the pursuit of happiness
When listening to the early morning TODAY programme on Radio 4 I heard an American politician extolling the virtues of the outgoing Clinton administration. In doing so he seemed to be equating increased affluence and material gain with happiness. This took me back to my student days when, amongst other things, I studied United States history. In my opinion the remarkable document which enshrines the American constitution is flawed by the phrase which elicits the pursuit of happiness.
To pursue happiness either individually or collectively as a conscious aim is the surest way to miss it altogether, as is all too often evident in technically advanced, westernised countries, where the pursuit of happiness all too often resolves itself into something quite different: the pursuit of pleasure.
Pleasure is no more than a mirage of happiness, a false vision of shade and refreshment observed in desert conditions. Where, then, does happiness lie? Surely it has to be in the forgetfulness, as opposed to the indulgence, of the self. In other words, in escape from sensual appetites, not in their satisfaction. We need to lift our gaze to the beyond as we become aware of the vastness of the universe around us. Buddhas point the way.
Mystics, who have experienced such happiness at a high level, have found it difficult to describe it adequately; but we do not need to be mystics to experience it. At a more mundane level it is the loving kindness we feel towards each other, delight in the achievements of others, compassion for their needs and a sense of equanimity. Such happiness is not compressible into a pill, neither is it translatable into a sensation. It is lost to anyone who would grasp it for himself alone, it cannot be paid into a bank, nor can it be driven along a motorway. Rather does it exist in every true response to life and, not to be found in false ones, it can also be found in great art, music, literature and architecture from vast temples to tiny melodies, in short, in everything that is harmonious in the unending heroism of imperfect people reaching after fulfilment. It is said that, when Pastor Bonhoeffer was taken off by his Nazi guards to be executed his face was full of happiness. In the face of suffering he remained serene. 'For you it is an end,' he told his executioners. 'For me it is a beginning.' Have I ended on a happy or a sad note?
I leave you with two definitions from the Oxford Concise Dictionary. Happiness: fortunate, content with one`s lot. Pleasure: sensuous enjoyment as the chief object of life.
John Friend
from Now And Zen - Spring 2001