As we go on in the trance of our daily lives its all to easy to never think. Even about some of the more important things in our lives that we claim to hold dearest to your hearts. When it comes down to it we spend most of our time feeling our way through life rather then understanding it, and then acting upon that understanding. But when one does stop to think, and truly tries to understand reality and his relationship with it, his whole world changes, and he can then strive to live his life consistently. Whereas the person that has no concern for truth but rather how he feels about it, spends his life in an endless circle with no destination or goal.
For this person happiness is nothing more then a state of relief from his constant state of terror and confusion that only happens by chance. The danger in this definition of happiness (which most people hold) is that your meaning and goal in life is completely out of your hands. You then do not strive to understand your relationship with reality and try to live in harmony with it but simply try to escape it.
Is this not what the drinker does when he can't seem to handle life? He takes a substance that makes him feel that he can escape reality at least for a short time. Is this not what the religious person does when they turn to God in difficult times? Because reality seemed to be working against them they simply search for something "beyond" it.
But these things are not happiness. Its nothing more then lying to your self for a short lived state of relief. Where one separates them selves from reality (only in a state of mind, removing your self from reality is quite impossible) because they feel it has nothing to offer them.
Where then can we find happiness and joy? What exactly is happiness?
I believe the foundation of happiness is understanding reality and living in harmony with it. And the foundation of unhappiness is fighting reality, and trying to separate ones self from it, or what we could call mysticism. By my standard happiness can only be achieved when one says A=A, reality is real.
The more some one believes in things "beyond" reality the more likely they will be unhappy. If some one believes in something "beyond" reality then by definition it is not real. if some one is emotionally invested in beliefs that are not real then they surely will not get back on that investment because emotions are within the realm of reality and their values are not. This persons happiness is then subjective to their surroundings and environment or in other words, their happiness is out of their control. Which can only lead to cynicism and a loss of self esteem due to the fact that the individual feels that their life is out side of their control.
I am not going to pretend that I can tell you how to live your entire life in one blog (or that I would even be able to tell you at all!) but I will tell you that philosophy and rational reflection has greatly improved my life. The person who embraces religion wants to ignore reality but the person who studies philosophy is trying to come to terms with it (of course this is not always the case because not all philosophy is rational, but in general philosophy is observations and thoughts regarding reality). But wether you embrace reality or not it will always win. If your happiness depends on the existence of leprechauns then you will never be happy.
Man by nature is a rational being, and therefore our fulfillment of being is to be rational. To philosophize, to understand, to learn, and which in the end is really just embracing reality, truth, and existence.
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