-- Ruthie-Annie: Happiness

Honest to God thoughts from an unconvinced Quaker psychologist

"Had she thought there was no meaning in life, no purpose, when God had gone?...'Well there is now,' she said aloud, and again, louder: 'There is now...We have to be all those difficult things, like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us...and then we'll build...the Republic of Heaven." Lyra, In 'The Amber Spyglass', Philip Pullman

Monday, March 21, 2005

Happiness

In Quaker meeting yesterday, a Friend brought a wonderful message. One of the words for happiness in Chinese is 'openheartedness'. To be happy is to be openhearted - to be open to recognise the goodness within others and to give generously from the goodness within ourselves.

Simple teaching - if only we could put it into practice.

I don't know what your destiny will be,
but one thing I do know:
the only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who have sought and found how to serve.

~ Albert Schweitzer

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle,
And the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.

~ Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

3 Comments:

At 9:23 PM, mary said...: that is really lovely. it makes such sense! i like to think i try to live by that wee ethos, but sometimes tis interupted by ugliness from either party that gets in the way. it needs to be zapped!
At 2:49 AM, Flaming Firegeni said...: After reading this I thought of a quote that has always held much meaning for me.

"You and I are created for joy and if we miss it, we miss the reason for our existence. ...If our joy is honest joy it must somehow be congruous with human tragedy.
This is the test of joy's integrity: is it compatible with pain? Only the heart that hurts has a right to joy"
(Lewis Smedes)

Somehow that rings so true, because today "happiness" is often promoted as an absence of pain and suffering. Some of the serenest and happiest people I know are those who have known or live with deep pain.
At 6:01 AM, Meredith said...: Thank you, Ruthie. THis post uplifted me today!

Thank you, also, Firegeni for the Lewis Smedes quote. It reminds me of something a friend of mine and I often reflect on - and that is the quality of a sad/joyful heart. This is the richest of emotions - to feel both of these at once, or to have the capacity to feel both emotions deeply. This feeling really is a matter of being openhearted.