内なる声 — 幸福とは、そして成功とは何でしょう?〜Inner voice — What is happiness and what is success? Vol.1

What is happiness and what is success?

These are 2 of the biggest and most relevant questions in each of our lives.
Our modern and fast paced work can be very materialistic. We are taught as children that happiness comes from success and that success come from hard work and achievement. In many ways this is correct, setting and achieving goals can be very fulfilling as well as giving us a sense of purpose. It is human nature to strive to build a prosperous life and we often measure our achievements by comparing ourselves to others. We look at what people around us have and assess our wealth and growth by working out of we have more of less than they do.

Due to the ever-increasing media presence in most of our lives, and the rise of the celebrity culture, children are taught that to be famous is to be special. Very few of us will truly stand out in this way so it’s vital we gain our self-esteem in more balanced and natural ways.

 

What makes us special is our uniqueness.

There is a saying ‘’you can’t take it with you when you die’’, which refers specifically to wealth and it highlights that although material success is a part of our lives, it’s not the most fundamental purpose of life. Whatever we learn spiritually is deeply embedded within us so we carry this development into eternity; personal qualities including, compassion, acceptance, patience, laughter, gratitude, joy, bravery, integrity, and the desire to understand the purpose and meaning of life. By learning to love others and express kindness, as well as by understanding and accepting life’s unplanned events, we are then open to learning what’s truly important on a spiritual level.

I have always viewed this world as a university, a school, in which we can learn to love more, to develop wisdom and understanding which will help us eventually blend back into the highest vibrations of life, which some refer to as God.

This world can be very challenging and many of these challenges we don’t understand why we have to face them, but it seems to be through suffering we learn to develop empathy and compassion for others and what really matters.

Many people set a major career goal for their life, maybe they want to be a lawyer, a dancer, a writer, or any other profession. They convince themselves that this is the path to happiness and although there may be hardship along the way, once they reach their goal they will find true and lasting happiness. Then one day they have it just as they planned, they have reached their chosen profession, but they may not in fact be happy at all. However, they were so convinced that this was the path to happiness, they can fall into a mind of misunderstanding unsure of what happiness really is.

A lot of this is due to our need for positive regard from other people and the need we have to show society how much we have, therefore suggesting how clever and successful we are. This is a waste of time, so many of us spend hours contriving false perceptions of what others think of us.

But realistically we will only truly know what constitutes our own thoughts and opinions, we can’t be sure of others’. As said by philosopher Alan Watts, “what others think of you is none of your business and you don’t have the right to know”. At first this may sound rather harsh but it’s completely correct. We can only place a claim on what happens within ourselves and not others. We should all find what pursuits makes us happy, what makes our hearts sing and stop worrying about the opinions of others. By doing this we take back ownership of our existence and can express our true nature

 

—— To be continued ——

 

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《Martin Jones(マーティンジョーンズ) さんの記事一覧はコチラ》
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