Ezotericism. The beginning of the Path

Chapter 3. HAPPINESS OR MISERY

Achieving power, happiness, perfection are the main goals of most of the spiritual and esoteric schools. These questions are very complex. As complex as how often you see absolutely happy people or perfect relationships in a family (love, idyll). How often can you encounter happiness, strength, perfection in all its manifestations in life? To achieve anything meaningful in life — it has to be learned.

Even if a person sets a goal, he does not always realize it. If he does not set a goal to achieve happiness, he will never get it. The level of happiness is also measured by science. It is an indicator of how satisfied a person is with himself and his life. According to statistical data, out of 170 countries in the world Ukraine is in the last ranks. Therefore, learning to be happy in life is a very urgent task for the inhabitants of our country.

Let’s consider a little more detail: 1. What happiness is, whether it exists at all or not, and how accessible it is. 2. What is esotericism, what opportunities it provides to a person, and whether its opportunities allow to make a person happy.

So, what is happiness, and what misconceptions and illusions there are. There are so many of them. Are there people who wish themselves all kinds of suffering? By and large, no. People want to be happy. But, nevertheless, the majority of people believe that happiness does not exist, and if it exists, it is not available or, if it is available, it is not in our country, not for me with my problems, etc. It is unlikely that it would occur to a person to condemn himself to suffering. But he continues to believe it and does not even try to set a goal to become happy.

In Roman law, to answer the question of why this happens, it was necessary to ask — who benefits from it. Who benefits from a person suffering and believing that there is no other way? It benefits anyone but the person himself. In religion there is a concept — unclean forces (uncleanness — all kinds of evil forces). They are the ones, first of all, interested in making a man suffer. He will suffer as long as he justifies his suffering, as long as he believes that he cannot change himself and his life. These forces feed on suffering, fears, anger, they support all this in man. And the more a person suffers, the better they feel, the stronger they become.

There is a conflict. One person remains absolutely calm and invulnerable, while the other is green with anger and ready to throw himself out of the window. The situation is the same, people’s behavior is diametrically opposite. It depends on what a person believes in, how he has built himself up. Most people are not able to consciously control themselves at all. They are controlled by their desires, emotions, prejudices.

For a person to be able to consciously manage himself, he must have the appropriate knowledge, clear goals and will. If there is a bad emotion, a desire to hit someone — say to yourself: “Calm down, Ippolit, calm down”, and the desire to hit someone disappears. A person thinks how to solve the issue in a peaceful way, how to make the other understand that he is wrong and apologize. There are various reasons why people do not believe in happiness and do not go to it with all their might. If a person believes, he has a chance to get what he wants, but if he does not believe, he condemns himself to suffering.

On the other hand, who needs people who can be managed by crude, dirty methods? If it is pure management — everything is good, it is an optimal organization. But, if the management methods are not clean, then here you need weak, poor, unhappy people who are easy to manipulate.

Example. In Sparta, a man died with a smile on his lips, horrifying his enemies. He could not be forced to do what he thought was wrong, could not be humiliated with impunity — he was trained to defend himself. A strong man who has tasted freedom, who has realized what happiness is, knows what he is fighting for.

If a person does not know what happiness is (neighbors do not have it, he has not seen it at home, and his relatives have taught him that it is impossible to believe in it), he does not believe in it at all. He suffers and endures humiliation, does not defend his rights, he has nothing to fight for and nothing to fight for. He does not believe that it is possible to do things differently. People who want power at any cost are interested in making others weak and believing that it is not possible to do things differently.

But there is also a basic reason. Let’s remember Zhvanetsky: “I didn’t learn one, the second, the third, the fifth, the tenth, I didn’t become an athlete, I didn’t become an artist… and I’m passing on my experience to you.” In most cases, people become unhappy because they adopt it from their parents and friends.

Happiness is understood differently by everyone. Each person has his or her own measure of happiness and suffering in life. The more suffering, the less happiness or, in general, life becomes a nightmare. In depending on what you want, you shift that scale. It seemed to you that suffering is not enough — you can make it more, for this you need to make wrong decisions. If you decided — enough suffering, you start thinking how to remove it and bring as much joy into your life as possible. It makes sense to look for happiness where there is joy. But joy is not the same as joy. A slave rejoices in an extra bowl of chowder. And the son of a millionaire expresses dissatisfaction about the Mercedes he was given: the color is wrong.

Types of joy can be categorized. There is down-to-earth joy — peeking through a keyhole, overhearing a conversation, stealing and not noticing, injecting yourself and forgetting. It is a moment, and then there is trouble — the more you prick, the more you suffer. This is a joy for which you have to pay — lowly, unworthy, uninteresting, it does not make a person noble.

There is joy that is decent, but comes for a while: you win in the ring, you get a paycheck, you celebrate a birthday. Nothing bad follows these sources of joy, they are necessary, but they don’t make a person fully happy, because it is only here and now. “There is only the moment, hold on to it.” One should be able to hold on too, savoring the moment.

There are sources of joy and pleasure that are lifelong or very long-lasting. They are present in man here and now, all the time he is breathing. When a person realizes what can make him happy, he has a chance to get it. He knows what to think about, where to put his energies, he has a chance to achieve his goal. These sources of joy make a man happy in a big way. The work you love is not the moment of getting a paycheck. You enjoy the process itself, you create. Reliable and loyal friends who you can call at any time, who will never cheat you, never whisper behind your back, never let you down. You meet and your heart sings. Faith, when you do not just know that there is a Higher Power, but feel it with all your heart.

Example. Ramakrishna used to test his disciples whether they knew God: when the Spiritual heart becomes alive, speaks and blazes, even the skin changes its color, it becomes covered with molasses. If a person knew God, his heart burned and his feelings overflowed to such an extent that his skin changed its texture. One could see with the naked eye whether a person’s heart ever burned or not.

If a person knows God and lives by faith, it is a tremendous power. Christians went to the cross, suffered torment, but they did not complain, because there was something that gave them strength. Faith can be small, it can be huge, but the stronger it is, the happier a person is.

Happiness is not something you can hold in your hands (someone holds a Mercedes and doesn’t like it). You can get anything, but if you don’t want it — you don’t need it, it doesn’t bring you joy. The very possession of something does not make a person happy. You get what you need from the external world, and it brings you joy when you know, feel — you want it. Happiness is your state, the state of your Soul, what happens inside.

Example. For a collector, paintings are a pleasure. He can look at them for hours, he can feel the energy that comes from them, he notices everything in the smallest detail. Put a monkey near a painting — it is not interested in it at all, it doesn’t look like bananas. It’s the same with music. Some people enjoy classical music, others do not perceive it, they have a different taste or a rough perception (only “bang-bang” to make everything jump inside).

Happiness is a strong and positive state: there should be joy (the more, the better) and the absence of suffering (the less, the better). To achieve this, a person must solve two problems: to understand what can make him/her happy, what are the sources of joy, and to learn to enjoy communication, music, nature and being alone with oneself. If a person is oriented to strength, happiness, perfection, he is oriented to know what to do in any situation, to be strong, happy, invulnerable. What he will do will lead him to the goal — to joy and to victory.

The more sources of joy a person finds in this world, the more spiritually rich he is, the happier he can be. At the same time, it is necessary to understand what makes him unhappy, because of what he suffers. It is necessary to remove from your life all the sufferings on the list (fears, offenses, misunderstanding of the meaning of life) and all other problems on the spiritual level and physical (to worry about your body). To become happy, you need to understand what the sources of joy are, make those sources your own and learn how to turn them on. Understand what causes suffering and step by step remove it from your life.

Every person is constantly presented with different opportunities. How you use them is your choice. Happiness is the main prize a person can get in this life. It is a reward for the right choice, for the fact that he worked hard and did it worthily. If he did not work on himself, on his destiny, or did it wrong, then suffering, like a doctor’s diagnosis, shows him where he was wrong. Therefore, in some religions the main idea is to get rid of suffering as a way out on the righteous path.

Joy. To understand where to look for it, we need to identify its sources. The more unhappy a person is, the less sources of joy he sees. He has gotten deep into the swamp, and the indicator that he is stuck seriously and for a long time is that he is convinced that it is impossible to get out of the swamp. In what does a person see the joy of life?

Does he value a kind word, help, does he value feelings, creativity? Spirituality of a person is largely determined by what he values in this life. If only money — sad version. Spiritual development implies that a person learns to value God, time, his consciousness and body. To value and properly use this wealth. Life is only a few decades, and this piece of time should be used correctly.

An example from life. Crimea, early morning, a clearing, a grandfather is sitting, a profound old man. Grandpa’s condition is not usual, he is different from the others. “Grandpa, what are you doing here?” — “Well, I’ve been working all my life, now I’m thinking.” It’s better to think before. Why does a man live, and what will he say to the Higher Powers when they call him to account? Why did he live, what good did he do? Or did he have no time for it all his life? Sooner or later life ends, and you will still have to answer how you have disposed of this life.

All sources of joy and happiness can be divided into internal (nothing happens in this world, no one gives you ice cream or flowers, but you feel great, you are happy) and external (something must come from the outside world to make you feel good). Ideally, you already feel good, but when someone compliments you or gives you flowers, you feel even better.

Internal sources. The first is respect for oneself. If a person does not have it, he does not know what to respect himself for, he does not know what inner dignity is. It is hard to live without respect for oneself, it is unpleasant to scold oneself. It is more pleasant to talk about yourself politely, to wake up in the morning and hear (let not a servant, but a tape recorder): “Get up, Count, great things await you.”

What names does a man call himself? If with the last words (it does not matter what you say to yourself), your Soul will suffer, it will be hurt. When you call yourself by respected names, worthy words — your shoulders straighten. This is a feeling of inner strength. It is hard for a weak person, who has two puffs of life, to feel happy, it is hard to lift a foot on two steps. When a person feels that he has energy running through his body, that he can overcome any obstacles (what he wants, he will get), when a person’s abilities to write poetry or paint pictures are revealed — it is pleasant.

Even more significant are energetic abilities: to see what one thinks, what one feels, to communicate with the Higher Powers. Developing inner strength — when you realize that new energy is born inside you, that you become different and can make yourself what you want. Most people cannot even dream about this. The way they were born, the way they will die.

The ideal variant on the use of internal sources of joy is to learn to master oneself perfectly, to enter different states. For example, an artist. He can reincarnate. There are two main options: you can portray, remaining calm inside, and you can live the life of your hero (fall in love or be a general). This is a technique. A person understands what he needs, knows what to say to his consciousness, subconsciousness, knows how to move. He enters the role, feels himself differently (today I will be D’Artagnan, tomorrow I will play Athos).