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Suppose I was a fabulous person. Not just morally upright and virtuous, but I achieved numerous amazing things, too many to list. It's just that I received no benefit whatsoever from them. If anything, they were a noose. However, I feel fine. Am I happy?

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    If you feel happy you are happy. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Sep 26 '22 at 11:42
  • I tend to agree. But all for nothing @MauroALLEGRANZA ? –  Sep 26 '22 at 11:43
  • I guess it makes me a crank, and suggests I should choose my friends etc. more carefully. Anyway, it's arbitrary nonsense, and really I am just a failure. –  Sep 26 '22 at 11:50
  • thanks btw @MauroALLEGRANZA that was the RIGHT thing to say. i think NOTHING MELTS STEEL BEAMS –  Sep 26 '22 at 13:26
  • The obvious answer is I am happy but my happiness may not be as meaningful as I would like. –  Oct 02 '22 at 05:07

2 Answers2

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The notion (as expressed in the comments) that "if you feel happy then you are" is an extremely shallow notion. If you agree with it, then maybe heroin is for you.

Being happy is a trivial surface matter. It is a question of diversion. A man facing life in prison with no possibility of parole, for a crime he did not commit, can still laugh. The joke has to be pretty good. But in a few minutes he will return to the dreadful reality.

A man who has lost everything, his family, his home, his health (say in a horrible badminton accident) can still be amused when Alexei Sayles asks "Didn't you kill my brother?"

Contrarily, a man who has done everything, achieved everything, experienced everything, may not be happy. Robin Williams was amazingly successful. Yet he could not keep a marriage together, he had problems with addiction, and he killed himself. One suspects he did so with a smile on his face.

There is a difference between being happy and being satisfied. And you do not need to be happy to be satisfied, nor satisfied to be happy. A person who is struggling toward a goal can be satisfied even if they are miserable. A prospective Olympic athlete or a ballerina could easily be the example. A PhD candidate working on his thesis while living in a flea-infested walk-up two-room apartment could also. The examples are legion. Many people choose to do things that they are completely aware will be horrendous experiences. They know there will be no happiness involved. But they are satisfied.

BillOnne
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  • I think you misread the comment (the fact I can't tell suggests you should clarify the whole answer). Why are you replying to the comment anyway? You could specifically focus on the question at hand by answering whether we need to benefit (economically, socially, internally, whatever) from our achievements to be happy. –  Sep 26 '22 at 22:25
  • I take it you mean that I am satisfied because I have done great things? I think you need to show that happiness is always brought about by satisfaction to show that "I am not happy". But then you explicitly deny that. –  Sep 26 '22 at 23:38
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Here's one simple way of phrasing this. The parable in the lotus sutra, not in terms of whether the Buddha lied, but whether the fact that the son inherited not as a reward for his work and character, but because he was his lost son, means he was unhappy.

A boy deserted his father to lead the life of a vagabond. He wandered aimlessly from place to place, taking meager odd jobs just to survive. One day, he stumbled upon a great mansion owned by his father. The boy did not recognize his father but his father immediately spotted his son. The father quickly sent his men to capture him. Yet, his son who had an inferior sense of self-worth was incredibly terrified of the dignity and affluence of his father.

His father, knowing the humble outlook of his son, abandoned coercion. Instead, he sent his two undignified-looking men to recruit his son to work as a cleaner in his mansion. His son immediately accepted the job as he perceived the job was a right fit aligned with his skills and abilities.

Occasionally, the father disguised himself by wearing grubby clothes so that he could get near his son and encourage him to work hard. For 20 years, his son toiled diligently, earning the trust of his father. The son was promoted by his father to Chief Steward in charge of the storehouses.

When the death of the father was imminent, the father revealed the truth of the father-and-son relationship between them and bequeathed all his treasures to his son.

https://lotus-happiness.com/seven-parables-of-the-lotus-sutra/

I think there is the suggestion "yes" there.

That the father believed the son would mistakenly feel that he did not deserve the money because he had not earned his happiness, that good fortune was not enough. That's independent of whether this hypothetical person lacks anything else (intelligence, charm, whatever) essential to happiness.