Everybody is looking for something. Sometimes it's fortune, sometimes recognition. Sometimes we are looking for professional achievements, sometimes we are looking for personal achievements. But everybody is looking for happiness at the end.
I have noticed that we look desperately for happiness, every time, by looking around and outside us, but rarely looking for it inside us. We want to have money to have power in order to be envied or admired by people. We want to receive recognition to everything we do to have our ego fed and feel better about ourselves compared to other people. We want to achieve things professionally, to be seen by other people as a successful person, even when we are doing something we hate. Many dream to get married and have a family to be seen also as successful in their personal lives, even when they are not prepared for the commitment that this implies. In the middle of all of this, I wonder where we will find happiness when everything we do is based on the way other people see us. How about how you see yourself?
We will probably not be able to find happiness in it's totality, because no one on Earth is 100% happy, although many people try to sell this image. There is always a big difference between to SEEM happy and to BE happy, and the more I look around, the more I realise how much effort people make to seem something they are really not. To seem happier than they are or to seem better than they are. I always wondered the reason why human beings tend to think this is necessary...it intrigues me! People sometimes get to the extreme of not being able to give a compliment or to admit that someone is better at something, because they don't want to feel less than those people. But the only one who says they are less than those people are them to themselves. In my point of view, we will never be less than someone by giving a compliment or by admiring that person for the right reasons. It only shows that this person is secure with themselves and mature to be able to give a sincere compliment to someone who deserves it and to admit they are better at something than he or she is, without making them doubt themselves or envy the other person.
Sometimes people can pretend to not know or to not have seen someone's success or someone's talents just to not have to admit to the world that it's there and they have seen it! Why do people feel the need to act in this prideful way? Do you feel this need yourself?
Sometimes people can pretend to not know or to not have seen someone's success or someone's talents just to not have to admit to the world that it's there and they have seen it! Why do people feel the need to act in this prideful way? Do you feel this need yourself?
I am copying two messages from chapter 5 of the book Gospel according to Spiritism here, because I think they are very important and powerful messages to make us think about happiness and other issues we have as human beings. You can read this book for free here Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter 5
Peace!
Mrs. P
VOLUNTARY TORMENTS
Man is incessantly searching for happiness which always escapes him, because pure happiness does not exist here on Earth. However, despite the vicissitudes which form an inevitable procession throughout earthly life, he may at least enjoy relative happiness, if he does not search for it within perishable things subject to the same vicissitudes, that is to say within material enjoyments, instead of seeking it within the delights of the soul. The only real happiness of this world is to be found in heartfelt peace. But Man shows himself avid for all things which agitate and perturb. It is really quite strange! It seems that, while it is possible to avoid problems, Man purposely creates torments for himself.
Are there any worse torments than those created by envy and jealousy? For those who are envious or jealous there is no rest; they suffer a state of perpetual fever. The possessions of others cause sleepless nights; the success of rivals provoke giddiness; emulation, in their eyes, is epitomized in eclipsing those around them; all their happiness consists in provoking a rage of jealousy in those as imprudent as themselves. Poor foolish beings they are indeed! Never imagining that tomorrow they will perhaps have to leave behind all these trifles, the covetousness of which has poisoned their lives. The words: 'Blessed are the afflicted for they shall be consoled' certainly do not apply to these, seeing that their preoccupations are not those which receive deserving recompense in Heaven.
On the other hand, many torments will be avoided by those who are content with what they have, who can see things they do not possess without envy, and who do not try to appear better than they are. These will be constantly rich since, by looking below oneself, it is always possible to see others with less than ourselves. These kind of people are calm because they do not create imaginary necessities for themselves. Is calmness then not a happiness in the midst of the turmoil of life? - FÉNELON (Leon, 1860).
Are there any worse torments than those created by envy and jealousy? For those who are envious or jealous there is no rest; they suffer a state of perpetual fever. The possessions of others cause sleepless nights; the success of rivals provoke giddiness; emulation, in their eyes, is epitomized in eclipsing those around them; all their happiness consists in provoking a rage of jealousy in those as imprudent as themselves. Poor foolish beings they are indeed! Never imagining that tomorrow they will perhaps have to leave behind all these trifles, the covetousness of which has poisoned their lives. The words: 'Blessed are the afflicted for they shall be consoled' certainly do not apply to these, seeing that their preoccupations are not those which receive deserving recompense in Heaven.
On the other hand, many torments will be avoided by those who are content with what they have, who can see things they do not possess without envy, and who do not try to appear better than they are. These will be constantly rich since, by looking below oneself, it is always possible to see others with less than ourselves. These kind of people are calm because they do not create imaginary necessities for themselves. Is calmness then not a happiness in the midst of the turmoil of life? - FÉNELON (Leon, 1860).
(Message from the book Gospel according to Spiritism, chapter 5 "Blessed are the afflicted", item 23)
HAPPINESS IS NOT OF THIS WORLD
Mankind in general, from all walks of society, is constantly complaining either that he is not happy, or that happiness was not made for him. This, dear brothers and sisters, proves better than any possible form of reasoning the truth of the maxim from the book of Ecclesiastics: 'Happiness is not of this world.' Indeed, not riches, power or even the blossom of youth are essential conditions for happiness. Furthermore, not even by uniting these three elements, so desired by many, can happiness be assured because we are constantly hearing of people of all ages, even those from the most privileged classes, bitterly complaining of the situation in which they find themselves.
Before this fact it is inconceivable that the militant and working classes envy, with great anxiety, the positions of those who are apparently favoured by fortune. In this world, despite what anyone can do, each must face his own part of work and misery, his quota of suffering and deceptions, from which it is easy to reach the conclusion that the Earth is a planet of trials and atonement.
So then, those who preach that the Earth is Man's only home, and that it is here during only one existence he must reach the highest level of happiness possible to his nature, are merely deluding themselves and those who listen to them, seeing that it has been demonstrated through multi-secular experiences that only in exceptional cases can this globe offer the necessary conditions for complete happiness for any one individual. In general terms, it is possible to affirm that happiness is a Utopia, whose conquest has been striven after by successive generations without them ever having been able to reach their objective. If the sensible man or woman is a rarity in the world, then the absolutely happy person has never been found.
Happiness on Earth consists of something so fleeting for those who are not guided by wisdom, that but for a year, a month or a week of complete satisfaction the rest of their existence is a series of bitter deceptions. And note, dear children, that I refer to those who are considered the lucky ones of the Earth, those who are the envy of the masses.
Consequently, if the earthly dwelling-place is specifically for trials and atonement, then we are forced to admit that somewhere there are more favourable dwelling places where the Spirit, although still a prisoner in a material body, may possess the delights of human life in all its fullness. This is the reason why God has planted those beautiful superior planets in your vortex, towards which your efforts and tendencies will one day cause you to gravitate, when you have become sufficiently purified and perfected.
However, do not deduce from my words that the Earth is perpetually destined to remain a penitentiary. No, certainly not! From the progress that has already been achieved we may readily infer further progression, and from the various social betterments obtained, new and more fertile improvements. This is the immense task allotted to this new doctrine which the Spirits have revealed.
So then, dear children, may you be animated by a saintly emulation so that you may energetically change your ways. Everyone should dedicate themselves to the propagation of Spiritism, which has already begun your own regeneration. It is your duty to help your brothers and sisters to participate in the rays of this sacred light. Accordingly set to work, dear children! Let us hope that within this solemn reunion all hearts may aspire to this great objective, which is to prepare a world for future generations where the word happiness is no longer meaningless. - FRANÇOIS-NICOLAS-MADELEINE, Cardinal MORLOT (Paris, 1863).
(Message from the book Gospel according to Spiritism, chapter 5 "Blessed are the afflicted", item 20)
Before this fact it is inconceivable that the militant and working classes envy, with great anxiety, the positions of those who are apparently favoured by fortune. In this world, despite what anyone can do, each must face his own part of work and misery, his quota of suffering and deceptions, from which it is easy to reach the conclusion that the Earth is a planet of trials and atonement.
So then, those who preach that the Earth is Man's only home, and that it is here during only one existence he must reach the highest level of happiness possible to his nature, are merely deluding themselves and those who listen to them, seeing that it has been demonstrated through multi-secular experiences that only in exceptional cases can this globe offer the necessary conditions for complete happiness for any one individual. In general terms, it is possible to affirm that happiness is a Utopia, whose conquest has been striven after by successive generations without them ever having been able to reach their objective. If the sensible man or woman is a rarity in the world, then the absolutely happy person has never been found.
Happiness on Earth consists of something so fleeting for those who are not guided by wisdom, that but for a year, a month or a week of complete satisfaction the rest of their existence is a series of bitter deceptions. And note, dear children, that I refer to those who are considered the lucky ones of the Earth, those who are the envy of the masses.
Consequently, if the earthly dwelling-place is specifically for trials and atonement, then we are forced to admit that somewhere there are more favourable dwelling places where the Spirit, although still a prisoner in a material body, may possess the delights of human life in all its fullness. This is the reason why God has planted those beautiful superior planets in your vortex, towards which your efforts and tendencies will one day cause you to gravitate, when you have become sufficiently purified and perfected.
However, do not deduce from my words that the Earth is perpetually destined to remain a penitentiary. No, certainly not! From the progress that has already been achieved we may readily infer further progression, and from the various social betterments obtained, new and more fertile improvements. This is the immense task allotted to this new doctrine which the Spirits have revealed.
So then, dear children, may you be animated by a saintly emulation so that you may energetically change your ways. Everyone should dedicate themselves to the propagation of Spiritism, which has already begun your own regeneration. It is your duty to help your brothers and sisters to participate in the rays of this sacred light. Accordingly set to work, dear children! Let us hope that within this solemn reunion all hearts may aspire to this great objective, which is to prepare a world for future generations where the word happiness is no longer meaningless. - FRANÇOIS-NICOLAS-MADELEINE, Cardinal MORLOT (Paris, 1863).
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