What happiness is
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:45 pm
Even if I somehow could find happiness and good value/worth in my life being in the content mindstaste that Buddhists say, it would still be nothing in comparison to having my pleasure (good moods). This is because I experience my pleasure very powerful and profoundly. I experience powerful profound feelings of pleasure from witnessing beautiful things, listening to music, being out in nature, etc.
Therefore, since the version of happiness that Buddhists say is just a settled content state while pleasure is something way up there and is very intense, powerful, and profound, then it makes no sense to me to say that this happiness that Buddhists say is the greater and more profound thing to have. It might be a better situation since seeking pleasure causes you suffering while having this version of happiness is everlasting.
But this is just regarding the situations themselves. I am talking about the mental experiences themselves instead. I am talking about the mental experience of pleasure vs the mental experience of this version of happiness Buddhists are talking about. So in that regards, pleasure is the far more profound and great experience to have. The word "pleasure" can be a misleading term since it implies an experience that is nothing more than some orgasmic feeling such as from eating sweet food and whatnot.
So when I am talking about pleasure which is a very profound experience (our good moods), then I shouldn't even be using the word "pleasure" here anymore. I should instead use the term "sacred divine transcending life force" or "spirit energy" since my good moods are the experience of like some psychic sensing the profound life force (spirit energy) of living things, nature, art, music, and this universe.
I should also not even use the term "hedonism" either since that also implies pursuing and living for nothing but a pleasing orgasmic sensation. I should instead use the term "spiritualism" or "spiritualistic hedonism" since we are talking about an experience that is far more profound. Therefore, Buddhism is nothing compared to spiritualism since this state of content happiness that Buddhists speak of does not compare at all to this "soul-sensing, sacred divine transcending" life force of our good moods.
After all, this kind of experience is what you would expect from the Nucleus Accumbens since it is the very brain region that encourages and promotes our survival. Since we as human beings are animals hardwired for survival and since it is survival that is the very defining factor of life for us as human beings, then the surging life force of our good moods that comes from the Nucleus Accumbens is sure to be expected to be the greatest experience in life of all.
But some state of content happiness that we as human beings were never hardwired for would frankly not be any sort of grand experience at all. Tell me, would being alone with no human contact be the greatest and more profound experience in life? No! We as human beings are social animals and we are hardwired to be as such.
To restrict that and leave one completely alone in life is surely not to be any great experience at all since that goes against our very nature (hardwiring) as human beings. It is for this very reason that I think this content state of happiness that Buddhists speak of doesn't exist. The only happiness can come from our good moods. Now despite my anhedonia, I am in a settled vibrant content mindstate.
But notice how I said the word "vibrant." This is very important because this vibrancy is actually a good mood. It may not be some intense profound and powerful surging good mood like I had in the past before I developed this anhedonia, but it is a stable and constant settled down version of a good mood. If this is the form of happiness that Buddhists speak of, then I am inclined to agree that it does give some good meaning and happiness to our lives. Albeit, not as much as having my full good moods.
So I still don't see where this is supposed to be the greater and more profound experience than me having my full good moods like Buddhists say. However, in the past when I had severe depression and any moments of depression that may come to me now, this vibrancy vanishes. I am now left in a mindstate that is no longer vibrant anymore. So I no longer have my good moods at all during depression.
It is a dead and lifeless hopeless mental state in which the entire universe around me has been lowered down. But I am hearing Buddhists say that you can still have a content form of happiness in your life even while depressed. Do they mean to say that being happy has nothing to do with our good moods at all? I wholeheartedly disagree on this. We as human beings were never hardwired to live such a way. There is just no way that this can be happiness let alone a far more greater and more profound version of happiness.
If they are saying that being happy is not reliant on our brain states at all and that it instead comes from our choices in life, acceptance, and making the best of life anyway, then I completely disagree with this notion of happiness. In my entire life, my happiness was solely reliant on what mental state (mood) I am in. If I am experiencing a profound and powerful good mood or just being in the vibrant settled mental state of a good mood that I am in now, then I am happy.
I lived my entire life happy that way in the past and it was completely fullfilling and brought my life full good meaning. But if I am depressed and don't have that mental state anymore, then I am not happy. Therefore, I really think that happiness is, in fact, always our good moods and can only be our good moods. So pleasure (our good moods) and happiness are one of the same. It is solely reliant on that vibrant and powerful/profound experience of our good moods which depends upon our brain chemicals to give us it.
Tell me, would it make any sense to say that a severly crippled depressed person on the brink of suicide who is still choosing to pursue his/her goals and dreams and help others in life is happy? No. That is just nonsense! That is not happiness. That is instead something like a person having their limbs sawed off who is still struggling to survive and live. It's not happiness. Rather, it is simply a person's will to continue on in life. But that is not the same thing as happiness though.
To me, our will to continue on despite the most agonizing pain/misery is nothing at all and doesn't compare to happiness (our good moods) and living a life that is as free as possible from suffering, despair, and an absence of our good moods. The person having the will isn't experiencing any profound transcending life force of his/her good moods. He/she is just simply having nothing more than the intellectual experience of choosing to continue on in life. That is it.
It is no different than some lifeless and hopeless suffering biological machine or zombie still continuing on and continuing to strive in life. Nothing great at all about this! Not even if it was used to change the world, make the world a better place, and to help innocent people all around the world. Our wanting and liking is our good moods. If a pleasure signal gets sent to an animal's brain, then that animal gets the experience of wanting. It will want to pursue a goal or object. It is like wanting a new videogame or something new and exciting in your life.
Once it obtains it, another pleausure signal gets sent which gives the animal the experience of liking it. But it is our wanting and liking that gives happiness and good meaning to our lives. To say that it doesn't is nonsensical. For example, if you said the phrase: "I may not want this and I may not like this, but it still brings me happiness and good meaning anyway," then that is no different than saying: "I may not want this and I may not like this, but I still want it and I still like it anyway." Therefore, that is a false (contradictory) statement.
If you are living to help your family and you claim that it still brings your life happiness and good meaning even though you did not want that and did not like that, then you would actually still be wanting and liking to live for your family. You want to live for your family and you like them. Otherwise, why else would you do it? But it if it something we do not want and do not like, then it's quite obvious here that it will not bring our lives any happiness or good meaning.
Therefore, it goes without saying that we need to somehow create an eternal blissful life of no more suffering, depression, and anhedonia in the future by science and to find a way to resurrect those types of people such as me who have mostly missed out on life. I don't care how nonsensical and impossible this idea sounds. It absolutely needs to be thrown out there. There are so many people born to suffer and just die. I don't believe in a God or afterlife. So I don't think there is any afterlife for these people either. A person with a genius or great talent can be born into this world and never get the chance to share and reveal this talent to the world to inspire people due to some fatal illness that ended his/her life shortly. A great and talented singer can no longer pursue his/her singing talent that was so very profound and meaningful to him/her due to some fatal accident that permanently took his/her voice away.
It is also often said that with great and genius intelligence and creativity comes great suffering and depression since many famous and highly talented artists suffer from depression. But I say, why should it be that way? Sure, there are some who do find value in their depression and choose to make the best of their talents and lives anyway. But this doesn't hold true for too many people including me. There are many severely crippled depressed people who commit suicide and no longer find any more meaning in continuing on in life. Especially the treatment resistant depressed people. No treatment including shock therapy works at all for them and they decide the inevitable which is to end their lives. Life should not be like this and nor should it be like that for me either since I also have a great composing talent and can create epic and powerful transcending themes in my mind. We deserve a better life.
An eternal blissful one so we can enjoy our lives for all eternity. Some people would go bored or insane from such a life. But they actually couldn't because going bored and insane are a form of suffering which would already of been eliminated in an eternal blissful life of no more suffering. But those who value suffering can have it in the future when they are resurrected. If they wish to not live this life in the future and wish to just remain back in the grave, then we can kill these people by putting them permanently to sleep. But those who want eternal bliss such as me would be able to choose to have it. So if I were to somehow be resurrected to live such an eternal blissful life created by science in the future in a pretend situation, then I would definitely choose to live it.
As for how we would go about resurrecting people to live eternal blissful lives, I am not sure on this one. Perhaps find a way to make some sort of machine that can combine all atoms/particles back together again to reform me and others in such a way that they are alive again. I am not sure on this one or even if this whole idea of mine is even possible. But maybe it will be possible someday. However, I really have my doubts here. Therefore, I will share this very idea to the world one day if I ever become a famous composer and I will just leave science to figure out all the rest from there.
For me, an eternal blissful life of no more suffering is the one and only greatest life for me that I will never go bored or insane from and will find an eternal amount of immense good meaning in. All that matters is that I have my good moods for all eternity and no more suffering, depression, and anhedonia. So that is what would give my life the eternal greatest amount of good meaning in my life. I would metaphorically describe innocent people and their amazing gifts/talents as "immortal" and the greatest thing ever. Therefore, we need a life that reflects that immortality and greatness. So make me and others immortal to live eternal blissful lives so that we can finally live the lives we need to live. Lives that reflect who we are, our very personalities, our desire to be free of suffering and whatnot, and our greatness as human beings.
But without such eternal blissful lives, then we and our lives are reduced to nothing more than just us being rotting pieces of meat that will suffer only to just forever die in the end with no way to live on with only a few or very limited moments of freedom, good meaning, and greatness throughout our lives. Especially for those types of innocent people who go through the worst lives of suffering and live that way all their lives. I personally see nothing good about suffering, depression, mortality, and having an absence of our good moods. Not even if it made you more empathetic, changed the world, and did all sorts of amazing and great deeds.
Suffering, depression, mortality, and anhedonia (absence of good moods) all need to be completely wiped off of the face of this earth for good. We don't need them. We might need at least some amount of suffering in order for us to experience our good moods. But I am not sure on that one at all. Besides, science might make it as to where we can live eternally with our good moods without any suffering and without ever developing some sort of chemical tolerance to our good moods to the point where we become desensitized to them and lose them.
Therefore, since the version of happiness that Buddhists say is just a settled content state while pleasure is something way up there and is very intense, powerful, and profound, then it makes no sense to me to say that this happiness that Buddhists say is the greater and more profound thing to have. It might be a better situation since seeking pleasure causes you suffering while having this version of happiness is everlasting.
But this is just regarding the situations themselves. I am talking about the mental experiences themselves instead. I am talking about the mental experience of pleasure vs the mental experience of this version of happiness Buddhists are talking about. So in that regards, pleasure is the far more profound and great experience to have. The word "pleasure" can be a misleading term since it implies an experience that is nothing more than some orgasmic feeling such as from eating sweet food and whatnot.
So when I am talking about pleasure which is a very profound experience (our good moods), then I shouldn't even be using the word "pleasure" here anymore. I should instead use the term "sacred divine transcending life force" or "spirit energy" since my good moods are the experience of like some psychic sensing the profound life force (spirit energy) of living things, nature, art, music, and this universe.
I should also not even use the term "hedonism" either since that also implies pursuing and living for nothing but a pleasing orgasmic sensation. I should instead use the term "spiritualism" or "spiritualistic hedonism" since we are talking about an experience that is far more profound. Therefore, Buddhism is nothing compared to spiritualism since this state of content happiness that Buddhists speak of does not compare at all to this "soul-sensing, sacred divine transcending" life force of our good moods.
After all, this kind of experience is what you would expect from the Nucleus Accumbens since it is the very brain region that encourages and promotes our survival. Since we as human beings are animals hardwired for survival and since it is survival that is the very defining factor of life for us as human beings, then the surging life force of our good moods that comes from the Nucleus Accumbens is sure to be expected to be the greatest experience in life of all.
But some state of content happiness that we as human beings were never hardwired for would frankly not be any sort of grand experience at all. Tell me, would being alone with no human contact be the greatest and more profound experience in life? No! We as human beings are social animals and we are hardwired to be as such.
To restrict that and leave one completely alone in life is surely not to be any great experience at all since that goes against our very nature (hardwiring) as human beings. It is for this very reason that I think this content state of happiness that Buddhists speak of doesn't exist. The only happiness can come from our good moods. Now despite my anhedonia, I am in a settled vibrant content mindstate.
But notice how I said the word "vibrant." This is very important because this vibrancy is actually a good mood. It may not be some intense profound and powerful surging good mood like I had in the past before I developed this anhedonia, but it is a stable and constant settled down version of a good mood. If this is the form of happiness that Buddhists speak of, then I am inclined to agree that it does give some good meaning and happiness to our lives. Albeit, not as much as having my full good moods.
So I still don't see where this is supposed to be the greater and more profound experience than me having my full good moods like Buddhists say. However, in the past when I had severe depression and any moments of depression that may come to me now, this vibrancy vanishes. I am now left in a mindstate that is no longer vibrant anymore. So I no longer have my good moods at all during depression.
It is a dead and lifeless hopeless mental state in which the entire universe around me has been lowered down. But I am hearing Buddhists say that you can still have a content form of happiness in your life even while depressed. Do they mean to say that being happy has nothing to do with our good moods at all? I wholeheartedly disagree on this. We as human beings were never hardwired to live such a way. There is just no way that this can be happiness let alone a far more greater and more profound version of happiness.
If they are saying that being happy is not reliant on our brain states at all and that it instead comes from our choices in life, acceptance, and making the best of life anyway, then I completely disagree with this notion of happiness. In my entire life, my happiness was solely reliant on what mental state (mood) I am in. If I am experiencing a profound and powerful good mood or just being in the vibrant settled mental state of a good mood that I am in now, then I am happy.
I lived my entire life happy that way in the past and it was completely fullfilling and brought my life full good meaning. But if I am depressed and don't have that mental state anymore, then I am not happy. Therefore, I really think that happiness is, in fact, always our good moods and can only be our good moods. So pleasure (our good moods) and happiness are one of the same. It is solely reliant on that vibrant and powerful/profound experience of our good moods which depends upon our brain chemicals to give us it.
Tell me, would it make any sense to say that a severly crippled depressed person on the brink of suicide who is still choosing to pursue his/her goals and dreams and help others in life is happy? No. That is just nonsense! That is not happiness. That is instead something like a person having their limbs sawed off who is still struggling to survive and live. It's not happiness. Rather, it is simply a person's will to continue on in life. But that is not the same thing as happiness though.
To me, our will to continue on despite the most agonizing pain/misery is nothing at all and doesn't compare to happiness (our good moods) and living a life that is as free as possible from suffering, despair, and an absence of our good moods. The person having the will isn't experiencing any profound transcending life force of his/her good moods. He/she is just simply having nothing more than the intellectual experience of choosing to continue on in life. That is it.
It is no different than some lifeless and hopeless suffering biological machine or zombie still continuing on and continuing to strive in life. Nothing great at all about this! Not even if it was used to change the world, make the world a better place, and to help innocent people all around the world. Our wanting and liking is our good moods. If a pleasure signal gets sent to an animal's brain, then that animal gets the experience of wanting. It will want to pursue a goal or object. It is like wanting a new videogame or something new and exciting in your life.
Once it obtains it, another pleausure signal gets sent which gives the animal the experience of liking it. But it is our wanting and liking that gives happiness and good meaning to our lives. To say that it doesn't is nonsensical. For example, if you said the phrase: "I may not want this and I may not like this, but it still brings me happiness and good meaning anyway," then that is no different than saying: "I may not want this and I may not like this, but I still want it and I still like it anyway." Therefore, that is a false (contradictory) statement.
If you are living to help your family and you claim that it still brings your life happiness and good meaning even though you did not want that and did not like that, then you would actually still be wanting and liking to live for your family. You want to live for your family and you like them. Otherwise, why else would you do it? But it if it something we do not want and do not like, then it's quite obvious here that it will not bring our lives any happiness or good meaning.
Therefore, it goes without saying that we need to somehow create an eternal blissful life of no more suffering, depression, and anhedonia in the future by science and to find a way to resurrect those types of people such as me who have mostly missed out on life. I don't care how nonsensical and impossible this idea sounds. It absolutely needs to be thrown out there. There are so many people born to suffer and just die. I don't believe in a God or afterlife. So I don't think there is any afterlife for these people either. A person with a genius or great talent can be born into this world and never get the chance to share and reveal this talent to the world to inspire people due to some fatal illness that ended his/her life shortly. A great and talented singer can no longer pursue his/her singing talent that was so very profound and meaningful to him/her due to some fatal accident that permanently took his/her voice away.
It is also often said that with great and genius intelligence and creativity comes great suffering and depression since many famous and highly talented artists suffer from depression. But I say, why should it be that way? Sure, there are some who do find value in their depression and choose to make the best of their talents and lives anyway. But this doesn't hold true for too many people including me. There are many severely crippled depressed people who commit suicide and no longer find any more meaning in continuing on in life. Especially the treatment resistant depressed people. No treatment including shock therapy works at all for them and they decide the inevitable which is to end their lives. Life should not be like this and nor should it be like that for me either since I also have a great composing talent and can create epic and powerful transcending themes in my mind. We deserve a better life.
An eternal blissful one so we can enjoy our lives for all eternity. Some people would go bored or insane from such a life. But they actually couldn't because going bored and insane are a form of suffering which would already of been eliminated in an eternal blissful life of no more suffering. But those who value suffering can have it in the future when they are resurrected. If they wish to not live this life in the future and wish to just remain back in the grave, then we can kill these people by putting them permanently to sleep. But those who want eternal bliss such as me would be able to choose to have it. So if I were to somehow be resurrected to live such an eternal blissful life created by science in the future in a pretend situation, then I would definitely choose to live it.
As for how we would go about resurrecting people to live eternal blissful lives, I am not sure on this one. Perhaps find a way to make some sort of machine that can combine all atoms/particles back together again to reform me and others in such a way that they are alive again. I am not sure on this one or even if this whole idea of mine is even possible. But maybe it will be possible someday. However, I really have my doubts here. Therefore, I will share this very idea to the world one day if I ever become a famous composer and I will just leave science to figure out all the rest from there.
For me, an eternal blissful life of no more suffering is the one and only greatest life for me that I will never go bored or insane from and will find an eternal amount of immense good meaning in. All that matters is that I have my good moods for all eternity and no more suffering, depression, and anhedonia. So that is what would give my life the eternal greatest amount of good meaning in my life. I would metaphorically describe innocent people and their amazing gifts/talents as "immortal" and the greatest thing ever. Therefore, we need a life that reflects that immortality and greatness. So make me and others immortal to live eternal blissful lives so that we can finally live the lives we need to live. Lives that reflect who we are, our very personalities, our desire to be free of suffering and whatnot, and our greatness as human beings.
But without such eternal blissful lives, then we and our lives are reduced to nothing more than just us being rotting pieces of meat that will suffer only to just forever die in the end with no way to live on with only a few or very limited moments of freedom, good meaning, and greatness throughout our lives. Especially for those types of innocent people who go through the worst lives of suffering and live that way all their lives. I personally see nothing good about suffering, depression, mortality, and having an absence of our good moods. Not even if it made you more empathetic, changed the world, and did all sorts of amazing and great deeds.
Suffering, depression, mortality, and anhedonia (absence of good moods) all need to be completely wiped off of the face of this earth for good. We don't need them. We might need at least some amount of suffering in order for us to experience our good moods. But I am not sure on that one at all. Besides, science might make it as to where we can live eternally with our good moods without any suffering and without ever developing some sort of chemical tolerance to our good moods to the point where we become desensitized to them and lose them.