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Life is all about Happiness and not about Hardship

Yeah!!! Amen to that!

None of us are trying to pursue hardship, not me anyway.
We pursue only happiness in our physical life.
However, the universe has the way of throwing hardships into our path
Now.. I personally believe that these hardships are not bad.
These are just ways for us to open our eyes and to learn from them..
We learn about true love, strength, courage, real friendship, loyalty, and appreciation .....all of our existence through those hardships.
Can happiness be appreciated w/o those hardships?

What an interesting thread!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

Emotional theorists and neuroscientists refer to our emotions as positive emotions or negative emotions. I agree and support this based upon my own personal experience. As a matter of fact, positive and negative emotions is a term in psychology. If you were to talk to any psychologist, then I bet they would bring it up.

There is what's known as cognitive dissonance, which is basically the 'lock on, lock out' principle. People tend to 'lock on' to 'positive' emotions and 'lock out' the 'negative' ones, and what happens is that the 'negative' emotions aren't dealt with properly, often they are ignored and consigned to what Jung calls the shadow self. There they can fester way quite happily unless they are acknowledged and dealt with effectively. It's actually those 'negative' emotions that we learn and develop from Spiritually, and if we can't transcend them and turn them into something more useful what does that say about us?

Life is about the Journey to Self and how hardship can either make or break us, it's about the resilience and strength of the human Spirit to endure and turn those hurts into halos. Locking onto the happiness and locking out the power of hardships to help shape us in so many ways and bring out a better developed self... You have to deal with that in your fashion, after all it's only you that has to Live in your own skin. But it's only from hardship that we can experience true empathy, sympathy and a few more things. Not only do you lock out the hardships you lock out everything that the hardship was there to give you, and much of what it can give you can be of service to others as well as ourselves.

Those emotional theorists and neuroscientists would probably agree that expressing even 'negative' emotions in a more productive way would provide more beneficial effects. The dark is the dark because people run away from it instead of shining their Light there.

Great! Follow your heart!

There is no fixed path. Our choice is itself the way. 🙏🏼

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamthat

A lot to consider here, so just a few comments.

Positive Emotions Are Divine States:
The astral plane (the plane corresponding to the emotional body) is considered as the plane of duality. It is therefore difficult to only feel positive emotions without also feeling so-called negative emotions. The yogic path teaches the cultivation of emotional serenity so that we become free from all emotions. This does not make us cold and uncaring. Qualities such as love, compassion, joy, and humour are not considered as emotional states. Instead these are seen as qualities of the Soul or Consciousness. When the emotional body is serene and still then these Soul qualities can be expressed without distortion.

We Need The Light:
The Being of Light which people encounter in NDEs is actually our own Soul, not some external Being. The Soul naturally radiates loving joyful energies, but we cannot imagine how magnificent we really are, so when we encounter this Being of Light people think that this is God or Jesus or whatever.

Our challenge is to allow the beautiful energies of the Soul to shine through our personality without interference or distortion. It is like cleaning and polishing a mirror to give the clearest possible reflection.

I Need To Become The Being Of Light; Not The Being Of Darkness:
There comes a point where we stop labelling our emotions as positive or negative. They are simply emotions, particular energies. Our habitual tendency is to resist "negative" emotions, and thus they persist. If we allow ourselves to fully feel them without resistance then they quickly pass.

Euphoria Is The Best Thing:
The euphoric states found through drugs is temporary and illusory. After the initial euphoria has worn off we are back to our non-euphoric existence. So people take more of the same substance to try to recreate that euphoric state. So it goes on, and it is hopeless.

No drugs can compare with the bliss which can be found within, naturally. Our very Being is experienced as bliss. Who needs drugs?

Since positive emotions are the only mental states that bring our lives real beauty and joy, then there's nothing more to life than positive emotions.

As you might have gathered, I disagree. Real beauty and joy is found in identification with Soul consciousness. Such beauty and joy arises spontaneously from within in each moment. These may be reflected in positive emotions, but the positive emotions are just that, a reflection.

Peace

I relate to everything articulated in your meta-view, iamthat2!

Except I confess 'chemicals' (alcohol and pot in my case) have been a very useful way of my (my cellulary? established attitude) getting 'out' of established 'survival-grind' patterns. As in the case of everything else, they can be a 'a double edged sword,' however. I recommend they be used wisely/resolutely/consciously - that, of course, means not as a 'means' of 'escape' which is a 'runaway' (and 'jump of a cliff') leaning!

Brisk probably makes go do
things and probably makes
think a certain handle way

we get to feel welcomed home and
pray with cross of jesus for protections
allso from voicing outs or and bigger
enough to not be upset, or something.
okay, now i'm begun newer, now.

keep it good, keep it good

Rich, poor or otherwise, we will all experience some form of happiness and hardship in our lives. This is controlled by the law of karma; we reap what we sow.We can never escape from this reality using human means.

Instead of pursuing happiness, should we instead, let go of our human attachments? Without attachments, we are always at peace and all hardships would become insignificant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emperorcow

Instead of pursuing happiness, should we instead, let go of our human attachments?

That's the secret to joy actually: not seeking joy/happiness in some projected future time and scenario, but experiencing it now, in every moment. To do that, one must let go of attachments. And projecting into the future like that is a form of attachment-consciousness.

Letting go of 'attachments' = not 'clinging' (to any 'idea') = super-duper free FLOW of the Love and Joy river of LIFE = wisdom indeed!

Woohoo, River-of-Life Swimming-Fishies and Spirit-of-Being Flying-Birdies! :biggrin:

Be it happiness or hardship, perhaps what matters is how we define it and how we look at it.

If our attention is external, our evaluation is based on material transience. On the other hand, if the fulcrum of our consciousness is internalised, there is no evaluation, only nonchalant witness-like observation.

For example, suppose we wonder why the ‘evil’ prosper and the righteous suffer, leaving aside the judgmental aspect of evil vs good from the external level, let us view it internally ...

Our learning is as what we need for evolution. This means that those who erroneously seek happiness in the ephemeral are provided accordingly until they self-realise the futility of doing so. Likewise, those who have already learnt this lesson may be given a harder life to erase residual contaminants of the ego and to refine the sensibilities, besides settling karmic debt. The evaluation of destiny is based upon soul evolution, not momentary pleasure or pain.

With this understanding and acceptance we may then let go of attachments in as much as we are able. With divine assistance.

Such are my views on this enigma of life ...