Winston wrote:
Thus we must be meant to be striving. It's the natural order of things.
It does seem true though, cause whenever I feel completely fulfilled, and everything is perfect, and I have the love of the woman that makes me feel like I'm on cloud 9, etc. it always disappears soon after, leaving me deflated. so even if you find compete fulfillment, it's like the universe is always ruining it, returning you to "striving mode" again. Funny how that works.
Yes Winston, it does appear that we are not meant to be happy in the common way we understand happy. We are meant to be striving and we strive for the sake of striving, because it is our nature to do so.
Speaking of philosophy (you can skip the rest of this post if philosophy doesn't interest you) there is a great literature book Candide by the French writer Voltaire, a fun, humerous little book that in its 120 pages captures the entire philosophical search of the west and the genius of the east too.
Candide is a frenchman who has a philosophy teacher named Pangloss who keeps inisisting that everything always happens for the best, kind of like a new age guru would. Candide falls in love with a beautiful woman Curmengone but due to a comedy of errors he loses her, she is whisked away to another part of the world. So he goes in search of her and travels far and wide. Along the way he picks up a travel companion by the name of Martin, a dour Schopenhauerian German who insists the opposite of Pangloss, that we human beings cannot be happy, whatever is our life situation we will find a way to be unhappy with it.
They have many adventures, stumble into money, spend it, all the while on the trail of Curmengone. They meet many people, rich, poor, in many different stations of life and they all seem to echo Martin's theory, while Pangloss continues to insist that it is all for the best. Eventually Candide, Martin, Pangloss and the rest of his motley crew do find Curmengone; she is serving as a maid in a village in Turkey and they are able to rescue her.
To Candide's shock she now has turned horribly ugly, time has not been kind to her. But he still marries her anyway because otherwise that would have been an awful waste of effort. In the Turkish village they find a sufi saint to whom they pose the same two questions. Does everything happen for the best and can human beings be happy? But the saint has no interest in these questions and just slams the door in their face. Weary with exhasperation they encounter a Turkish farmer and pose the same questions to him too. He replies hey I don't know and I don't spend time thinking about these things. I tend to my farm to look after my two daughters who will be getting married soon.
So they settle down in that small village in Turkey. They have now spent most of their money but have enough to buy a small farm and set up a small bakery. Curmengone has not only turned ugly but she is now horribly cranky too but she can manage the bakery well and everyone gets busy doing whatever work they can to help out.
So in the proper Zen way both Pangloss and Martin turn out to be right and wrong simultaneously. Pangloss' assessment that everything happens for the best seems threadbare given where they have ended up. But from an inverted more eastern perspective it seems right. They have stopped searching, they have come to find the best in whatever happens, to accept their Karma.
Martin's assessment that nobody can ever be happy seems correct given their day to day experience and the stories of the people they have encountered along the way. And yet, even though their life continues to have its share of hassles they are all immensely enriched for the experiences they have had and get contentment from the companionship with each other.
When his philosopher friends bring up their beliefs again Candide now only says, look I don't know any big answers but I do know this. Work banishes the three evils of poverty, boredom and vice (the last at least during the time you are working!) and I have to go work in the garden.
Beautiful.
There was a thread somewhere on boring asian people who don't seem interested in existential issues or cultural issues ether. But you can see what is going on. The East has understood that the search is futile. We all have to live out our natures, that is all we can do. They know that going on the search can lead you to unhappy spaces of aridness and despair. So why waste time and energy on it?
Instead most Asian (South and East) cultures give you a life template with a set of rights and responsibilities. In taking care of your duties you are occupied and find meaning. That is all. Most are content with this and don't ask existential questions, some because they don't find it interesting, others because almost instinctively they know that these questions are futile and would rather spend their energy elsewhere. So if these questions interest you then these people will certainly seem boring.
