#constructive behavior

[trueblueismycolor]

2017 went off to a less-than-ideal start, but I feel positive about my momentum going forward

[contac]

[stevebunge]

Happy?

My tumblr friend SunsetSpecial made a post a few days ago suggesting that those who are happy are complacent and therefore incapable of changing the world (I'm paraphrasing).  I made a comment because I am a happy person and don't agree that all of us are complacent and she replied in another post.

I've been thinking quite a bit about what happiness is for me and why I consider myself to be happy.  Rather than pollute her blog with my thoughts, I wanted to write them here..

First, I'm not always happy but I am happy most of the time.  I consider happiness to be an active feeling rather than a passive one.  And I don't believe that complacency equates to happiness.  I think they can be related but, in my own experience, they can be very different.

I am not a practicing Buddhist but Buddhist thinkers tend to resonate with me in a way that many Western religions do not (I am an active member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation).  And, as I'm sure many know, Buddhists really have powerful things to say about how life is filled with suffering.  They spend so much time talking about and thinking about suffering that those who don't go very deep into the writings of Buddhist philosophers might think the whole religion is a bit of a downer.

But the philosophers also spend some time talking about happiness.  And it this Buddhist view of happiness that fits the way I feel about it.  Thich Nhat Hahn who is arguably the best known of the current, popular Buddhist philosophers even has a whole book about it.  The defining feature of how they all tend to describe happiness is as follows (paraphrasing from multiple sources:

Constructive behavior that refrains from acting, thinking, or speaking under the influence of "disturbing" emotions is the principal source of happiness.  Disturbing emotions include lust, attachment, greed, repulsion, anger, naivety, and others.  And when we speak, think, or act under the influence of these disturbing emotions we are participating in destructive behavior.

Now, again, I don't always do this.  It takes practice and is definitely an active state of being to always behave in a constructive way.  But I do feel like I do this often.  And I feel happy when I do.  And, as you can see by the terminology used we are talking about constructive behavior rather than complacency.

So, I believe that people who are happy in this way can definitely change the world.  I think about people other than myself who seem happy and live a mindful life and can definitely imagine them implementing real change.

I also believe that there are people who are complacent and self-satisfied.  I think they may believe they are happy but they would not define their happiness in the way that I describe above.  They increase personal comfort at the expense of others.  They live in the past or the future and never are mindful of the present.  I know lots of people like this.

I also know angry people.  Can anger also fuel change?  Perhaps.  But I don't want to act out of anger so I'd rather not explore this right now.

[waterbearsnoscars]

Things happen to me.

Things happen. Some good, some bad, some I'm not entirely sure how to categorize. 

Through it all, I keep breathing.  I see. I respond. I ACT. 

Things have been set into motion. Momentum takes over. Where I will end up depends on many factors that are not clearly discernible, but the change is in the air regardless. 

Yes, things happen to us.  Do not, however forget this: We also are forces of nature. 

I am a force of nature...and I happen to things too.