The Pursuit of Happiness
Reverend Brad Carrier
Feburary, 2002
The notorious 19th century preacher Robert Ingersol once said, "Happiness is not a reward –
it is a consequence; suffering is not a punishment – it is a result." What would result in our happiness, for you, me,
all of us?
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," – these words our woven into the spiritual
foundation of our country as told in the Declaration of Independence. It is our agreement towards our selves and our promise
to the world – that we, each and all, have an inherent, inalienable right to our life, liberty and happiness. It is
a New World triumph over Old World ways. Is it something we create, or recognize as inherent? If the latter, America may be
an early country to recognize something inherent in being a freeborn human earthling, something all people everywhere have
a right to.
This was new. From the Inquisition to the Reformation, states determined collective holiness, truths,
and virtues. The heretical idea that we decide these things for ourselves was founded officially in Transylvania in the 15th
century in King John Sigusmund’s "Edict of Religious Toleration." In it, he allowed the congregations in his kingdom
to choose what religion they wanted to practice – Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist or, his own, Unitarian – rather
than determine that for them, as was the usual practice. Too bad his good idea died with him, for after he died, Europe descended
into centuries of religious imposition via edicts, torture and war.
Eventually, the radical notion that we are born free and ought to live our lives that way took
form in the new American experiment. Here too, Jefferson altered Paine’s "life, liberty and the pursuit of property,"
to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." How innovative and liberating – for each to seek his or her happiness,
sanctioned and protected by one’s government. Our government was founded to protect us from the sorts of presumptive
tactics that most governments imposed on their subjects. Here, we honor the sacred realm of personal choice. Here, we have
faith that people can and will live well together, productively, creatively, when we operate from the base of freedom for
our "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness."
Aristotle wouldn’t have identified happiness as a goal. For him, happiness was impossible
without virtue. For its own sake, it would smack of blatant hedonism. Similarly, Epicurus said it is impossible to live pleasurably
without also living wisely, well, and justly.
Nor is happiness the goal of many religions. Belief, suffering, prayer, strictures, submission
– these are taught by many religions. Only the Buddhist seems to identify our innate desire for happiness as natural.
They embrace happiness, but have some wise teachings on how to truly have it. Their teachings go a long way to our extricating
ourselves from the bind of desire blocking the happiness we would otherwise know.
In the New Testament, happiness is mentioned only six times, and never in a happy context. It’s
more of an, "if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye." There’s truth in this, but only if we don’t assume
that’s the only way to find happiness. In general, many teach happiness is not some separate prize unrelated to overall
wholeness and integrity.
In a recent Forbes magazine, Donald Trump wrote that for him, happiness is always momentary. He’s
never satisfied. There’s momentary pleasure, then it’s "off to the next victim." He admits there are those who
are happy with minor pleasures, and that they may be better off in the overall scope, but they tend "not to be very successful."
Pursuit, success, deals, and competition makes him happy, "well," he clarifies, "competition if I win." I like an honest man.
He’s a step above the hypocrite who won’t admit his self-serving ways.
American capitalism is rooted in this faith in self-serving ways generating a creative and abundant
society. It is in fact a liberal faith. We have faith in people doing things their own way for their own ends. It has contributed
to the incredible prosperity we enjoy.
But wait. Do we enjoy? In many ways, no doubt, yes. But in many other ways, how happy are we? How
happy is Donald Trump with all his millions? How happy are we, with our modern conveniences, easy entertainment, and labor-saving
devices? It’s as though we prayed for centuries for the simple goods of life: water in the house, more than two sets
of clothes, an indoor toilet, books, travel, ways of communicating. We keep getting them; we keep wanting more. We want more
clothes, better cars, four bath rooms, air conditioning, trips abroad. Rarely do we sit, happy and content with the abundance
we have. Desire drives us to always want more.
The Buddha taught: "Desire is the mother of suffering." Wanting more, fearing, holding on to the
past, wanting something to end, or hurry, or start – all these give birth to the dissatisfaction that keeps us striving
more than arriving. This is great for the engines of the economy. But has that engine become too loud and stinky? Does it
take too much gas and tinkering? Do we concoct ways to go way round the corner, two corners, hundreds of corners, to get to
the simple happiness that was, and is, in us, here at hand, in our mind, in our heart?
Curious, and laudable, that Forbes would devote an issue to various people’s ideas of happiness.
I wasn’t surprised to see Donald Trump quoted, but six presidents and an array of journalists and philosophers? Could
it be that the moneyed want happiness like all of us? Could it be that they don’t have it, that more is not automatically
better? "It’s pretty hard to think what does bring happiness," said Alan Chalmers, "poverty and wealth have both failed."
If prosperity isn’t automatically pleasing, what is?
Owen Edwards dwells on the word "pursuit." He compliments Jefferson ironically, "…what a
subtle dodge it was to place it just on the horizon, at the precise vanishing point where wishing and fulfillment seem to
meet… [where] satisfaction is brief, but longing is long." He notes we’re a people "constitutionally incapable
of ever coming to rest… We dream of the absolutely perfect thing, but it, then – long before the bill is paid
– look for something just a little bit more perfect." Somehow, optimism stays ahead of disenchantment but leaves a trail
of waste in its past.
Does unquestioned desire drive us astray? It can, though we’re resilient. Even the great
dot.com bust isn’t occasion for despair. It is in the grand tradition of gold rushes and industrialization. Our pursuing
happiness is inherently messy and problem-prone. Our idealism has always coexisted with our money grubbing. Money grubbing
drives us even as we drive it. But where is it driving us?
The disciple picked the guru up at the airport but the guru drove home. He seemed to be going faster
and faster. Just then, the disciple noticed they were on the wrong freeway, going the wrong way. "Master," he cried, "we’re
going the wrong way." "Yes; I know. But I’m going as fast as I can!"
Chuang-tzu said, "Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness." Sometimes I think we don’t
so much have happiness as remember it. So, this pursuit, how wise is it?
Writer John Perry Barlow, former Grateful Dead lyricist, complains about Jefferson’s phrase.
He quotes Swami Satchidananda, "If you run after things, nothing will come to you. Let things run after you." While Americans
spend some enormous time and money pursuing happiness, wasting copious amounts of energy and resources in the process, how
happy are we? Are we embarrassed by happiness? Are we ashamed of enjoyment even while we claim to want it? Does what we do
make us happy?
And who is "us?" The African Zulu word for community means, "I am because we are; we are because
I am." We are interrelated in this bold pursuit. How I am is involved with how we are; how we are is affected by how I am.
We say "e pluribus Unum," but do we operate towards a collective happiness? If we’re happier
because we look down on others from our tall heavy SUV, do we notice we’re blocking most drivers’ vision and endangering
them more in collisions? If we enjoy cold air on hot days, do we realize the air conditioner in the alley creates even more
heat for those outside? The top of the Enron Corporation (and numerous selected investors and governmental officials) got
happy and rich off their shell-game schemes, while the little investors lost all and the country’s energy policy served
the few at the expense of the all. We praise the "creation of wealth," but somehow don’t inquire, "at whose expense;
at what final cost?"
How we are together effects how each of us is. Philosophers used to praise utilitarianism –
simply, "the greatest good for the greatest number." But questions of our collective good are shunted aside with the free
market answer. Our morality about war goes only so far as to whether "our" boys are injured and killed. We taunt global warming
with flippant indifference. Huge truck/cars sit outside the Safeway, their engines running, their drivers protecting themselves
from feeling any degree of chill or heat.
We’re so busy grasping at pleasure and happiness, I wonder how often we find it, know it,
share it, bestow it. We’re so busy trying to buy it we don’t ask why, or realize how occupied and spent our life’s
time gets gone. Busy, busy. Gone, gone.
Old Aunt Lou lived in Samson County, North Carolina. The ocean was only fifty miles away, but she
had never seen it. She didn’t care, either. She spent many an easy evening, sitting on her bench swing, just looking
at the fields and changing light. Uncle Winifred worked hard as a farmer. He never learned how to drive a tractor, much less
a car. When he had gathered his corn in a big pile, he’d fall down on it and thank God for the wondrous harvest.
The peace not past our understanding falls
Like light upon the soft white table cloth
At winter supper warm between four walls,
A thing too simple to be tried as truth.
Days into years the doorway worn at sill,
Years into lives the plans for long increase
Come true at last for those of God’s good will:
These are the things we mean by saying peace.
Pursue happiness? Yes. We should. But, what makes for happiness? Do we practice pursuing it, or
knowing it? Maybe it’s like muscle-building. We need to acknowledge it, feel it in little precious times, create it
by smiling, exercise it by laughing, share it by giving. "Fill the hour," said Emerson, "that is happiness." And Kim Hubbard
contributed this: "The grand essentials of happiness are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
Would we do well to hope, and love, and do, as individuals, as a country, as a world? We live in
a wonderful country, full of prosperity and possibility. We’ve fashioned a creative society by having faith in freedom
in ourselves. We’ve done well. But we could do better. We could ask, "How happy are we?’ We could wonder and test,
"How can we do this better, for me, for us, for everyone?"
Closing Words:
Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to make others so.
Robert Ingersol
