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Originally Posted by Starbuck
Do you think happiness is always a choice no matter what happens?
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One's responses are proportional to one's level of self control.
The more one knows and understands a thing plus one's skill level of interaction with it, the more it can be controled.
Using happiness as an example:
If one has a high level of self mastery, within a commonly accepted sad experience, one can choose to be happy.
If one's self mastery is low, within the same xperience, the event will have sufficient power to influence one to choose to be unhappy.
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." - Marcus Aurelius
"People are not disturbed by things, but by the views that they take of them." - Epictetus
"You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside." - Wayne Dyer
"The whole design of life is to bring us to a place of awareness." - Julie Interrante
"We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves." - Orison Swett Marden
"We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces; we become the powerful force ourselves. " - Leo Buscaglia
"The issue is not whether or not you have that power, the issue is whether or not you use it." - Marianne Williamson
"True freedom is an inward state of being. Once it is attained, no situation in the world can bind one or limit one's freedom." - Jack Canfield
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If so, how do we achieve it?
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Mindfullness/self discovery/know thyself/internal growth/and other similar terminologies.
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Many people say that no circumstances have the power to strip someone of their emotional or mental state that they choose. Is this true even in extremely difficult circumstances?
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The level of external influence is inversely proportional to one's level of self mastery/control/knowledge.
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Some books I have read even state that human grief after a death is unnecessary and a sign of 'conditioning' because society loves misery. Others have said that 'negative emotions' mean we have moved away from spirit. If we're not full of joy all the time, something is wrong.
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I would say the info in these books are highly imbalanced, that the authors are simply expressing their prejudices of aspects of being human.
These are the people who struggle with the negatives of human existence and simply want to live in a constant state of the positives.
The nirvana/bliss/ectasy/orgasmic seekers...in other words, the immature.
Like a child who doesn't see any value in work and just wants to enjoy perpetual play.
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Can we choose to be happy, within reason?
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Well, that's how it goes doesn't it...within reason, within one's reasoning.
One chooses to respond according to one's observation and evaluation of the situation and oneself;
processing the information seen in one's current level of awareness, thus concluding with a decision and thus acting upon it.
Does this mean one is lacking in self control if one is grieving when a loved one dies or if opne cries if their arm has been ripped off in an accident?
Common sense says no. Imbalanced woo woo people who have issues with the harsh realities of life who think they know it all and think they have ascended above it say yes.
Well these woo woo people can say anything they want, my common sense, which is a part of my mindfullness, my ability to observe and think, my discernment, tells me differently.
But as i increase in self knowledge thus self control aka self mastery, the things that used to upset me no longer do.
And it's not about achieving a state of zero suffering/pain/grief, it's about being self aware to not be influenced by externals, but in freely choosing to grieve if i want to within an experience.
That i choose via conscious and indepth reasoning that griievng is my appropriate response to my situation irregardless of what others may think.
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I guess I really struggle to get my head around this.
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Perhaps getting your head into it instead of around might be more beneficial.
If happiness is a choice, so too is sadness.
If one discerns an experience to be pleasant, one will respond with happiness.
If the experience is discerned to be unpleasant, one will respond with sadness.
Yet some woo woo people don't see it that way as they are baised against the negatives as if they are unnatural, not a normal part of life.
woo woo - people imbalanced, ungrounded, head up in the clouds thus can't observe the realities on earth very well, thinking their ascended position denotes higher intelligence even though they denounce anything the mind can do.
So, if sadness and happiness are both chosen responses, increase in awareness enables one to see more information to determine how much externals are controling one's decisions.
"If you want to follow me to freedom, be prepared to swim upstream, against the river of conditioning.
Be prepared to grapple continuously with the fierce flow of negative mental currents. In time our strokes will become effortless and our sense of purpose irresistible." - Buddha
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make our world." - Buddha
I regard freedom as the state where one can choose their thoughts, feelings and actions without any influence from externals powers.
Buddha said, "with our thoughts we make our world", meaning to me, i choose what kind of life i will have according to my discerment of reality.
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