MindMatters: Suffering To Be Happy: The Fool's Paradise of Feeling Good

Elan Martin and Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Sat, 20 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC

Today's Western cultural landscape seems to give us all the wrong messages of what happiness is, and how one should go about attaining it; we're programmed for unhappiness and seemingly trapped in ways of thinking and being that only make for more unhappiness! On this week's MindMatters we discuss John F. Schumaker's book In Search of Happiness - Understanding An Endangered State of Mind and delve into what happiness actually is, what it isn't - and some of the perennial values which nurture the meaning in our lives that deep happiness is quite often an outgrowth of.

On this week's show we'll also be looking at what some great minds had to say on bringing happiness about. Everyone wants to 'be happy,' but how does this feeling really come about and what, if anything, is the process to be engaged that could make it available to us? Can happiness even be experienced without knowing its opposite - and how willing are we to sacrifice short term gratification for the deeper more fulfilling life that nurtures true happiness. Join us this week as we put away the happy pills, the happy meals, the happy faces, and choose to suffer through a more objective understanding of a mostly elusive state of mind.

Running Time: 01:10:42

Download: MP3 - 64.7 MB

Harrison Koehli

Harrison Koehli co-hosts SOTT Radio Network's MindMatters, and is an editor for Red Pill Press. He has been interviewed on several North American radio shows about his writings on the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists (commies too).

Elan Martin

Born and raised in New York City, Elan has been an editor for SOTT.net since 2014 and is a co-host for MindMatters. He enjoys seeing and sharing what's true about our profoundly and rapidly changing world.

Reader Comments

Mariama · 2019-04-20T17:32:36Z

I thought this was an excellent show, Elan and Harrison and what a great topic. Listening to MindMatters gives me joy and food for thought.

binra · 2019-04-20T22:31:00Z

There was a Spiritual Teacher who found people coming to him were not ready or capable of understanding because they wanted to use him to feel better.

He said, "You want me to tell you how to feel better - but the only way to feel better is to FEEL better.

Being WITH what is as a feeling awareness is the opposite to a contraction of the feeling dimension in emotional reactivity.

The innate qualities of being are uncovered right where we are - and so the attempt to find them in some other moment is a way of avoiding relationship. Noticing this is a basis to live from a different foundation than a self-evasion presented as a sense of becoming more... or less.

The recognition of truth in the 'student' IS the same vibrational quality as the 'Teacher' - but the consistency and therefore reliability comes from the everyday or ordinary practice of living from or as an expression of transparency to being - amidst or with whatever arises in relation.

Highland Fleet Lute · 2019-04-21T08:46:28Z

"Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness." - George Orwell.

lsjarvi · 2019-04-21T15:20:03Z

Great discussion and a very important topic! It's one that's hard to talk about because the context is - as ever - spiritual. These two thoughtful and articulate young men, however, managed to come as close as modern psychology allows. This discussion brought home to me how perfectly the founding document of this country, the Declaration of Independence, set us up for the conundrum we face as a culture when setting a goal for ourselves to 'pursue happiness' (however defined - stimulation, accomplishment, acquisition or contentment.) By far, the quote from Einstein to the effect that 'happiness is the aim of a pig' was the most salient one. One should not, and cannot, 'pursue' happiness. It is a gift of grace, your confirmation that you are in alignment with your karma - your higher purposes for incarnating. When I have a moment of happiness, my reaction is to be thankful for the confirmation. To pursue happiness as a goal is to be greedy. I have to trust in wise guidance and karma to bring me the experiences I need in order to meet goals of which I have no conscious knowledge. I'm not in charge - the hardest lesson for modern mankind to learn - and the one most essential to finding oneself in the fleeting, but profound, state of grace that is happiness.

HashAttack2 · 2019-04-22T12:39:55Z

lsjarvi 'happiness is the aim of a pig' ... Brilliant!

LindaMay · 2019-04-21T20:46:00Z

Happiness is another form of misery.

Being at peace, is bliss.

lsjarvi · 2019-04-22T13:43:01Z

LindaMay They are not opposing states. Being 'at peace' or 'in bliss' is one way to define happiness. Are you pursuing it?

LindaMay ·

Never left it ls

· 2019-04-22T18:22:45Z

Subtil Spir · 2019-04-21T23:05:06Z

Happiness makes a man more weak. If someone wants to be strong, must embrace suffering.

When a person has energy, he can spend it for pleasure or creation or self-building.

Creating can be a blend of these two, because a person can enjoy creating and to suffer a little.

Examples of people who are deliberately suffering are fakirs and shamans.

"My benefactor used to say that the warrior who stumbles on a petty tyrant is a lucky one. He meant that you’re fortunate if you come upon one in your path, because if you don’t, you have to go out and look for one. ... We know that nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power."

Author: Carlos Castaneda /Title: The Fire from Within/ Chapter 2. Petty Tyrants

lsjarvi · 2019-04-22T00:56:55Z

"We know that nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power"

How very true! Not that you have to go looking for impossible people with power. You'll meet several in your lifetime - and you might even occasionally play the role yourself.

HashAttack2 · 2019-04-22T12:46:54Z

Happiness is 100s of unknown Lifelog friends

Happiness is spending money on credit cards

Happiness is drinking alcohol is state approved locations

Just some of the forms of happiness that the modern world promotes ...

True happiness is gratitude for the grace of consciousness

LindaMay ·

Bliss Hash

· 2019-04-22T12:53:30Z