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Happy
Of a person: favoured by good fortune; fortunate,
successful. Of an action, speech, etc: pleasantly appropriate to the occasion or circumstances; felicitous. Of a person:
dexterous in hitting on the action, words, etc., appropriate to the circumstances. Feeling deep pleasure in, or
contentment with, one’s circumstances. Pleased, glad (at, that, to do); satisfied (with). Of an organization etc.:
marked by a pleasant spirit of harmony and mutual goodwill. Oxford Dictionary
Within the current limitations of the Human Condition,
happiness is a temporary state at best, totally dependent on fortuitous circumstances and, as such, is notoriously
fickle. Some people create an imaginary world of bliss and happiness which is based on transcending or denying the
misery, violence and suffering both in themselves and others. When one eliminates the opposites of good and evil, right
and wrong, as well as the animal instincts of fear and aggression, there remains an actual innocence, purity and
contentment that far exceeds anything promised by the spiritual and religious zealots. The direct, pure, sensate
experience of the actual world, the perfection of paradise only on earth, here, now is pretty hard to beat.
A personal description of becoming happy and harmless on the
path to Actual Freedom –
‘I became vitally interested in ‘How am I
experiencing this moment of being alive?’ And if that meant I was feeling angry, sad, melancholy, lacklustre,
depressed, then I would track back to find out what it was that bought on that feeling. What was said, what happened,
when did it happen? I wanted to understand feelings, their source, how they worked, what caused them to kick in, etc.
Only by understanding them, could I begin to get free of their insidious grip. I also knew that until I was rid of the
source of feelings entirely – ‘me’ – I would have to live with them. So best to understand them and best to aim
for the felicitous ones – and feeling happy and feeling harmless are surely the best one can aim for of the feelings.
For me the clue was in my aim to be happy and harmless. Even in my
spiritual days I wouldn’t have described myself as unhappy. Probably that I was reasonably happy, particularly when
things were going well. But what I had to admit, almost force myself to admit, was that I was not harmless.
Well-meaning, yes, but when push came to shove, or when things weren’t going my way – certainly not harmless.
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