There are a lot of philosophies about happiness and how to “find” happiness in life. We should all know that money doesn’t bring you happiness, because you could have tons of money and still not be very happy. Like when you were a kid, you don’t have money, but when you grow up and start to have more money, it doesn’t feel happier; it just feels normal. Later, your life problems come along, and you feel stressed; more problems at work, home, and everything; where did happiness go? How to be happy in life, and what makes people happy? This post will shed some light and give you an answer from the Taoist’s perspective.
Understanding What is Happiness
Happiness is a feeling, and the feeling is generated from the heart. This is the energy heart and not the “organ” you used to see in the medical diagrams. This heart is in the center of our energy body, which we call the Faat Sun 法身. This energy body is shaped like an egg, with the heart in the middle like the yolk. If you find the center point between the two nipples, that is the center point for the heart. Measure about one palm distance from that point to the edge of the heart’s surface.
The heart feels and acts like a command center, giving us feeling and direction in life. What to do next, can or cannot go, should or should not, makes decisions for us, which is why we have the power to “self-debate” inside. When the heart sees something it likes, it will “open” the heart and let things go in. When the heart encounters something it doesn’t want, it will resist and push back, which means its door is closed. For example, if we are being criticized, we don’t feel good, then the heart closes up and rejects the criticism; that is why we start to go defensive when we are being criticized because the heart doesn’t want to accept it. It doesn’t feel good, but is that “bad” for you?
The problem with many people is that they are all trying to “find more happiness” to feel good all the time. However, from Taoism’s perspective, that is already very wrong from the beginning. Can you eat and not poop? You need both to be healthy. Like your heart, you need to have positive ad some negative for a healthy heart. We need to be poked and polished sometimes; sweet words don’t teach a bad kid. Sometimes you need that roughness because it is good for you and helps you grow up.
When you are fulfilled, happiness is achieved when the heart opens and accepts anything. The heart consumes what you see, hear, and interact with, so if the things you encounter are not what the heart wants, then the heart will not open but close up instead. However, the heart is not always right.
“Trust your feelings” or “listen to your inner voice” is a NO-NO for everyone. Imagine if a kid who doesn’t know how to drive just listened to his inner voice and “drive”!? You will see a lot of things go wrong! If the heart is not educated and cultivated, it is naïve and doesn’t have the ingredients to make good decisions for you. If you care about your feeling so much and let the heart take control all the time, you will see many things will not turn out great. Therefore, do not try to “make yourself happy” and do things that get you happy because it will lead you nowhere near success and achievements. Those who do talk shows and say, “oh Ju, so do what you enjoy doing,” are t, those who already did the hard work and grinding then retire with lots of money in their hand, of course; they can say this kind of thing. If you have not gone through many hurdles in life and have not yet earned your money, doing what you enjoy sometimes doesn’t work. A person enjoys playing basketball but is not a good player or at least not a good player to play in the sports teams. Can he do that and not care about his bills? Maybe working at Home Depot sucks, but it pays your bills and gets you a home to live in. Reality is brutal, and you must know that we don’t just live for happiness; we also need survival essentials.
Happiness is only one of the many experiences you could have, which is not always good. I am very happy when playing with my friends, but if I play and play and forget to go back to work, I will eventually be in deep trouble too. Just being happy doesn’t work. A lot of people go for drugs, smoking, and all sorts of stupid ways to escape from reality “for a while” – same as those who do “meditation” and think that they can “feel better” for a while; it’s totally stupid and ignorant. The world is not about being happy because happiness doesn’t get you anything if you ONLY care about happiness. You will have happiness once you achieve something, that’s for sure. Before that achievement, the training and cultivation are not happy; it’s sometimes very painful. Happy is only ONE of the many feelings we should have and need. We also need other feelings to be complete beings.
Can you love sweet and only eat sweet? Can you not eat sour and bitter or even salty? Don’t be silly. We need a bit of everything to be a complete person. Don’t fall for those “talks” that help you escape problems. Taoist don’t do that; we FACE the problems.
Where are You Going
The question now is – why are we working so hard in life? What are we striving for in the end? What is the goal of life, and how can we be fulfilled?
We are all born to die; that’s the ultimate goal of life. However, where are you going after you die? That is what we are cultivating for. A normal person doesn’t have any control over this matter, so they live a life and die, then “whatever happens will happen,” because they never cared for it in their whole life, so they never prepared for it. Just like a child never thought of getting a job, they will not study and end up jobless because they have wasted their time doing nothing to prepare. If you have not prepared for the after-death journey, the fact is that you will end up the same.
Religion is what gives you a way to focus on and set your destination after your death. Different religions will give you a different destination, which means if you want to go to this place of religion A, you need to learn and cultivate the things this religion A teaches. You are off to nowhere if you do not believe in any religion. A lot of people in the modern days only emphasize making money and building business. Still, they don’t realize that your whole life is wasted if you are never prepared or cultivated for life after death. Can you bring all that money with you when you pass away? Nope.
If you have a religion, then you should be all set to go to a place as your destiny. Anything that you do in this life that helps you reach the goal will make you happier because you know your work will lead to real success. Finishing this life, knowing where you are going, and what to expect, is a good ending to this life here. The worst thing one can do is die with fear or uncertainty, which is something millionaires don’t always look at. Therefore, one might die in millions of monies, but they are going somewhere unknown, with nothing prepared. It’s scary.
For me, at least I am proud to say that I know the other world, and I have seen what the ghost world is like, I know how it works, and I know where I am going later. I am very happy about this because it’s not something you can just buy online or learn from school. Not many people or places can give you this kind of happiness; it’s one of the ultimate happiness one could have in life. Everyone is working hard in their life, but for what? Can you answer? I can.
Ordain to learn more, and to set a goal for your life!
