Philosophy Forum Threads

Rich Vernadeau:
Happiness is a relative term with different meanings to different people. At the most basic level (Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs), happiness can be loosely defined as the emotional sense of satisfaction one experiences when one's basic needs are met (physically, i.e. food and shelter, socially i.e. friends, family, lover, intellectually i.e. books, movies, brain stimuli).Happiness can also be defined as the ABSENCE of adverse stimuli.

Wosret:
A man once said to the Buddha "I want happiness" to which he replied: First remove the "I", that's ego, and then remove the "want", that's desire. Now, see how you are only left with happiness?

Now some more quotes:

"There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

"The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness."

"Tame the mind. This is the greatest challenge before you. It rushes here and there, swifter than the wind, more slippery than water. If you can arrest the flights of the mind to your will, happiness will be assured to you. [Nathan: I've definitely noticed that what I'm focusing on can affect my subjective-well-being. It's like when a child falls on the ground: you can focus the child's attention on how hurt he is, and the child will start to cry, or you can distract the child with some new thing, and the child won't cry.]

The wise man takes great care to guard his thoughts. They are very subtle, very difficult to perceive and slip out of control at the tinniest opportunity. A well guarded mind brings happiness.

The earnest person is like fire. Fire burns away everything big or small. The Greatest man and the smallest are equally consumed by fire. The fire of earnestness demolishes all the vanities, passions and terrors of life."

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." 

"The wise man knows that the earnestness is the most beautiful jewel in his crown. His happiness is not marred. It is the only jewel which gains in beauty with every passing day, where diamonds and rubies lose their gloss with every passing day."

Veritas Vincit :
I often find happiness in the supposedly mundane. Scrubbing the kitchen counter; sorting my sock drawer; the (almost) daily shopping trip in the neighborhood; making my lunch to go to work; doing the weekly laundry.

Then there are small little pleasures that are perhaps mundane to some, but not to me:

Hugging a warm load of clothes, just out of the dryer. 

Marveling in the innocence of puppies and kittens. 

The taste of good whiskey late at night. 

Standing in a hot shower longer than I should.

[Nathan: He's probably referring to dopamine release? And this is yet another example of focusing your attention on something pleasant instead of focusing on something unpleasant.

John Creighton quoting EMILY ESFAHANI SMITH:
...the single-minded pursuit of happiness is ironically leaving people less happy, according to recent research. "It is the very pursuit of happiness," Frankl knew, "that thwarts happiness."