The Futile Pursuit of Happiness?

"It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?"

- Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness



"...the obstacle between us and happiness is the future itself. In other words, the real obstacle to our happiness is the way we place our notions of the future and our notions of the past between us and what we are actually living through right at this very moment. This moment sitting here in my Chevy is dull and ordinary, we think, but maybe someday I'll have a Porsche and that'll be really rad! But what happens when we get that Porsche? What I've discovered in my own life is that no matter how thoroughly I satisfy any of my desires, they never stay satisfied very long.

It seems that no matter what we're doing right now, it's never the thing we really want. The thing we really want is always somewhere off in the future, when we finally get rich, or get laid, or get enlightened. Or else it's buried in our past, the first time you kissed Billy-Bob Rubinowitz under the bleachers at the high school stadium, or the first time you got all the way tot he center of a Tootsie Pop without biting, or maybe that time a few years ago when you thought you'd gotten enlightened -- why can't you get that feeling back? Whatever thing we use to define happiness for ourselves always seems far away. So we look at people we envy and say to ourselves that if only we had what they have, we'd be happy.

But just think about those moments in the past that you classify as truly happy. What's the difference between those moments and this one right now? Could it be that that day you kissed Billy-Bob under the bleachers was a rare moment when you were fully present, staying just with what was happening right at that very moment? You weren't worried about the past. You weren't thinking about the future. You weren't thinking about anything at all. You were just totally and completely there...

Yet, most of the time, even when we find ourselves living through moments we consider truly happy, there's always that nagging feeling in the back of our minds that sometime -- in the future, of course -- this happiness is going to end and things will be dull and ordinary again.
Most of us tend to divide our lives into these big peak moments of enormous happiness or horrendous sorrow on the one side, and everything else in between those moments, which we consider to be mundane, boring, and unimportant, on the other. In doing so, we miss out on almost our entire lives...Are those peak moments what really make us happy?


...We miss out on the amazingness of where we are right now by comparing it with the past..."

- Brad Warner, Sit Down and Shut Up Punk Rock commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, & Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye



I've been reading parts of this book, and it's interesting to say the least. The author, Warner, is a former Punk Rock Bass Player turned Zen Monk, and elaborates on the philosophies of Dogen Zenji. Buddhism through a Hardcore-Punk-paradigm is pretty unique in my opinion.

So is the pursuit of happiness a futile one?


"Real happiness comes when you are truly living this moment, no matter what it is. It's not the least bit futile to pursue this kind of happiness. In fact it's your sacred duty as a human being."


Easier said than done.


Also, he doesn't address it in the passages, but the idea of material wealth having some sort of correlation to happiness, doesn't seem to hold up. Something I learned back when I used to go to church, (no moaning, it's actually insightful)
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
- Matthew, 6:19-21

The concept is, one shouldn't invest in material possessions in life, but instead, invest in something that lasts. People. Build relationships with people. Plain and simple. I've experienced this personally, it's a whole lot more fun to just hang out with friends, even if doing nothing, then be at home playing with expensive crap.









"Thomas Jefferson mentions happiness a couple times in the Declaration of Independence. It may seem like a strange word to be in that document, but he was sort of... he was an artist. He called the English, the "Disturbers of our Harmony". And I remember standing there that day thinking about the disturbers of mine. Questions I had whether all this was good... whether I'd make it..."