It's all the mushrooms while meditating in deserts right? I want a kewl philosopher stone like the one you've got as well. Btw if a burning shrubbery starts talking to you - please DONT listen. I love the way you think right now...

That burning shruberry may not be real, and im probably hallucinating it in my mind, but MAN, this shrubv has some damn good idea's. Like how to achieve world domination.

__________________

Quote:

Happiness is achieved by equating external stimuli with your internal cognition in a manner that is conducive to general well-being. What happens to you affects everything about you, therefore it is impossible to categorise 'happiness' as being either internal or external in it's prodcution.

I disagree with the conclusion you draw here.

Yes. You are correct in your statement about the equation, which you formulated, might I add, in a beautiful sentence. However, I do not trust the conlusion to be true. If happiness is indeed the equation, than no matter what negative externalt stimuli can be thoroughly compensated.

Ergo, one can make a heaven out of hell, and vice versa. Although I am not prepared to go to such extremes, as I believe there is a limit to external abuse a person can endure, there is a certain and credible amount of willpower that is possessed by man that can not be denied. Although this indeed confirms your statement, as being neither external nor internal, I believe in the struggle to make such things internal.

Let me define this further, because I fear I am being rather vague. Imagine holding a hand in a flame. The pain is bearable. In fact, the hardest moment to hold one's hand in a flame is the point of entry. It is the reflexm, where the body overrides the mind, and withdraws. Only with sufficient willpower can the mind control the hand into staying there.

This willpower, this control over the body can in my eyes be stretched beyond what is currently believed to be possible. Believe me, I have no intent of making the impossible possible, of stating that men can fly or even fire bursts of ki(/chi/qi) from their hands. Nay. Merely that for each environment this plentiful world has to offer us, our mind can summon enough willpower to create an equation, to create happiness.

I personally believe that happiness comes from of the increase of power. By seeing something, no matter what, grow (lo! Not the destination here matters, but the road. To reach enlightenment is as dull as having finished a grand book. It is the process that truly matters, but the path) expand.. That is what brings us peace. And even in the most desolate deserted places upon this earth we can find growing things. Whether it is in ourselves, our growing self-awareness, our growing feeling of home, or witnessing beauty in the formation of desert or ice.

Note however, that I perceive happiness as internal. Not because it is completely unrelated to external factors -- after all, Heaven could not exist without Hell, as good would be meaningless without evil, and virtue hollow without vice and sin -- but because eventually, it is our own willpower, our own mind, our very own body that is indeed happy.

Aside from this philosophical view, Ou Be's thoughts are dangerous. Plato, I think, would agree with me on this, when I state that we should strive for personal responsibility (as he himself believed more in utopia than in truth). This comes only from the above view of thinking, not Ou Be's. Ou Be's view leads to blaming the environment for one's unhappiness. And though there is solace to be found through this, is it not better to prevent it?

Mr U

__________________

I believe the state of the question differs from person to person. Ive met people that seem to retain nearly no internal happiness and their well-being is completely turned outward. However ive met people on the complete opposite of the spectrum.

Recently ive crossed a sort of mental line in my life. A happiness thats almost completely based on that im alive. I cant say its completely internal however, as everything I have experienced thus far has led me to my current state. Majorily stemming from an earlier point when everything had no meaning at all. Because thats the beauty of it all that it is meaningless. This ultra simplistic realisation has given me an odd all encompasing understanding of everything around me, and that has given me my happiness. Life is no longer a road with a destination, but a quaint observation.

Would that outlook bring someone else happiness though, maybe but probaly not. Internal and external happiness are not mutually exclusive. The external effects the internal as much as the internal effects the external. You wouldnt be the person you are today if it werent for external factors, and you wouldnt have made your external decisions if not for being you.

But I suppose if you want to take it to a which came first deal it would have to be external.

__________________