Is anyone really happy? Is it all a facade?

[Winston]

Is anyone really happy? Or is it all a facade? Are happy emotions real? Or is happiness like a hospital IV fluid that has to be constantly pumped into you to ward off misery, sadness and negativity?

Are those who claim to be happy simply constantly "pumping" themselves with positive emotions and thoughts everyday (like fuel in a car) in order to "feel happy" and function well, lest the "dark side" of themselves take over and fill them with sadness, negativity and depression? If so, is it all authentic? Do these positive folks know that negative emotions are waiting around the corner for them?

Why is it that one has to "work at it" to keep positive, whereas to be negative, you don't have to "work at it" at all. It's like a natural disposition you automatically slide into unless you do something to prevent it. Why is that?

Questions:

Do most people you know who have good jobs look genuinely happy and joyout on their faces when you see them?

Do most people you know who are "happily married" and raising "wonderful families" look genuinely happy and joyout on their faces when you see them?

Do most people you know who are successful look genuinely happy and joyout on their faces when you see them?

Do most people you know who are well off look genuinely happy and joyout on their faces when you see them?

Is someone who has a "normal life" - work, has family to raise, owns a home, is settled down - happier than someone who is an independent wanderer with no roots planted?

What do you think?

Winston

[Billy]

happy guys would probably won´t show it as there is to much jelousy. when feeling happy one has to keep it mostly secret. yes life is shit and unreal and where is lavezzi when you need him?

[lavezzi]

True happiness is an inner state of being which is independent from external circumstances. The kind of happiness one finds in external circumstances (i.e. relationships, money, prestige, travel etc.) is nothing but a temporary distraction from one's inner state of unhappiness characterized by fears, desires, expectations, conflicts etc. all of which are caused by the delusion whereby one operates under the false assumption of "I am a person".

We tend to think we're people, when really this is a mirage. If I pick up a physical object, say for example a cup, and proclaim "this is a cup", this is also how we incorrectly tend to think and feel about ourselves. If I say "I am" followed by my name, my body, my thoughts, my past, my future or anything I could possibly say about myself, all of these are objects in awareness, just like the cup or anything else "external". An object cannot perceive itself so we cannot be an object. Believing yourself to be an object i.e. a person, is the root of ego, and ego is the root of fear.

When you operate from a position of fear, your instincts totally run the show and you are very vulnerable to be programmed with all kinds of beliefs about yourself and the world, which will inevitably result in inner conflicts and cause suffering. As I've previously explained, there is absolutely no way to separate objects in awareness, outside of simple belief. So it is overcoming the belief in separation which leads us to ultimate happiness.

[Billy]

but overcoming ego means death. so happiness is not possible.

[lavezzi]

but overcoming ego means death. so happiness is not possible.

Overcoming ego means surpassing the belief that it is inherently real, rather than simply a mental construct useful only in facilitating convenient social interaction. We define our experiences through a filter of subjective beliefs rather than for how they truly are, therein lies the cause of our problems.

Life is marginally different for anyone in actual experience; we each have a body which enables us to move around, see, touch, smell, hear and taste various sensory data through our awareness. Yet even with this being the case, we believe we are each living highly differentiated lives. These differences lie solely in the conditioned interpretations with which we have been programmed to perceive things. We were not born with such beliefs, therefore they're not essential to us and can be overcome.

The reason we tend to cling to our beliefs rather than attempt to overcome them is because we are under the impression they offer us salvation rather than severe hindrance. Society operates on an imaginary reward system; we are conditioned from birth with fundamental ideas about what is good/bad, desirable/undesirable etc. all pertaining to our conception of ourselves relative to others. Once we possess belief in ego as a fundamental reality, our instincts are channelled into the aforementioned illusory reward system and it fuels our desires, fears, beliefs etc. everything that drives us forward in life and keeps us in a never-ending cycle.

Fear is what locks us into our false systems of programmed belief, so it is only by surpassing fear do we come to find ultimate salvation and true happiness. Our fears highlight the illusory nature in which we operate. As human organisms, we experience fear as an instinct which serves to aid and ensure survive; to ward off physical threats and prevent starvation. However, these dangers are mostly not relevant to our experience, and even if they were, we possess the rational intellect and high levels of self-awareness to deal with them.

Our instincts are unnecessary to us, yet we operate in accordance with them habitually. Our true purpose in life is to raise our consciousness i.e. overcoming redundant instincts, which means acquiring an objective perception of reality rather than a subjective one. Our perception is made up of our fundamental beliefs, which drives our thought processes. By observing our thoughts we get a picture of how ruled we are by fear (desires, beliefs, ego, expectations etc. are all the same thing, rooted in and dependent on the conditioned, instinctual mind; the lower self).

The more you raise your consciousness, the less fear rules you; self-consciousness is dramatically reduced, and life begins to feel like a virtual reality (which it basically is) and every day life becomes enjoyable regardless of what happens.