I know a happy man living on a USD100 monthly income, living in a 3x4m room in Jakarta. I know an unhappy man who rolls in three Mercedes Benzes, five houses, two wives and a million followers. How did the standards of happiness become so different from one person to the next?
Force of Mental Habit
We can't control the external world. A thobe is a thobe, but if you hate wearing it, well it's not the thobe's fault, is it? However you feel about a million or three, it's not the money's fault for being there or not, is it? Nor it is the country's, the government's, the spouse's, the children's or the cats' and dogs' fault.
If we can put things into our heads (longing, hating, loving, fear), we can also remove them. Especially the imaginary things, like a BlackBerry or a lost relation or "more, more, more". If we can teach our minds to love someone/something, we definitely can train it to un-love.
Since this special freedom of thought is forever ours, whether it's in a hermitage on a mountain or in the deep pockets of an urban slum, then we are free to choose between joy or misery anywhere we can choose our thoughts. ('Coz sometimes I can't think when the whole crowd's yelling.)
What would you choose to think today?
I would love to perceive life the way you perceive it.
ReplyDeleteAlas. Maybe in theory I can choose what I think or even what I feel. Yet irrespective whether I am relatively happy or relatively unhappy,
- when I'm broke I keep on looking for some cash
- when I'm hungry I tend to think of food.
- when I'm horny I can't keep my eyes off members of the opposite sex
- When I'm in prison I will long for freedom
Craving for money, food, partner or liberation without being able to get them, will definitely restrict my choice to think detached and feel comfortable or at ease.
While we seek our satisfaction, while we walk that path of ordinary living, we can walk it begrudgingly, or miserably, or just plain grateful to be on the path.
ReplyDeleteWhile we seek that money, we could either steal it from others, or be glad to have an ordinary job.
While we're hungry, we might hate our hamburger because others can have caviar.
While we're horny, we might covet another's wife.
And for as long that see ourselves imprisoned, that's what Saudi and living and boredom and poverty shall always be.
Forever and always, for both you and I and our loved ones, I wish us joy.
The thing is, can you have your cake and eat it to? Is it really good to be king like Tom Petty once sang? money changes people, and the people around them... making them miserable... having money is not everything... not having it is :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new theme :)
Qusay,
ReplyDeleteWe residents of the internet do not have debilitating cake problems. we, the readers & writers of this English blog, have no problems with having everything. We are, actually, are damned tired of everything that not having some would do us some good.
And as shitty and lonesome as it feels, it has done us a lot of good, putting us in that thoughtful corner of our detached worlds. And as much cake as we have, we can only eat so much. Anything more than daily sustenance could kill you. And that's good to know.
But doesnt being being satisfied with what you have in relation to what others DONT have imply a sort of selfishness? A sort of inner 'nananaaaaneh'?
ReplyDeleteAnd on the other extreme.. doesnt some sort of covetousness drive one to better oneself?
And choosing your own thoughts cant be done without seeing to, or transcending your basic needs..
And at the bottom of all this, isnt transcending your basic needs really the point anyways?