Life
is meaningless and purposeless if happiness is absent. The truth of the matter
is that many people are unhappy. So, the leading question is: what makes you
happy?
It
is also a myth that happiness is something that can be pursued with willpower
and effort. The Bible rightly says that pursuing happiness is “like chasing the
wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
Effort
does not necessarily bring happiness; it only creates the illusion of an
environment conducive to creating temporary happiness.
One
may work diligently in one’s career to excel and to get to the top of the
profession only to find that one has a terminal illness, or has incurred a
debilitating accident. To illustrate, Joe
Paterno the former Penn State football coach, whose reputation ruined by a
sexual abuse scandal at the peak of his career, was fired, and died shortly of
cancer; Steve Job, the co-founder of
Apple computers, had his life cut short by pancreatic cancer at the height of
his successful business career. Extra effort does not always pay off.
Pursuing
happiness may be only a fantasy fueled by temporary moments of happiness,
because aging, illnesses, misfortunes, and ultimately death plague all alike;
in other words, impermanence cuts short all human efforts to bring
happiness. We are all aware of the fact that impermanence is a leveler of
everybody and everything, but many of us still choose to delude ourselves into
thinking otherwise. Denial only fosters the myth that if there is a will there
must be a way to attaining happiness, and that all it requires is human effort
to make any dream come true.
The
truth of the matter is that true happiness is, surprisingly, effortless,
because it comes from within, and not from without; it is part of self, and is
natural to human life and existence. But it won't come unless you have the wisdom to let go. Letting go of all human attachments to the material world. You must let go first, before you can receive. It's just that simple.
Stephen Lau
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