Edition #13
Lisbon, 2010
SHOULD HAPPINES BE PURSUED?
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Philosophy has two major branches: Western and Eastern. Western Philosophy says that the natural state of man is anguish, while Eastern Philosophy says that the natural state of man is happiness.
What Eastern Philosophy, particularly Hindu and Buddhist, says about happiness is that it should not be sought after. The moment you create a condition for happiness—with attitudes like "I will only be happy if this or that happens" —it only results in anguish. Happiness should never be made an objective. We must accept and understand that it is already here and now, needing nothing more to exist. You can become a happy person right now, without waiting another second!
But talking is easy, right? For us Westerners, saying something like this seems almost ridiculous. How can we simply be happy without having to strive for it? Well, it’s never said that it comes without effort. The great secret lies in your attitude toward the world.
In fact, it's impossible to live without adversities. The myth of Sisyphus says that life is the effort of rolling a large stone to the top of a hill, but this stone always rolls down when we reach the top, and we must go back, descend, and roll the stone up again, and this process is eternal. In other words, we will always have problems and adversities, and there's no way to escape this. But what we must understand is that the negative is positive in another context.
Albert Camus says that we must imagine this man who rolls the stone up the hill happily, despite the "hassle" of spending his entire life rolling this giant stone uphill. But the whole point is that frustration is an invitation to overcoming. Everything that is truly valuable is like childbirth: it is a painful and suffering process, but in the end, the reward is very gratifying. Perhaps it must be this way for us to value things, and happiness can only come from this. Shadows serve to highlight the illuminated parts. If there were no darkness, we would have no notion of light.
The only way to achieve happiness is not by desiring to seek it, but by simply adopting the attitude of SAYING YES TO NO. When we do this, nothing else affects us. Think that all unhappy people and all who have committed suicide did so solely because they said No to No… In other words, they do not accept the adversities of life, and this is what brings anguish.
Saying Yes to No does not mean we should become passive and resigned people. It's not what I mean! Rather, it's about having serenity in the face of adversities, accepting whatever comes, facing it with confidence, and knowing that from that situation, if you persevere, you will invariably come out stronger, as Nietzsche says: "What does not kill you makes you stronger."
THE VEDAS AND THE INHERENT HAPPINESS OF MAN
The Vedas state that happiness is the natural state of man. If the desire to be happy, to be unlimited, is not subject to choice, and is natural and universal, then it is undoubtedly meaningful. The more one lives a conscious life, the harder it becomes to ignore the fundamental desire to be complete, and until a solution to this problem is found, there will be no peace. The method by which this inquiry is conducted is called Vedanta (the final part of the Vedas).
The Vedas were produced by Indian sages (circa 8,000 years ago) who had visions and transmitted them orally. This is the Vedic culture. The role of the Vedas is to provide awareness of who you are and the path to follow your way.
For the Vedas, the Sun resides within; Consciousness is illuminating. The perceptible world is an illusion, or maya, which exists because of our capacity for illusion, or moha, which is the ability to deceive ourselves. There are various levels of reality; the most false is taken as true by common sense, where everything is based on our senses.
Western philosophy directs its gaze towards nature and the self in an objective way. In India, there is no such perspective. What exists is the contemplation of nature and the arts. Thus, one accesses essential truths, letting things speak for themselves, without intermediaries. You merge with the thing, and a great communion with the Universe occurs, which words could not explain. The essence cannot be described by words.
Jesus Christ is the only master of the West – Western philosophy is purely theoretical, quite different from India, where the teachings involve an entire system, with masters who transmitted this knowledge, and their lives were completely devoted to these teachings.
The biggest difference between Eastern and Western Christian philosophy is the question of temporality. India believes in reincarnation. That is, action (karma) is older than a single life. Each action is always linked to a merit or a demerit. Karma is the action you perform. Karmic relates to the actions you have committed. Karma is the acceptance of your destiny. It is a necessary act of nature. Dharma is the mission, the function in society. It is the ethical part of values. The dharma of a father is to protect and love his child, for example. We cannot escape our dharma. It is the path laid out for our life. Evil is the absence of good – the same is true of dharma.
Vedanta is a means of knowledge that provides the understanding of the Self. Included in the Vedanta is the famous passage from the Gita. The following verse summarises the entire Gita (said by Krishna to Arjuna): "While speaking words of wisdom, you are grieving for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead." Sorrow and remorse are incompatible with the wise. Those with knowledge rise above any adversity. The more ignorant one is, the more sadness takes hold.
The cause of post-modern Western anguish is the ignorance of identifying completely with the body. "I am no body at all; I am the Absolute itself." I am not individuality; I am more than individuality. We are constant presence; here and now, we are me and you. The plural of "I" is not "we"; the plural of "I" is "I's." Just as there was never a time when I did not exist, there will never be a time when I will cease to exist. With this knowledge, suffering ends. It is like watching a horror movie in a cinema. You feel fear during the movie, but then you go and have ice cream... That fear is maya, it is unreal. All fear is maya. "For the nonexistent, there is no existence and vice versa, but both are known by the seers of the truth" (0+0=0).
Do you like Eastern Thought?
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