us? Does God interfere with life on earth? These questions should be asked and carefully answered if one should truly wish to identify his specific beliefs in God's existence and persistence.
Our relationship with God, regardless of our religious background or lack thereof, is the ultimate cause of good in our lives, for without it we would be nothing. Granted, by no means whatsoever is anyone perfect. Because everyone lacks the Divine truth of the word of God, there is no pathway that leads to perfection. From a Christian's point of view, to achieve perfection means to live precisely the way Jesus of Nazareth has lived His life; it is to live exactly the way He preaches to His followers, which is impossible. Likewise, from the non-believers' perspective, perfection cannot be obtained. Does this imply that Christians live better lives than non-believers because Christians follow Jesus and are striving more to keep His word? Our relationship with God is professed by priests, biblical scholars, pastors, and numerous other classifications of teachers of the Sacred Scriptures to be the most important part of our lives. Jesus is the Son of God, the one who gave up His life in order to relieve our sins. Jesus was sinless because He is the Son of God. Jesus was perfect in His life. On the other hand, none of us as mortal human beings are perfect -- however we are still loved by God unconditionally. This does not mean that we are Divine. Nevertheless, our relationship with God would be closer if we had sinned less than we actually have. So why are we loved unconditionally? And does God love us all equally? How does this contradict with the ideology that some people have a closer relationship with God than other people? Also, why is there a Heaven and a Hell?
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts that happiness signifies man’s ultimate purpose in life. He believed happiness was a natural purpose obtained in this life by living with moral and intellectual virtue. In The City of God, St. Augustine contrasts Aristotle by asserting humans have a supernatural purpose and therefore people can’t obtain happiness in this life. True happiness, as an unchanging state of eudaimonia, is everlasting and obtained by establishing peace of the soul and body. Humans are created with a supernatural purpose because they are inclined to suffering on earth, can’t be eternally happy on earth, and therefore can only achieve eternal happiness through supernatural means in heaven.
The central theme in Rasselas is the choice of life, or as I will refer to it, the pursuit of happiness. This is a theme that is as old as time itself, nobody really seems happy with the cards they are dealt in life and are always trying to better their situation. Just what does it take to be happy; wealth and luxury, imagination and solitude, or is happiness even real. Prince Rasselas is set on finding the answer to this question. This essay will look at the relationship between imagination and happiness, and the benefits and dangers that go along with the imaginative faculty.
There are indeed many individuals that have amusing thoughts and questions that absorb their minds. What is the purpose of living if we are eventually going to departure from this world? Why even bother to live? There is a point in everyone’s life where they asked themselves these questions, because we live in a polluted planet where we suffer from a diverse of conflicts. In today’s world, many people see their life pointless due to economic, health, and self issues. Without any doubts many ignore the fact that there’s numerous reasons of our existence here on Earth.
How much time do you spend thinking about tomorrow or yesterday while not thinking about today? Constantly dwelling on the past or dreaming about the future prevents you from experiencing happiness today. Spending too much time thinking about the job you lost last year or the vacation your planning next year will prevent having happiness now. Enjoying each moment of a day is one of the most important steps toward having inner fulfillment and happiness. By focusing on the moment, you are able to complete the other essential steps to have complete lifelong happiness.
What does it mean to be happy? Happiness is a sensation that people want to have, and a lot of it. Above all else in the world, it’s what we seek and long for. Though this feeling can be found in many different places and at many different times, it isn’t easy to acquire. For some people, happiness might be found in exercise and sustaining good health. On the other hand, others can discover it when they go on vacation and relax. The idea here is that we each have our own things that make us happy.
Augustine questions what a person should obtain to achieve happiness since happiness is a matter of having what one wants in order to be happy. Augustine’s grasp of love is understood as a kind of desire, and we see that desire is also present in other parts of the soul. (83 Different questions p. 66). Now the love of those things worthy to be loved is better termed “disinterested love” and for this reason, one ought to reflect carefully with all the power of one’s thought on that most salutary precept: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”,; and again, on that which the Lord Jesus says: “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (82 Q. p. 66) Therefore, he believes that happiness constitutes something that can be had when it is wanted (the Happy Life 2.11) So does material items bring happiness? The answer is no for material wealth, no matter how achieved, is perpetually subject to the fear of loss.Augustine argues that it is in our love of God that we find permanent and enduring happiness without fear of loss that erodes our happiness (De beata vita 2.11). Augustine states, “It is beyond doubt that the one cause of fear is either that we will lose what we love after attaining it or that, despite all our hopes, we will never attain it at all.” (De div. quaest. 33) Augustine’s definition of love can be found near the end of the first book of the Soliloquia, it states: “What is not loved in its own right is not loved.” This describes the shear purity of love that is not egotistical saturated with selfishness but altruistic in its unselfishness. When Augustine considers the purity of love he goes on to state, that ...
Truth and happiness share a relationship of not knowing the truth, which only makes people happier. The people of the new world lost their freedoms but in return receive many pleasures. This thus adds to the apprehension of knowing the truth. They don’t want to know the truth because they are trained not to and it seems like they don’t want to know the truth, either. To avoid ever knowing the truth they use soma. By taking somas, they avoid truth whenever they are frightened by it. It in turn conceals their sorrows and instead fills them with fake hallucinations.
Who do you think has the best life on the earth? People with a lot of money, or people who are famous? When I was ten years old, I used to think that people who have money, just like Bill Gates, have the best lives on the earth. But then when I got older, I thought that people who are famous and also have money are the ones with the best lives on this earth, Just like LeBron James.