Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

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Skydude
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Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by Skydude »

The pursuit of happiness feels to me like A contradiction. It opens the heart and leaves it vulnerable to disappointments, and has the dangerous possibility to do nothing but leave us wanting. Taking that into account A possible cure could be the cesasstion of this behavior, but once we decide to stop our pursuit, what is left. Are we really putting A stop to the wanting? Or are we diluting ourselves by pursuing A state of contentment that may or may not be achievable. what we experience as conciousness is actually A state of constant conflict and compromise between the different parts of our brains. Balance is an ever fleeting state, an illusion created by the part of the mind that craves order but while there is A world that is constantly changing around us, our minds are forced to embrace the chaos around us and I believe that it is in this moment we will find whatever answer there is to what "free will" really means and in the process perhaps we may discover how to allow ourselves to achieve true happiness and freedom. Until then we are doomed to live in an eternal conflict until we finally lose ourselves and return to the chaos that characterises the universe.
Maxcady10001
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Re: Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by Maxcady10001 »

I believe you are right in seeing the pursuit of happiness as a contradiction. Have you ever heard of the pleasure paradox? The more you pursue happiness, the less of it you will receive. I may find happiness in having a bite of pizza, but with each bite I experience less happiness, until I am sick of pizza. It works that way with everything.
That is why I do not believe the value of life should be contentment or happiness, or any feeling state, as the pleasure paradox applies to each feeling state.
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LuckyR
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Re: Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by LuckyR »

Maxcady10001 wrote: February 5th, 2018, 2:24 am I believe you are right in seeing the pursuit of happiness as a contradiction. Have you ever heard of the pleasure paradox? The more you pursue happiness, the less of it you will receive. I may find happiness in having a bite of pizza, but with each bite I experience less happiness, until I am sick of pizza. It works that way with everything.
That is why I do not believe the value of life should be contentment or happiness, or any feeling state, as the pleasure paradox applies to each feeling state.
I have to agree there. Happiness pursuit is the baseline position, no need to elevate it.
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Re: Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by Alias »

"The pursuit of happiness" is a poorly formulated proposition in the context of human fulfilment.
It was valid as a constitutional concept: that is, people ought to be free to seek their own idea of happiness without hindrance from people who disagree with that idea. The word 'pursuit' itself has undergone considerable change of common usage since that document was composed.
However, yogis notwithstanding, all healthy animals strive to avoid pain and sorrow; seek happiness in its many and various forms.
In a well-functioning society, human happiness shouldn't need much pursuing, but in the badly dysfunctional ones, it's made very hard for large segments of the population. (Which segments depends on what kind and how many ways the society malfunctions.)

The foundation of happiness is physical well-being, which requires the essentials: clean water, clean air, wholesome food, adequate shelter, warm clothing, aerobic activity, safety of the person and his life-support structure. For a great many people in the world, those things are unattainable without a daily struggle - and even in spite of. The foundation of emotional well-being requires connection with other sentient beings; affection, acceptance, validation. Mental well-being the opportunity to observe, reason, learn, perform useful work and solve problems.
People who can take the basics for granted then go on to want community, altruism, romantic love, status and accomplishment.
It's perfectly normal and healthy to try to satisfy all of those needs.
None of those desires are in conflict with balance. In fact, meeting all three sets of needs gives a person the stability of a tripod.

It's the lack of some basic need that throws one off balance. People who are frustrated in the acquisition of one need often over-compensate with too much of something they do have access to - the classic example being food as a substitute for affection. The substitution of pleasure for joy = they are not synonymous. Pleasure is the most fleeting and superficial aspect of happiness, like the dust jacket of a book. If people who can't get the substance, they clutch at the wrapping. It's this displacement behaviour that we usually characterize as the "pursuit" of happiness. In the extreme forms, such behaviour leads to addictions, obsessions, social maladjustment, physical and mental illness.

I might also take exception to
Until then we are doomed to live in an eternal conflict until we finally lose ourselves and return to the chaos that characterises the universe.

I don't believe chaos is characteristic of the universe. Were that the case, it could not have given rise self-motivating, self-replicating, entropy-negating life. The world doesn't change around us randomly or chaotically: it changes according to patterns and cycles that can be understood - or at least observed and followed, and to a great growing degree, predicted.
Certainly, the human psyche is internally conflicted. But balance is achievable.
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Re: Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by A_Seagull »

Alias wrote: February 10th, 2018, 1:32 pmCertainly, the human psyche is internally conflicted.
The human psyche is only conflicted by believing too many lies. Or maybe it is afflicted through a fixation on envy or ambition.
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Re: Pursue hapiness or strive to be balanced? Is either truly good for you?

Post by Alias »

A_Seagull wrote: February 10th, 2018, 7:10 pm The human psyche is only conflicted by believing too many lies.
Where do the lies come from? Humans. Why do so many humans invent false information to mislead other humans, and why do so many believe such false information, even though they are very much aware that many humans lie? Those are just some of the symptoms of a conflicted psyche.
Or maybe it is afflicted through a fixation on envy or ambition.
Those are more symptoms. Envy is admiration and desire gone bad; ambition can be constructive achievement, or healthy competition, or wasteful rivalry between humans who could co-operate to better advantage, or an insane quest for power through destruction.

That's what i mean. Human minds are so complex and so readily compartmentalized, there are all manner of ways to destabilize them.
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