Enemies of Happiness
“He is a happy man. Their marriage is also happy. They
are a happy family.” How often do you hear of such
things? Would you feel jealous about such families?
Most of us do. We feel jealous about such things
because we feel we are not as happy as they are.
Jealousy
Jealousy brings nothing to anyone, either to you or to
anybody else. If they know that you are jealous, they
might even be happier, and you, be unhappy, mentally
sick and even be tempted to do things which should not
be done; things for which you might have to repent in the
future.
In the ultimate analysis, jealousy does no good either to
the person who gets the feeling or to the person at
whom jealousy is targeted. You do not get any advantage
of being jealous.
On the contrary, the feelings of jealousy can cause high
blood pressure, heart problems and a large number of
other heath complications. Recent medical research has
confirmed that anger the ultimate result of jealousy can
be more dangerous, than what we have known earlier.
Jealousy is one of the main enemies of happiness.
Anger and Hatred
Anger and hatred are feelings that affect our health.
Their effect is always negative. Can you ever think of how
anger and hatred can help us? Anger increases your
blood pressure which could cause complex heart
problems. This could make you sick, especially if your
heart is weak or you are old and feeble. Anger changes
the colour of your face and your sanity disappears
temporarily. In this angry frame of mind, people tend to
do things which they find difficult to justify, when they are
sane.
Anger, hatred and jealousy could change the looks on
your face to your disadvantage. They are the three main
enemies of happiness which we should always make
an attempt to control.
They are real cancers that can destroy your health and
happiness.
Fear
The environment in which we live makes us feel unsafe.
We do not know when we could be a victim of an
explosion, accident, deadly virus attack or even death.
The fear of death, is one of the main causes of
unhappiness. We take so many precautions against
death or being a victim of some unforeseen accident.
On the other hand there are the criminals who are
planning to rob us, to plunder all what we have earned
and are enjoying now. You can call them by any name,
such as buglers, robbers, muggers or white collar
criminals who destroys our wealth and happiness. This
is another fear with which the man in the modern society
has to live with.
The fear is created either by doing the wrong things, or not doing the
correct things which you should do. Then the fear of punishment or
the loss of face from the community that you live and work with.
You already know of a large number of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Powerful
ministers and officials who have either been jailed or thrown out of power
because of sex and financial scandals.
In the modern society we do not know the type of forces
that are acting against us, to rob us of the legal rights
we should enjoy about our life and our properties. This is
one of the most important reasons that make us
unhappy.
Incidence of fear increases with your involvement in
things that can contravene the legal or social practices of
good behaviour.
Ignorance about ourselves
Almost all the decisions we make are made under
conditions of partial ignorance. That is because we don’t
have either the time or the resources to collect all the
information we need to take a well-informed decision.
Therefore we can correctly say that the knowledge we
have on any problem on which we have to take a
decision, is so small. It could even be less than 1% of
the information we need.
It is also correct to say that we are living in a world of
ignorance.
Some of the important questions for which we have to
seek answers are
False views and false values
As a result of our ignorance, sometimes, we tend to
make an attempt to do certain things which make us
unhappy, because we do not have the resources to
achieve the perceived ends or targets or goals.
Majority of the enemies of happiness are generated from
inside, than from outside. If we make an attempt to
understand ourselves pretty well, we might be able to
maintain a certain level of happiness, rather than ending
up in the grey area.
Craving to gratify the five senses
Happiness to the majority of the people in the world mens gratifying the five senses: the
eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the body. The mind acts as the coordinator
Good life and rich life means that. What else can you do with this life? Excessive
importance given to these activities is mainly the thing that stands against you when
you are planning to move up the happiness ladder.
Unless we set boundaries as regards what we wish to do in terms of gratifying our
senses, we can run into problems. How much should you drink or eat? Do you have to
wear a new dress every day? These activities, or the activities to gratify your cravings
have to be done in moderation
Alcohol is a good example. medical opinions say that you should not take alcohol. All
religions have restrictions regarding use of alcohol. In spite of that if you really insist
that you need a drink to pep up your body, you should establish limits.
Sickness
In the modern society, almost every person is taking drugs of some sort on a daily
basis..Sicknesses could be either physical or mental. But whatever it is, when sickness
strikes you, your levels of happiness falls and sometimes you spend the whole day in
pain, suffering. Laziness is also considered here as a sickness.
“He is a happy man. Their marriage is also happy. They
are a happy family.” How often do you hear of such
things? Would you feel jealous about such families?
Most of us do. We feel jealous about such things
because we feel we are not as happy as they are.
Jealousy
Jealousy brings nothing to anyone, either to you or to
anybody else. If they know that you are jealous, they
might even be happier, and you, be unhappy, mentally
sick and even be tempted to do things which should not
be done; things for which you might have to repent in the
future.
In the ultimate analysis, jealousy does no good either to
the person who gets the feeling or to the person at
whom jealousy is targeted. You do not get any advantage
of being jealous.
On the contrary, the feelings of jealousy can cause high
blood pressure, heart problems and a large number of
other heath complications. Recent medical research has
confirmed that anger the ultimate result of jealousy can
be more dangerous, than what we have known earlier.
Jealousy is one of the main enemies of happiness.
Anger and Hatred
Anger and hatred are feelings that affect our health.
Their effect is always negative. Can you ever think of how
anger and hatred can help us? Anger increases your
blood pressure which could cause complex heart
problems. This could make you sick, especially if your
heart is weak or you are old and feeble. Anger changes
the colour of your face and your sanity disappears
temporarily. In this angry frame of mind, people tend to
do things which they find difficult to justify, when they are
sane.
Anger, hatred and jealousy could change the looks on
your face to your disadvantage. They are the three main
enemies of happiness which we should always make
an attempt to control.
They are real cancers that can destroy your health and
happiness.
Fear
The environment in which we live makes us feel unsafe.
We do not know when we could be a victim of an
explosion, accident, deadly virus attack or even death.
The fear of death, is one of the main causes of
unhappiness. We take so many precautions against
death or being a victim of some unforeseen accident.
On the other hand there are the criminals who are
planning to rob us, to plunder all what we have earned
and are enjoying now. You can call them by any name,
such as buglers, robbers, muggers or white collar
criminals who destroys our wealth and happiness. This
is another fear with which the man in the modern society
has to live with.
The fear is created either by doing the wrong things, or not doing the
correct things which you should do. Then the fear of punishment or
the loss of face from the community that you live and work with.
You already know of a large number of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Powerful
ministers and officials who have either been jailed or thrown out of power
because of sex and financial scandals.
In the modern society we do not know the type of forces
that are acting against us, to rob us of the legal rights
we should enjoy about our life and our properties. This is
one of the most important reasons that make us
unhappy.
Incidence of fear increases with your involvement in
things that can contravene the legal or social practices of
good behaviour.
Ignorance about ourselves
Almost all the decisions we make are made under
conditions of partial ignorance. That is because we don’t
have either the time or the resources to collect all the
information we need to take a well-informed decision.
Therefore we can correctly say that the knowledge we
have on any problem on which we have to take a
decision, is so small. It could even be less than 1% of
the information we need.
It is also correct to say that we are living in a world of
ignorance.
Some of the important questions for which we have to
seek answers are
- How much do we know about ourselves?
- Do we know what really is good for us or bad for us?
- Are we always rational in our behavior? If not why?
- Are we generally guided by our emotions?
- Do we chase after mirages [illusions] by
- mistaking them as reality?
- Do we disregard reality as fiction?
- Have we demarcated the levels regarding our life's activities
False views and false values
As a result of our ignorance, sometimes, we tend to
make an attempt to do certain things which make us
unhappy, because we do not have the resources to
achieve the perceived ends or targets or goals.
Majority of the enemies of happiness are generated from
inside, than from outside. If we make an attempt to
understand ourselves pretty well, we might be able to
maintain a certain level of happiness, rather than ending
up in the grey area.
Craving to gratify the five senses
Happiness to the majority of the people in the world mens gratifying the five senses: the
eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the body. The mind acts as the coordinator
Good life and rich life means that. What else can you do with this life? Excessive
importance given to these activities is mainly the thing that stands against you when
you are planning to move up the happiness ladder.
Unless we set boundaries as regards what we wish to do in terms of gratifying our
senses, we can run into problems. How much should you drink or eat? Do you have to
wear a new dress every day? These activities, or the activities to gratify your cravings
have to be done in moderation
Alcohol is a good example. medical opinions say that you should not take alcohol. All
religions have restrictions regarding use of alcohol. In spite of that if you really insist
that you need a drink to pep up your body, you should establish limits.
Sickness
In the modern society, almost every person is taking drugs of some sort on a daily
basis..Sicknesses could be either physical or mental. But whatever it is, when sickness
strikes you, your levels of happiness falls and sometimes you spend the whole day in
pain, suffering. Laziness is also considered here as a sickness.
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About your thoughts
- Every thought has
a life cycle. Birth,
survival and death. - Only one thought
can survive in your
mind at any one
time, A new
thought cannot
move in until the
surviving one dies. - With the changes
in your thoughts
you keep on
moving from
happiness to
unhappiness and
to indifference
[white area]. - Feelings [vedana]
generated by your
thoughts could
make you happy,
unhappy or
indifferent to
happiness
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