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Self Improvement > Happiness > A Theory of Happiness
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Evan Lyn
1. It seems that over 90% of the world is unhappy.
2. Most people seem to want money, and spend much of their lives trying to make money, because they think money will make them happy.
3. But many people with money are not happy; rich people still divorce, have problems with their children, get cheated out of their money, worry about losing money, and want to make even more money. They appear only slightly happier than poorer people.
4. Is happiness possible? And if so, where is it?
Part 1. The Material & Immaterial – “What we want is not material, but immaterial.”
A great majority of people seem to view money as the primary goal and instrument to achieving happiness. Money is the near universal means for the acquisition of almost all material things on our planet today. If you want clothes, you need money. If you want a car, house, diamonds, land, or anything material on this planet, you need money. Money is the symbol of the material world.
According to my analysis, people do not desire money itself, but they desire it because they think money will fulfill one or more deeper objectives. Nobody wants money unless they can exchange it for something now or at a later date. The five most common objectives I have observed so far are: security, comfort, fun, respect, and power. A person who wants to live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, may be seeking security and comfort. A person who wants to travel a lot may be seeking fun. A person who wants to be treated better and liked by more people because of the money they have, may be seeking respect. A person who wants to be able to “do whatever they want,” or make people do what they want them to do, may be seeking power. Note that these objectives are often intertwined: a nice house may not only fulfill a desire for security, but also desires for comfort, and respect.
Security, reduced to its most basic fundamentals, is simply the goal to survive, to live. People desire security because they want to live, and don’t want to die. So when a person buys bread, it is not actually because they want the bread per se, but because they want to live. When a person buys a nicer car, it is not because they want the car per se, but because they want to drive more comfortably, have more fun, or look better. So whenever a person uses money to buy a material thing, it’s actually not just for the thing itself, but for a deeper objective. It is this deeper objective that the person desires, and not the money or the things that money can buy.
But security, comfort, fun, respect, and power – all these things are immaterial in nature. (Another word for immaterial is spiritual, which just means you can’t see it.) They are invisible. You can’t see, touch, or use any of the other senses to grasp them; they are not material things you can simply go to a store and just buy. You can only feel them, because they do not exist in the outer world. They are states of being that you feel inside your heart, and that you can feel in the hearts of others. Feeling safe, comfortable, fun, respected, or powerful is a state of being. If you desire security, comfort, fun, respect, or power, you desire a state of being, and not actually the material thing itself.
And people desire more of these things because they feel a lack of them – they don’t feel they have enough of these things. They are unsatisfied with how safe, comfortable, fun, respected, or powerful they feel in their lives.
To be continued...
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