First of all, in order to make my case, we should think about happiness is. Well, happiness is nothing more than an emotion, a feeling, or a state of mind. It is not a physical object nor does it exist outside the persons psychological world, or simply put, his mind. Therefore, it is also created by emotions and it exist by them and as one of them. Of course, happiness is affected by our environment, but also, since they it is just an emotion (they are an idea in our head, not a physical object) it can be produced and controlled by us. We are in control of our own happiness. Now what creates these happy emotions? The first answer that would come to the majority of people would be money, fame and others materialistic gains, There would be a minority who would respond love, companionship, even family. But, what truly creates these emotions, is none of the above, but rather ourselves. And now let me make my case, which will be divided in two parts. First, we must consider that food, sex, trips and generally all the materialistic goods that money or fame can provide you does not make you truly happy, rather they just provide entertainment, since happiness is a state of mind that does not decay or disappears after the fun this goods has provide you with, ends. Simply put, entertainment, only cause you fun the time you are are entertained, meaning that after the food ends, after the sex is finished, or after you return from your vacations, you will stop having fun and therefore you will not be joyful anymore. But happiness is a state of mind that accompanies you, before and after the food, before, during and after sex; and before, during and after the vacations; it does not disappears after the 'entertaining' time has ended, and it even endures difficult times. Even if a person was to make the entertaining time 'permanent', meaning never stopping to party, that would still not lead him to true happiness because happiness is an emotion and it does not result from materialistic goods or generally physical things. Therefore, it is easy to confuse happiness with just having fun so we must consider that happiness may result from other emotions and not money or fame etc. Moreover, we should think about which emotions are the strongest. Which do you think, will make you feel better: eating a pizza alone or having a nice dinner with family and friends? Having sex with a new partner or making love to your significant other? Being high and drunk, or feeling the tranquility only love can give you? The answer is obvious. Also, I don"t think it is hard to understand, that no matter how much fun a person can have, he will not be happy as long as he has negative emotions ravaging his psychological world, like jealousy, hate or stress. All in all, positive emotions constitute happiness, not physical objects. Second, I must ask you, what would be the point to have all the goods in the world, materialistic goods like money and mental goods like love, if you were not to exploit and use them properly? Meaning, what would be the point to have all the money in the world, if someone was to spend them on drugs and end up sick and dying, or to lose them in casinos or waste it generally? That would not make him happy. What would be the point to have fame if you were to end up like those washed-up actors you don"t see in the movies anymore? That would not cause you happiness. Also, what would be the point, to have a relationship with a person you love, if that relationship were to end due to ones own or the others individual fault? Even further, what would be the point to have everything you want, money, love, fame if negative emotions tormented you every day (jealousy, hate, stress, guilt) never to allow you to be happy? It does not matter if you can have all the mental or materialistic goods you wish for if you were not to use them correctly. And if you think i am over exaggerating, consider how many people had money and fame and destroyed everything by their mistakes, or were never happy with them. Think how many persons could have been happy after they had won their significant other, or after they had made a family, and they but ended up poisoning their relationships or up braking up, because they had negative emotions in their heads, like jealousy or resentfulness. What a person needs in order to achieve happiness is the knowledge of how to exploit and use the goods he already has. That kind of knowledge is called wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge, the ability, someone has to understand and separate what is the right from wrong and what is good from bad (Socrates). With wisdom, you will be able to discover happiness, since you will be able to properly utilize everything you already have and you will be able to find the beauty of the world in small things, of our everyday life. Only then can a person, truly find happiness, with everything life has already blessed him with and of course clear his mental world (his soul if i am allowed to say for my religious readers) from all negative emotions, like jealousy or hate. Everything else is just an occasional and temporary time of 'having fun' that people confuse with happiness, when they have the ability (money) to repeat it often. A person is able to find happiness even if he has no materialistic goods like money because he has all the mental goods he needs, since he is wise. A person can acquire wisdom only when he strives to become a better human being, when he takes care of his psychological world and tries to be good and just. Gandhi himself stated that his life was a sequence of misfortune events that he managed to overcame with the help of Bhagavad-Ghita. In an other statement he said that he was a happy person. Why? Because Gandhi was a wise person and therefore he managed not only to pull through all the disasters that tortured his life, but even to achieve happiness. Being wise he was able to 'utilize' all the mental goods he had on his life, disregarding money and became a symbol of tranquility. I strongly recommend to read the ' Les miserables' of Victor Hugo, to realize what happiness truly consists of. To conclude, happiness is an emotion and therefore it is not a product of goods or fun time, money can provide you with. It is a state of mind that does not decay and disappears when the fun is over, but is a product of other positive emotions, like love. Furthermore, no matter how many goods (mental or materialistic) a person has, he will not be happy unless he can live with them 'properly' and not waste them. In order to achieve that he needs to have a piece of wisdom in him. Wisdom is only achievable when a person strives to became good and a better character.All in all, if you wish to became truly happy, try to become a better person, in order to do that, you should study philosophy to find what is fundamentally good and bad, so you can apply that to your life. I recommend you to read Plato; his books contain everything a person needs to know in order to make a just and good life, and therefore, be happy.
Andreas Sarchosis
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