About True Happiness
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About True Happiness
Aristotel about happiness, Excellence (aretē) and Wellbeing (Eudaimonia)
The central concept of Aristotel's philosophy is within the words: Eudaimonia (Greek: εὐδαιμονία), that consists of the words 'eu' = good and 'daimōn' = spirit and 'aretē' that is often translated as 'moral' but in reality means 'done with excellence'.
Aristotel in Nicomachean Ethics says '...if any action is well performed it is performed in accord with the appropriate 'excellence': if this is the case, then 'εὐδαιμονία' turns out to be an activity of the soul that is in-tuned with virtue.'
According to Aristotle, 'εὐδαιμονία' (wellbeing or long-term happiness) is achieved when during the life-time a human being achieves health, wealth, knowledge, friends and this in turn leads to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. For Aristotle, 'εὐδαιμονία' involves activity, exhibiting 'aretē' (excellence) in accordance with reason.
Eudaimonia implies a positive and divine state of being that a human being is able to achieve.
Esoteric teachings of Golden Citizens of Ancient Greece
Confucius about True Individual, Family and Social Happiness
Confucius also sees the 'true happiness' first within an individual, then within a family and finally within a society. His wise words resonate within all of us:
'To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.'
Explaining this divine state of being that a human being strives towards, Confucius said that one should cultivate:
'Courtesy, generosity, honesty, persistence, and kindness.
If you are courteous, you will not be disrespected;
if you are generous, you will gain everything.
If you are honest, people will rely on you.
If you are persistent you will get results.
If you are kind, you can employ people.'
'Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.'
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching About True Happiness in One-self and Humanity
'For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character'
Steiner about Human Character and Happiness
Sri Aurobindo
'When we have passed beyond knowings, then we shall have Knowledge. Reason was the helper; Reason is the bar. When we have passed beyond willings, then we shall have Power. Effort was the helper; Effort is the bar. When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have Bliss. Desire was the helper; Desire is the bar.
When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar. When we have passed beyond humanity, then we shall be the Man. The Animal was the helper; the Animal is the bar. Transform reason into ordered intuition; let all thyself be light. This is thy goal. Transform effort into an easy and sovereign overflowing of the soul-strength; let all thyself be conscious force. This is thy goal. Transform enjoying into an even and objectless ecstasy; let all thyself be bliss. This is thy goal. Transform the divided individual into the world-personality; let all thyself be the divine. This is thy goal. Transform the Animal into the Driver of the herds; let all thyself be Krishna. This is thy goal.'
Thoughts and Glimpses'
Leo Tolstoy
'Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.'
Leo Tolstoy about True Happiness
'Happiness is a how, not a what. A talent, not an object'
Herman Hesse on Happiness
'Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.'
Mahatma Gandhi on Happiness
“No one can flatter himself that he is immune to the spirit of his own epoch, or even that he possesses a full understanding of it. Irrespective of our conscious convictions, each one of us, without exception, being a particle of the general mass, is somewhere attached to, colored by, or even undermined by the spirit which goes through the mass. Freedom stretches only as far as the limits of our consciousness.” Jung
.”..the relatively unconscious man driven by his natural impulses because, imprisoned in his familiar world, he clings to the commonplace, the obvious, the probable, the collectively valid, using for his motto: 'Thinking is difficult. Therefore, let the herd pronounce judgement.'
Flying Saucers1959, C.G. Jung
“We are living in what the Greeks called the right time for a "metamorphosis of the gods," i.e. of the fundamental principles and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science.” The Undiscovered Self, Jung
“That higher and "complete" man is begotten by the "unknown" father and born from Wisdom, and it is he who, in the figure of the puer aeternus—"vultu mutabilis albus et ater"—represents our totality, which transcends consciousness. It was this boy into whom Faust had to change, abandoning his inflated onesidedness which saw the devil only outside. Christ's "Except ye become as little children" is a prefiguration of this, for in them the opposites lie close together; but what is meant is the boy who is born from the maturity of the adult man, and not the unconscious child we would like to remain.” Jung
“Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose. And whenever the conscious mind clings to hard and fast concepts and gets caught in its own rules and regulations - as is unavoidable and of the essence of civilized consciousness - nature pops up with her inescapable demands.”
Jung, Alchemical Studies
When one is not understood one should as a rule lower one’s voice, because when one really speaks loudly enough and is not heard, it is because people do not want to hear. One had better begin to mutter to oneself, then they get curious.
Nietzsche's Zarathustra
“People may shy away from the notion that Angels want to call forth in them ideals for the future, but it is so all the same. And indeed in forming these pictures the Angels work on a definite principle, namely, that in the future no human being is to find peace in the enjoyment of happiness if others beside him are unhappy. An impulse of Brotherhood in the absolute sense, unification of the human race in Brotherhood rightly understood — this is to be the governing principle of the social conditions in physical existence.”
Rudolf Steiner, The Work of the Angels In Man’s Astral Body, 1918
"May joy and happiness be for us a sign as to how close the gods have attracted us, and may our pain and suffering be a sign as to how far removed we are from what we are to become as good human beings." Steiner
"In what the world bestows upon us as goodness and beauty, we must conceive the world powers of which it is said in the Bible, “And he looked at the world and he saw that it was good.” But inasmuch as we experience pain and suffering, we must recognize what man has made of the world during its evolution, which originally was a good world, and what he must contribute toward its betterment by educating himself to bear pain with purpose and energy."
"If he involves karma, he commits an error that is liable to weaken and paralyze the spiritual in him. Every thought to the effect that joy and happiness are deserved actually weakens and paralyzes us."
Rudolf Steiner, Facing Karma, 1912
In Search of Happiness AoL mind video
Alchemy of Soul
Any substance, an alchemist would tell you, is what it appears to be, set just for a moment that is lost in eternity, by parameters of a given place, time, and given circumstances. Carbon could be graphite and diamond at the same time. When a human being is subject to hardship, mistreatment and is not given a chance to develop, he will become a murderer, thief or abuser. How quickly before he becomes an animal! When one is treated with love, respect and care, how far can he develop?'
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