Happiness as a Way of Perceiving

[PeacefulSkeptic]

I have had conflicts in my life lately. I must say, as much as I wish it
were false, my disposition is based hugely on my perception of a
certain situation. We, as rational thinking beings, are free to perceive
circumstances as we see necessary. Many people today are enslaved into
thinking that circumstances themselves cause internal turmoil and are
the sole instigators of many sorts of negative feelings. For example,
person A definitively causes the despair and depression in person B.
This way of perceiving the environment, while easy to accredit blame
apart from oneself, is extremely detrimental. It places pressure on
other individuals to act in a way that pleases ourselves. We cannot
allow another person such an influential position.

I think it is necessary to reflect on one of the virtues of Zen.
According to the Zen master, everyone has the ability to sit idly by and
let the world pass by uninhibited by our own feelings about it. There
is great wisdom in this admonition. Our subjective minds, our own
personal conscientious attitude, is the sole attitude that we control.
We must learn to practice perceiving within the scope of happiness.
Counting on someone else to act in a certain manner will undoubtedly end
in disappointment. We should not allow ourselves to succumb to slavery
of the attitudes and behaviors of others.



This is the most difficult thing to avoid.

[jse803]

i found this post very helpful an applicable to my life.

[PeacefulSkeptic]

(24-07-2012 07:32 PM)jse803 Wrote:  i found this post very helpful an applicable to my life.

I am glad that it has helped you. This mindset has really helped me too.

[houseofcantor]

I have found it useful to reduce reality to a single core hypothesis. Once there, it becomes quite clear, the absolute reality lies in perception, and what they call "objective reality' is often an attempt of them to seek collusion in their lies.

Patterns, recognition and reinforcement. Sometimes we hold to those patterns whose reinforcement leads us to the most happiness, where we forget to question the pattern itself. Money and wealth are a promise of future's synthetic comforts, yet if one is not internally content, how is it that external contentment can be more than a fabricated stage?

I question that I love my Gwynnies. The one thing I know, as I keep trying to believe that I do not know...

[Chas]

(30-07-2012 10:36 AM)houseofcantor Wrote:  I have found it useful to reduce reality to a single core hypothesis. Once there, it becomes quite clear, the absolute reality lies in perception, and what they call "objective reality' is often an attempt of them to seek collusion in their lies.

Patterns, recognition and reinforcement. Sometimes we hold to those patterns whose reinforcement leads us to the most happiness, where we forget to question the pattern itself. Money and wealth are a promise of future's synthetic comforts, yet if one is not internally content, how is it that external contentment can be more than a fabricated stage?

I question that I love my Gwynnies. The one thing I know, as I keep trying to believe that I do not know...

If you dive off the Attleboro bridge, you're going to find it difficult to construct or perceive a reality different from the objective one.

[DLJ]

Marcus Aurelius:
“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.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”

“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.”

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

[houseofcantor]

(30-07-2012 03:41 PM)Chas Wrote:  

(30-07-2012 10:36 AM)houseofcantor Wrote:  I have found it useful to reduce reality to a single core hypothesis. Once there, it becomes quite clear, the absolute reality lies in perception, and what they call "objective reality' is often an attempt of them to seek collusion in their lies.

Patterns, recognition and reinforcement. Sometimes we hold to those patterns whose reinforcement leads us to the most happiness, where we forget to question the pattern itself. Money and wealth are a promise of future's synthetic comforts, yet if one is not internally content, how is it that external contentment can be more than a fabricated stage?

I question that I love my Gwynnies. The one thing I know, as I keep trying to believe that I do not know...

If you dive off the Attleboro bridge, you're going to find it difficult to construct or perceive a reality different from the objective one.

Broken organics would inspire "objective reality" to call Johnny dead. However, at that time, there is no Johnny.

[Chas]

(30-07-2012 05:46 PM)DLJ Wrote:  “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

No matter how hard I reject it, my leg obstinately continues to have an 18" scar, an artificial knee, a metallic prosthesis, and a chronic pain.

Happy thoughts are just that; happy thoughts.

[PeacefulSkeptic]

(30-07-2012 08:12 PM)Chas Wrote:  

(30-07-2012 05:46 PM)DLJ Wrote:  “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

No matter how hard I reject it, my leg obstinately continues to have an 18" scar, an artificial knee, a metallic prosthesis, and a chronic pain.

Happy thoughts are just that; happy thoughts.

It's not a total rejection of the pain itself. It's accepting the situation for what it is: painful.

[Mr Woof]

Rational Emotive Therapy( R.E.T) as developed by Albert Ellis, and very similar to Cognitive Therapy taught (1) Emotion follows thought. (2) I can control my thinking.
Conclusion: therefore I can control my emotions etc...wellbeing, blah, blah blah.

I agree that this therapy can be very strong, providing one does not become too much of a self serving automaton. Ellis himself said that there wasn't much point in becoming the best adjusted nut in the asylum.

Emotion is a very tricky pleasant, horrible and engaging phenomena and I personally think it unwise to become too clinical in explaining and adjusting to life.