Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism

When an average person seeks happiness, most often they search in the wrong place: "If only I could have that I would be happy." For ages, man has been seeking happiness from outside, not within. People have the misconception that material things and materialistic goals will bring them ultimate happiness, but in truth those only bring transient happiness. True and lasting happiness can be reached from within when one realizes the ultimate truth. This ultimate truth, the main focus of transcendentalism, can be reached through self-reliance, nature, and oversoul, the main principals of the philosophy. By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty, goodness, and truth.

With the realization of the ultimate truth comes lasting happiness. This is the kind of happiness that every person searches for and works toward but often gets thrown off course by the evil influences of society. This is where self-reliance comes in. In the path to realizing the truth and attaining true happiness, one first has to realize that it is within, and cannot be attained from outside the self (or soul). With this knowledge they must go through a process of introspection. When going through this introspective path, one develops his or her intuitive mind, and begins to believe in (have faith in) it. When one really begins to trust in their intuitive abilities they are able to become self-reliant. That is, they are able to form their own ideas and opinions based on their new found intuition, and not conform to societal norm. When self-reliant, one is really believing in the self and has that enormous confidence that allows one to be a ...

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...cend and rise above everything to see what the genuine character is of everything in this universe. When this truth is realized, how I understand it, we also see how the truth is bliss, even when it is manifested in evil, and that the truth of real existence can be manifested as life or death. Thus we realize that all these happenings are nothing but the reflections of one existence, your real self and the reality of everything else. Only when this truth is realized is when it is possible to do true good without evil because such a person who has realized the ultimate truth has known and gotten control of the material of which both good and evil are manufactured. When he can manifest one or the other, and chooses to manifest only good, is it is true goodness. Now if only everyone can attain this level of goodness, our world would be a pure and blissful place.

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