In search of happiness
In search of happiness
Life is complex – there is no denying this fact. Our minds are machines that need to find out the meaning of everything around us. As we grow up, we equip our minds with various tools to accomplish this job. We learn history and arts, mathematics and science, get news from around the world and evaluate social constructs we encounter as we grow up and apply these tools to understand life and then respond to events.
If we use happiness as a proxy for understanding life we can clearly see – from multiple, diverse sources – that very few – almost no one – can claim to have a happy life. Those who possess certain artifacts or properties are judged as happy by others but when the same question is asked to them directly, here again these ‘happy’ appearing people often describe their own set of troubles, problems, shortcomings, issues, and unhappiness leading us back to the initial understanding that most people on the planet are not happy.
One reason for this widespread – almost pandemic level – unhappiness in the global population is that our yardsticks for understanding life are created by flawed lenses that are human constructs, most of which are just a few hundred years old. The assumed connection between cause-and-effect in today’s world attributes every situation – good or bad – with some other action or event happening around it. The core assumption here is that events-cause-events and since this is a never-ending chain, most people just keep on looking back in the chain to find the main event that is causing them some misery or will profit bringing some happiness.
We invite you to a more clean and clear way of understanding modern life. This world view puts every individual’s act and belief at the center of his (her) life. Here, your belief and good deeds – done selflessly – will result in better events occurring in your life from the unlimited treasure trove of the Master of the Universe. Our focus will move from things that are not in our control to things that we are capable of performing and doing. The attention would be diverted from the short-lived life here on the planet (along with the apparently hiccups and troubles that are attached to it) to the ever-lasting life Hereafter. This change of focus has a strong impact on the way our body and mind respond to the situations that we face day-in and day-out as we drive strength from our belief in the mercy of the Creator and life that awaits us in the hereafter.
The shortness of this worldly life does not become a negative connotation – rather it helps us be more aware of the need to manage our time better. We allocate time for necessary work to sustain ourselves (work, or business), perform obligatory duties and worships on time, in the prescribed way, and dedicate time for self-reflection and planning for good deeds around us where we can see there is huge amount of misery and pain. Time extraction for these good deeds and noble causes is done by eliminating activities and indulgences that cause misery in the first place or are a waste of time altogether. We understand the non-consequentiality of the flawed mental constructs of today’s modern world and replace them with faith-based good deeds that revive our peace of mind and cause good things to happen to us.
Mercy4Humanity is a project around these thoughts. We invite you to explore the site, read the articles available on various of these topics, and books and posters that will keep you guided throughout the day. We invite you to engage with the content and spread it out to others in your close circle as no one of us want to keep goodies just to ourselves and this is something that is worth spreading.
