Life is already complicated. It truly is. We all come to this existence with no recipe, no formula to tells us how to live or where to go. There is absolutely no one that has ever lived and began his life knowing how life should unfold.
That is what amazes me: we all come to this existence with no compass, no promises, and nothing for granted.
Check that last part — we actually have one guarantee in life: suffering.
Think about it for a second. Suffering is not something predetermined within the reality we inhabit. But neither is happiness. Yet, in contrast to suffering, our systems have been put into place with the promise of happiness.
In the US Declaration of Independence, it is written that all humans have unalienable rights, the famous three: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
I am curious about the last one — happiness. Thomas Jefferson wrote that God gave us the right to chase happiness.
When he wrote down these words, he paved a road that has marked countless lives. We all accepted the notion that we must be happy all the time.
The only way of achieving happiness was through a chase.
Even deeper, when Thomas Jefferson said it is our God-Given right to pursue happiness, we would be doing Him wrong by not doing so.
But my intrigue comes from the fact that all this chasing leads nowhere.
Pursuing happiness won’t get us happier.
Quite the opposite, it always leads to suffering.
This is because chasing happiness is not the reason we are here on Earth.
It is not the reason God created us.
For that matter, chasing anything is a trap.
When one expects for something and it ends up not happening, it leads to suffering.
Let’s take a step back and think about our society as a whole — the way we raise our children, the use of our smartphones and social media, our relationships — those that are romantic, those that are written with blood, and friendships.
Would it be possible if, instead of thinking we must be happy, we should just be? what impact would this have in our everyday lives? Would suffering be less in the world?
Obviously it goes without saying that this is not an argument to stop real suffering in the world — the one that emerges from hunger, abuse, violence. . . despair as a whole.
I believe that if we notch down the idea of chasing happiness we will be in a much favorable position to help those who need real help.
This is because we are no longer meta-suffering.
We are no longer chained to our expectations of how life should be and we begin to see life as it is.
Our lenses become clearer, sharper, and more honest. We stop lying to ourselves as we begin to see ourselves. When we live in two different worlds — those being our expectations of life and real life — we cannot impact the real world the same way we’d be doing so if all our attention is in the real world.
Instead of chasing happiness, accept that it is not the reason we are on Earth.
That way, paradoxically, leads you to feel true Happiness.
