On Happiness and Meaning in Life

[Caldus]

A little piece of work I created just now because a) I am bored and felt like exploring my creative side a little more and b) I think this can help people who are searching for happiness and meaning in their lives. Give it a shot!

 

I remember the visions.

Of when the gate between the feelings of man and the metaphysical world were sealed shut.

Of when I was so convinced that I had no way of having the priviledge of being content.

If only I knew it wasn't a priviledge, but a mindset.

An ideology. A framework.

Content is man accepting what he is now.

Content is man accepting where he is.

Content is man acknowledging why.

Content is man knowing that the brain is incapable of always giving off the giddy feeling of happiness.

For a mind of perfect feelings at all times, is never present in man.

I used to think depression was a disease.

A disease that wasn't my fault.

A disease that only gets worse.

With each passing day.

Then one day, I doubted.

I doubted.

I doubted.

I doubted.

Doubt is powerful.

For it gives man time to say to himself 'hey wait a minute, something is not right here.'

Something is messed up.

Something is either disfunctional or unwilling to reveal itself regarding the matter of my disease.

So then I doubted my depression for a second.

I was still mostly thinking that I really am hopeless.

Like a fish who was in the presense of a hungry shark.

But then, something happened.

Let me be the fish for a second.

I said 'wait a minute, if I let this shark eat me. I'm done with. Gone. Nothing at all. Wiped away from existence.'

'I will become nothing but the feces of the shark and eventually break into countless pieces of matter.'

'What if, just what if, juuuuust what if, maybe there I can make it home to my family tonight? Or make it home so I can dive deeper into the intricate mysteries and fruitful joys of life?'

The what if then led me, the fish, into the question of how.

'How would I reign supreme over this beastly shark?'

'How will I rebuild.'

'How will I forgive myself for what I did? Do I even need to?'

'How will I get used to hopefulness as opposed to hopelessness?'

'I'm so used to having to battle sharks every day of my life.'

'How will I get use to the idea that sharks are nothing but laughing matter to me.'

So then, the fish in me, the animal in me, had an impulse at that second.

Animal, man, want to survive. They want to fill themselves with heavily enriched lives.

They WANT to be happy.

Isn't that crazy?

They WANT to be happy.

They don't dare think of sadness as something that is good.

For if it does not have immediate good consequences then it must be inherently bad.

So then our fish of ours thought of something.

'So then maybe my sadness is worth it in the end?'

'As compared to another fish who has never experienced sadness?'

The fish thinks long and hard.

And finally he realizes 'my sadness, my anger, my fears, my doubts, my sources of sadness are actually a huge part of what MAKE me. Or rather a huge part of how I am such a strong creature able to convince myself that a) I am merely just a fish with emotions and b) I am still able to be content after long episodes of anger. thereforeeee maybe I could be content after long episodes of sadness?.'

Our fish is still confused.

Utterly confused.

But he thinks he has an idea.

So what if he sometimes can't out-swim the shark?

Doesn't mean the shark has to eat you up if you don't out-swim it!

Sometimes it won't even see you right?

Sometimes it simply isn't hungry right?

So then the fish, obviously placing the shark in front of the mirror of depression, thinks of the shark as nothing more than a necessary evil that CAN be out-swimmed.

Fishes have more than the emotion of happiness he thinks to himself.

The sadness just happens with time.

The anger just happens with time.

But then he thinks to himself, so that must mean happiness must just happen in time.

Happiness happens.

Happiness is so good because it is something that we are not given so easily.

It's like working to get what you believe you can't have.

But then the fish says 'I don't care if I'm sad right now. I know my brain and I are working on becoming content (a subset of happiness that doesn't share all the characteristics of happiness) again even if it doesn't end up being permanent

'I know that by acknowledging this knowledge of my own being, and acknowledging my own analysis of the situation, that I am only getting closer to what I am acheiving.'

'In the meantime, I am a fish. Who is so strong for treating the threat of sharks as nothing more than something that is just there and something I can ignore.'

'So how will I rebuild?'

'After all of this mess I made in my own head?'

The answer is ... he speculates for a while ...

'Well, it sure as hell wasn't true that my own family was built in a day.'

'Nor that my whole colony was built in a day.'

'If it takes too much time, we think it's inherently too long and tedious of a task. But what if it was necessary for your own benefit?'

'Ever experienced a time when you just couldn't handle the gigantic changes?'

'In such a short period of time?'

'Well that's what this is. This is a rebuilding process. A process that aims to make me what I am capable of. A man who is content.'

'How will I forgive myself for what I did?'

Well ...

The fish couldn't think of an answer.

'So then does that mean I can't go on and rebuild?'

The second he asks he knows the answer.

NO!

You CAN go on!

You are permitted to!

They want you too!

They encourage you too!

All you have to do, the fish contemplates, is take that first step. And the rest comes with time.

That first step of wanting to rebuild.

Rebuild the new civilization in your head.

Oh such a fun task that would be eh?

Getting to build what YOU want to build.

Getting to build what YOU have always wanted to build.

The fish contemplates more.

And realizes how much room for innovation and creativity there is.

For this new civilization.

How hilarious it would be to try building a big fishing rod that humans use so that we can learn to not get ourselves caught by the rod.

How awesome it would be to try building a big portrait of our king on the seabed rocks.

How interesting it would be to try building a replica of a seabed rock.

The more the fish thinks of these things, the more he WANTS to try them.

And thereforeeee the more he WANTS to give this rebuilding business a shot.

So now we have...

A gate that has been flung open. The gate that blocks the mind from the possibilities inherent in the metaphysical world.

The gate that at first fools this fish into thinking he's nothing but bait for the shark for the rest of his life.

But when wanted to be flung open, it is eagerly flung open.

And the fish swims out of his former tight space of possibilities.

There was just no way at first that contentment was possible.

But now that we have undergone our investigation, we see that the only difficult step here is to want to rebuild the civilization of the mind.

And how hard is that to do when you are presented with these questions with which the fish came up?

The fish was simply invited to visit outside the gate.

So here we have it.

Contentment as an ideology rather than a priviledge.

Contentment as an engrainment of the mind rather than a rare occurrence.

The shark, in the end, inevitably loses the fight every time.

And the obvious observations of man and nature prove this.

You are in favor here.

You are in favor.

Now it's time to take advantage.

[Alabama]

Pretty good, but I would say it's a little long. I like it though.

[Caldus]

lol yeah it's pretty long. But worth it ... maybe ...

[Emotional]

liked it... and thanks for posting a link to

it for me~