By Dr. Jonathan Isibor –
What is happiness? Can we create or achieve real happiness in our present state of living?
How do we go about attracting it to ourselves? Or is happiness an elusive concept? Is our happiness in life dependent on the larger society or vice-versa?
What are those things that could conduce to happiness in life? Can wealth buy us happiness?
What role has religion to play in harmonizing our path to happiness? Who creates happiness, Man or God?
These are just a few of the several questions that would normally task the wandering mind of man as he meditates upon the topic of this article.
Most people probably don’t believe we need a formal definition of happiness; we know it when we feel it, and we often use the term to describe a range of positive emotions, including joy, pride, contentment, and gratitude.
However, there is still need to define this term in order to understand the causes and effects of happiness.
Happiness is one of such concepts that do not have rigid definitions for the simple reason that it can mean so many things to as many as those wanting to define it.
It is an abstract ideal. There is no fixed happiness; no one state by which the other kinds of happiness can be measured.
I was told sometime ago that what man may consider constitutes happiness may actually be the cause of unhappiness to his life.
A sage once affirmed that “happiness is hard to acquire and easy to lose if it consists of so many things”.
Man by his nature has so many desires. These desires are primarily the drives for sustenance and security, which are essential to the preservation of life.
Unfortunately millions never get beyond their desires. They never attain satisfaction of these desires.
This is either due to environment condition and wrong placement of their priorities, or the fact that very harsh and oppressive economy stands between them and their aspirations.
If any social scientist were to investigate that which constitutes happiness to people and the way and manner of achieving it, he would be amazed to hear as many diverse responses as possible!
It may be true that what defines happiness differs from person to person. It may also be true that everyone has freedom of choice to attract happiness to him or herself.
We must however realize that this choice of what constitutes happiness to us, the craving for satisfaction or the survival instinct in us, must not put the lives of others or the overall interest of the larger society in jeopardy.
Happiness seems to elude most persons because even when they have a desire or an objective in mind, they lack that sense of direction and sometimes choose the wrong channels for achieving their desired goals in life.
Now, let me attempt to put the term “Happiness” in its proper classification. Thinkers, including the Greek philosopher, Epicurus, define happiness as pleasure.
The nature of pleasure has been a philosophical inquiry for centuries. Whatever constitutes the ideal of pleasure to the individual add to his happiness.
The proof of this is that no one who experiences pleasure is at the same time unhappy.
Epicurus recognized two types of pleasure. Firstly, because man is a biological entity, he needs to satisfy certain biological functions.
For instance, when man feels the pangs of hunger, he takes in some food to quench the hunger, thereby deriving some pleasure.
Also, when the skin irritates him, he soon creates pleasure for himself by scratching his skin in order to remove the itch.
These kinds of pleasure are what the platonic philosopher refers to as negative pleasure.
Such sensual pleasure gratifies very limited, restricted needs. They have a definite point or threshold of satiation.
For example, one can consume only a certain quantity of food. When that is done, one no longer derives pleasure in eating.
Anything beyond this threshold may cause constipation! Also, when the itch on the skin is gone and one continues to scratch his skin, the pleasure soon gives way to a bleeding skin.
No wonder that Ralph Maxwell Lewis, former Imperator of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, once wrote that: “What you think constitutes happiness can be the cause of unhappiness”.
The second type of pleasure is what the Greeks have termed positive pleasure. These are sought in themselves rather than the mere removal of an irritation.
For example, the gratification of intellectual functions is quite different from that of an appetite.
A person who finds pleasure in mystical or intellectual pursuits experiences a proportionately increasing desire.
In order words, the pleasure stimulates the emotional or intellectual urge. The scientist, the sculptor, the playwright, or the accomplished musician or first-class athlete is encouraged to do more work when he realizes the success of a previous work.
Through this he develops an unquenchable or unlimited zeal for further exploits!
Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of “The How of Happiness” describes happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”
So far in this article, we have come to see that:
- All men have the same destination in life, and that is to live a happy life, but the path to take to it may differ.
- Happiness is hard to acquire and easy to lose if it consists of so many things.
- There appears to be two types of pleasure namely, negative pleasures and positive pleasures.
I’ll now try to highlight some of men’s attitudes which tend to create unhappiness for him.
Firstly, I recognize that most persons want to keep up with the Joneses. Some would even want to attain their desired status in life by hook or by crook!
Most persons fail to realize that happiness is not measured merely by comparison and material gain.
Happiness that is gained at the expense of the feelings of someone else is shallow.
Secondly, the greatest catastrophe that befalls most of humanity is the fact that man seeks sensuous pleasures with the vain hope that these pleasures will still the psychic causes of unrest within them.
They want tranquility, a peace within, but associate the satisfaction of these goals with an appetite or passion.
We are all guilty of the pursuits of particulars. We seek to find in things that lasting pleasure which constitutes happiness.
But the sages have told us, and we learn, that the more worldly possessions we have, the more burdensome become our responsibilities.
Recently, I was reading a book titled, “A Mystical piece of my mind”, written by Johnson Ladipo, Late Vice-President of the National Board of AMORC, Nigeria. I came across an interesting and sad report which I will now share with you.
Way back in 1923 in Chicago, U.S.A, a very important meeting was held at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, and attended by the world’s most successful financiers.
Those present were:
- The President of the largest independent steel company-Charles Scwab;
- The President of the largest utility company-Samuel Insull;
- The President of the largest gas company-Howard Hopson;
- The greatest wheat speculator-Arthur Cutten;
- The President of the New York Stock Exchange- Richard Whitney;
- A member of the President’s cabinet-Albert Fall;
- The greatest “bear” in Wall Street-Jesse Livermore;
- The head of the greatest monopoly in the world-Ivar Knieger;
- The President of the Bank of International Settlements-Leon Fraser;
These, indeed, were men who had found the secret of “making money”. But twenty-five years later, their story was a collective tale of woes and horror.
- Charles Scwab died a bankrupt and lived on borrowed money for five years before his death.
- Samuel Insull died a fugitive from justice and penniless in a foreign land.
- Howard Hopson became insane.
- Arthur Cutten died abroad, insolvent.
- Richard Whitney was released from Sin Sing Penitentiary.
- Albert Fall was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.
- Jesse Livermore died a suicide.
- Ivar Knieger died a suicide.
- Leon Fraser committed suicide.
All of these men learned well the art of making money, but not one of them learned how to live. As we can see, the events just related happened several years ago.
But has man learnt his lessons? We have been spectators and sometimes active participants in national and international politics.
We have seen how some persons, fortunate to be assigned responsible positions in government amass wealth to themselves through misappropriation of public funds. They erroneously believe that they can create happiness for themselves by this means!
Some of us are blessed with material benefits, rise to high social status, and struggle to assume political power while others successfully make their way high up the academic ladder.
All these achievements do not really show our greatness if such God-given blessings and talents are not used to bring happiness and comfort to others.
Unfortunately, out of sheer self-centeredness, many of us assume bloated egos and instead use our blessings to the discomfort of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Greatness is not how important we look to others, but rather how important we make them feel.
How do you relate to people around you? Do you make your presence a blessing for those with whom you come into contact, or do you make them curse the day they met you? (….this article will be continued next week…..)
Dr. Jonathan Isibor is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State of Nigeria. He can be reached at: joe_isibor@yahoo.com
