Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Inner/outer circumstances and happiness

I just saw a post with great emphasis on the importance of ‘getting wealthy’.

I did not like being poor. I wouldn’t want to be again, for sure.
But the funny thing is: getting rich (or what many would consider rich) did *not* actually make the worry about money or anything else go away. You think it will, but it doesn’t.
And at the same time you have people who have nothing, who are happy and don’t worry.

All your feelings, happiness or fear, all comes from inside you. You can change your outer circumstance from here til doomsday, it doesn’t change anything important. Only your thinking and inner conditions (inner conflicts etc) really influence your life.

To some this may sound hippy-dippy, but it’s a very clear experience, and fits with what countless wise people have said over the ages.

Family and importance

How come everybody, from mafiosos to celebrities, say “there’s nothing more important than family”?

 For one thing, of course there is. If you are successfully working on a cure for cancer, say, is that not more important than whether you show up to your son’s softball game every time?

 T Pratchett said it slightly inelegantly: “Personal is not the same as important.”

 Or, emotional importance is not the same as rational importance.

 For another thing, family ties is the one thing built into us. If those have been superseded, I doubt that somebody saying that family is important will change very much.