Being truly happy is a natural and unstoppable desire of every human being. Everything we do, we do in order to be happy, secure, to avoid suffering and feel pain.
However, do we know what truly makes us happy? Common answers range from health, family, loved ones, genuine friendships, the birth of a child, the beauty of nature, all the way to material security. It is what brings us a feeling of peace, love, beauty, protection, connection with others, and security in ourselves. How can we make these moments of happiness our permanent possession?
Philosophical traditions speak of the important precondition of understanding what is the happiness of human beings, understanding what is a human being. Who are we?
Plotinus brings the myth of the origin, the birth of man. The human soul, before descending into the manifested world, lived in Heaven, in a world of eternal values such as goodness, beauty, truth, and justice. In its heavenly home, it lived happily in its purity and innocence. in harmony, and that excessive desire for material wealth is a major obstacle to finding true happiness. Our souls are trapped in this physical world, disconnected from our heavenly home. We have lost the feeling of happiness that we once had in our natural environment. All ancient cultures acknowledge this dual nature of humans – earthly and heavenly, temporary and eternal. Neglecting one of these aspects means living as an incomplete and imbalanced human being, devoid of lasting happiness. The modern way of life, marked by excessive pursuit of material prosperity, contributes to this state of imbalance. In our quest for better material conditions, believing that our happiness depends on them, we have lost our natural connection to the spiritual within us, and subsequently, to other people. Epictetus teaches that desire and happiness cannot coexist, and it is through a detachment from material possessions that we can find true happiness. We must rediscover our spiritual essence and prioritize the foundations of our well-being over fleeting material desires. Only then can we achieve true harmony and lasting happiness. “Together. Because it happens that we desperately want to retain what is perishable by its nature. If our desires are reduced to sensory and material needs that are transient, while our inner, spiritual dimension is neglected, we are unhappy. This explains why people can be quite dissatisfied despite their wealth and all their material desires, but also why there are those who are happy despite life’s adversities.
The fundamental characteristic of true happiness is inner peace, which is the result of harmony between our material and spiritual needs. From this harmony, our attitude towards life’s problems and circumstances arises. We often cannot change our circumstances, but we can change our attitude towards them. That is our choice. What brings us happiness is the right attitude towards what life brings and fulfilling our own responsibilities and duties. The path to true happiness lies within ourselves and the actions we choose.”
“Can what happens to you prevent you from being happy?” “Seeking, generous, moderate, prudent, truthful, free, to respect yourself and to be everything that makes a person a human being? Whenever something happens to you that could embitter you, remember that the rule does not say: ‘this is a disaster’, but ‘this is a fortune to endure with honor’.” (Marcus Aurelius)
Philosophical traditions state that there is only one path to true happiness – the path of virtue. Happiness is acting in accordance with virtue, because only through virtue can we confront misfortunes. Happiness is found in the way we traverse this path, how we live it, and whether we have given our all…
However, in order to express virtue, it is necessary to make a conscious effort, to choose what is right and just in everything we do and to persist in it without expecting rewards, to cultivate compassion for others, humility, peacefulness, to strive to be a good human being.
“Wherever there is a human being, there is a place for kindness.” (Seneca)
We would truly be unhappy if we were to lose kindness, loyalty, p Goodness and other virtues that we have as human beings, says Epictetus.
To be happy means to face problems, not to avoid them. As the Stoics say, we won’t always come out as winners, but we will learn how to deal with them and swim past them.
That’s why we need to dare to seek happiness in what we do right, in what grows and develops, not in perfection. That is our human task. Life is much more than the material realm. There must be a reason why we are born, a reason why we live, a reason for which we strive. Traditions say that once we remember who we are, we will feel the desire to return to our heavenly home. And for that, we need wings.
And that is why we need to work on growing wings, always relying on what is permanent inside us, on what brings stable and lasting happiness to a person.