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Thread: Happy Like God

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    Happy Like God

    Happy Like God

    By SIMON CRITCHLEY

    What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?

    I teach philosophy for a living, so let me begin with a philosophical answer. For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.

    But is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? Might there not be something in it? I am reminded of the following extraordinary passage from Rousseau’s final book and his third (count them — he still beats Obama 3-to-2) autobiography, “Reveries of a Solitary Walker”:

    If there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. (emphases mine)

    This is as close to a description of happiness as I can imagine. Rousseau is describing the experience of floating in a little rowing boat on the Lake of Bienne close to Neuchâtel in his native Switzerland. He particularly loved visiting the Île Saint Pierre, where he used to enjoy going for exploratory walks when the weather was fine and he could indulge in the great passion of his last years: botany. He would walk with a copy of Linneaus under his arm, happily identifying plants in areas of the deserted island that he had divided for this purpose into small squares.

    Our lives are filled with endless distractions, but is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? On the way to the island, he would pull in the oars and just let the boat drift where it wished, for hours at a time. Rousseau would lie down in the boat and plunge into a deep reverie. How does one describe the experience of reverie: one is awake, but half asleep, thinking, but not in an instrumental, calculative or ordered way, simply letting the thoughts happen, as they will.

    Happiness is not quantitative or measurable and it is not the object of any science, old or new. It cannot be gleaned from empirical surveys or programmed into individuals through a combination of behavioral therapy and anti-depressants. If it consists in anything, then I think that happiness is this feeling of existence, this sentiment of momentary self-sufficiency that is bound up with the experience of time

    Look at what Rousseau writes above: floating in a boat in fine weather, lying down with one’s eyes open to the clouds and birds or closed in reverie, one feels neither the pull of the past nor does one reach into the future. Time is nothing, or rather time is nothing but the experience of the present through which one passes without hurry, but without regret. As Wittgenstein writes in what must be the most intriguing remark in the “Tractatus,” “the eternal life is given to those who live in the present.” Or ,as Whitman writes in “Leaves of Grass”: “Happiness is not in another place, but in this place…not for another hour…but this hour.”

    Rousseau asks, “What is the source of our happiness in such a state?” He answers that it is nothing external to us and nothing apart from our own existence. However frenetic our environment, such a feeling of existence can be achieved. He then goes on, amazingly, to conclude, “as long as this state lasts we are self-sufficient like God.”

    God-like, then. To which one might reply: Who? Me? Us? Like God? Dare we? But think about it: If anyone is happy, then one imagines that God is pretty happy, and to be happy is to be like God. But consider what this means, for it might not be as ludicrous, hybristic or heretical as one might imagine. To be like God is to be without time, or rather in time with no concern for time, free of the passions and troubles of the soul, experiencing something like calm in the face of things and of oneself.

    Why should happiness be bound up with the presence and movement of water? This is the case for Rousseau and I must confess that if I think back over those experiences of blissful reverie that are close to what Rousseau is describing then it is often in proximity to water, although usually saltwater rather than fresh. For me, it is not so much the stillness of a lake (I tend to see lakes as decaffeinated seas), but rather the never-ending drone of the surf, sitting by the sea in fair weather or foul and feeling time disappear into tide, into the endless pendulum of the tidal range. At moments like this, one can sink into deep reverie, a motionlessness that is not sleep, but where one is somehow held by the sound of the surf, lulled by the tidal movement.

    Is all happiness solitary? Of course not. But one can be happy alone and this might even be the key to being happy with others. Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud when walking with his sister. However, I think that one can also experience this feeling of existence in the experience of love, in being intimate with one’s lover, feeling the world close around one and time slips away in its passing. Rousseau’s rowing boat becomes the lovers’ bed and one bids the world farewell as one slides into the shared selfishness of intimacy.

    …And then it is over. Time passes, the reverie ends and the feeling for existence fades. The cell phone rings, the e-mail beeps and one is sucked back into the world’s relentless hum and our accompanying anxiety.

    Simon Critchley is chair of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the author of several books, including his most recent, “The Book of Dead Philosophers.”

    Happy Like God - Happy Days Blog - NYTimes.com
    ----
    What a lovely piece of writing. I also find being around water extremely calming. Don't you?

    I always find that if you can get yourself really into the present zone, by being aware of all that is around you, you can find that peaceful and happiness state. Meditation is another way that you can quiet the mind, and just enjoy being focused on your breathing. Certain things and possessions can bring fleeting happiness, but I find that that is just that; a fleeting moment of high. I've known rich people that are very unhappy.

    I believe happiness is an attitude. I have known the poorest of the poor in Cambodia, who have been happy with what they have. They were happy because they had their family together. They were also the most friendliest people, and would give me the shirt off of their back if I asked.

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    Only those with God would truly understand.....

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    Quote Originally Posted by phuketbound View Post
    Happy Like God

    By SIMON CRITCHLEY

    What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?
    Two tabs of acid, a teenth of weed, a bottle of whiskey, two digs of pink champagne and a hot but intellectually challenged 20-year-old.

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    While we're on the subject of Rousseau;

    Quote Originally Posted by Jean Jacques
    Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion
    Typical French twat!

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    ^ Sounds like an impotent French twat.

    Happiness, must admit I can't stand people trying to define it for me. It is what it is- you know when it is, you know when it ain't.

    I like watching the simple happiness of well kept Dogs. Wish I could lick my own balls too.

    Most kids in this world would be very happy to be given an ice cold Coke, fresh from the fridge. But I wouldn't.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang
    Most kids in this world would be very happy to be given an ice cold Coke, fresh from the fridge. But I wouldn't.
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang
    Happiness, must admit I can't stand people trying to define it for me.
    Let me give it a try!! An ice cold bottle of Chang would do the trick.

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    You know, if you don't have The Gift, you wouldn't understand any of it....

    (cynicism)

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    Freud famously said that an individual is only truly happy until they learn that one day they will die. In other words, only young children are really happy. After you know you will surely die, you can never again achieve such innocent splendour.

    Happiness afterwards seems to be moments of ignorant oblivion. I've definitely known bliss....but it is ephemeral. Sadly.

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    DaffyDuck
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    Happiness = Schadenfreude

    Truly!

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    Quote Originally Posted by DrB0b View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by phuketbound View Post
    Happy Like God

    By SIMON CRITCHLEY

    What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?
    Two tabs of acid, a teenth of weed, a bottle of whiskey, two digs of pink champagne and a hot but intellectually challenged 20-year-old.
    Good recipe. I've managed 4 out of 5 in Thailand but don't like champagne much anyway so no loss

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