People have a lot to say about
happiness:
““I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of
scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to
be happy.”
“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
“If more of us valued food
and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
Most of the quotes about happiness
are superficial. According to the thousands of quotes available online, some people
think happiness comes from beautiful scenery, or good food, or other pleasures.
Some people think it comes from
surrounding yourself with fun people, or by having power and control of your life.
But ideas from the Writings show that real happiness is more than just moments
of joy or peace. Real earthly happiness comes from heavenly loves, while fake
feelings of happiness come from hellish desires. Real, substantial, lasting, internal
happiness comes from the Lord, and we have to choose it: “The more closely we are united to the Lord,
the happier we become” (DP 41).
To be truly happy, we choose to learn more
about the Lord’s truth and repent to replace our own evil will with His good: “those who from the Lord are in love to the
Lord and in faith in Him, have eternal happiness, which is also called heavenly
joy. This joy is contained in that love and in that faith; and the man who has
heaven in himself, comes into that joy after death; meanwhile it lies hidden in
his internal” (NJHD 236). Our internal affections are not visible to us in the
world, as they are hidden beneath our externals. However, that doesn’t mean
that we don’t get hints. Our happiness during our time in the world provides a
significant hint towards the nature of our affections, and therefore examining
our earthly happiness can help us see whether we are headed toward an eternity
in heaven or an eternity in hell.
From outward
expressions of happiness, can we make judgments about the advance toward true
spiritual happiness in others and ourselves? Because of the connection between
true happiness and the Lord, we can use happiness to judge how useful other
people will be in our personal spiritual growth, as well as judging our own
spiritual happiness. Through an
examination of our happiness on earth, we can see whether we are happier
serving the Lord or happier serving ourselves and then we can choose to change
our internal lives for the better. Then, we can look at what makes other people happy and judge how happy
they want to be so we can surround ourselves with the people who want to be
closer to the Lord and distance ourselves from the people who dedicate their
lives to evil loves.
Heavenly Happiness on Earth
We can only see happiness on earth,
as we are not aware of the nature of heavenly happiness, for “once we leave
this earthly state and come into a spiritual state, which happens when we
depart from this world, a happiness gradually emerges that is beyond
description” (DP 41). If we can’t directly
experience this spiritual happiness, what kind of happiness is visible in the
world? The father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, identifies three
types of happy lives: “the pleasant life, in which you fill your life with as
many pleasures as you can, the
life of engagement, where you find a life in your work, parenting, love and
leisure and the meaningful life, which ‘consists of knowing what your
highest strengths are, and using them to belong to and in the service of
something larger than you are’” (Bratskeir, 1). Seligman’s
theory of earthly happiness brings to mind the three degrees of heaven, which
are natural (obedient), spiritual (loving the neighbor) and celestial (loving
the Lord).
According to Seligman, the pleasant life is filled with
momentary happiness, with a focus on gaining happiness by being obedient in
small ways, by listening to others and following the rules. This life is not
the happiest one, according to both Seligman’s theory, which says that this
type of happiness is fleeting, and the degrees of heaven, which says, “obedience alone is a natural and not a
spiritual affection, and is therefore comparatively cold” (AE 695). This fleeting
happiness is visible in the natural world; people find happiness in moments of
pleasure, like eating something delicious, but this type of happiness is not as
real or substantial as the meaningful and engaging lives.
Seligman’s life of engagement is about connecting with people, just as
angels in the spiritual heaven spend their time loving the neighbor. The
happiness that comes from loving the neighbor on earth is more real than the
pleasures of the pleasant life, as it brings angels closer to the Lord in
heaven. As angels get closer to the Lord, they find more happiness, just as
people on earth find more happiness as they are more useful and loving: “In the heavens there is a sharing of all
goods; the peace, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the happiness of all are
communicated there to each; yet to every one according to his reception of love
and faith from the Lord” (NJHD 236). As people get closer to the real elements
of happiness, loving the Lord and the neighbor, they are happier.
In Seligman’s meaningful life, people find happiness through being as
useful as possible and plugging in to a larger system of good and truth, using
the skills they have to influence the greater good. In this life, people provide
a broader use for humanity as a whole, as they contribute to the love in the
world, rather than just helping individuals. They love the Lord by loving and
assisting the good in others: “For the Lord is in the use as in good
that is from Himself” (DW 11). The
greatest possible happiness comes from putting all of the good in people above
yourself—loving the Lord and putting Him above everything else, which directly
relates to Seligman’s idea of a meaningful life.
These forms of happiness are visible in the world; we can see happiness
in the people who are working to love others and love the Lord. We can use
these ideas to inform our own spiritual development, order our lives, and
surround ourselves with people who help us be more useful, loving and therefore
happier. Seligman’s three types of earthly happiness correspond to the loves that
make up heaven. Happiness is real when it comes from being useful and loving
the Lord and the neighbor, and we can use these tools to know more about our
own affections and the affections of those around us.
However, happiness on earth doesn’t always spring from heavenly loves. Because
hell mirrors heaven, earthly happiness can also spring from hellish loves. Hell
forms an upside-down version of everything good and true, as evil spirits take
the good things and twist them into evil and falsities.
Hellish Pleasures on Earth
In every way that the
three types of happy lives relate to heavenly loves, they can also relate to
evil desires. Hell wants to twist all good things into evils and falsities, and
make us believe in fake shows of happiness, rather than subscribing to the true
happiness within obeying and loving the Lord and the neighbor. Because of the
evil motivations of hellish spirits, earthly shows of happiness are not always real,
as they can come from evil loves and delights. For evil spirits, doing “evil is
the joy of their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing
evil derives its all from hatred and vindictiveness against good and truth” (AE
991). Earthly happiness can seem to stem from heavenly loves, such as putting
others above yourself, while in actuality it comes from a hellish love of
worldly delights and power. Evil spirits delight in doing evil, and they want
to make people feel happy from evil
loves: “What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are
in hell can neither be described nor believed” (AE 991). Evil loves are a
mirage of hatred and lust, but evil spirits can use these loves to help people feel happy and in control on earth.
Because of the nature
of evil desire, Seligman’s types of happy lives reflect hellish pleasures as
well as heavenly ones. In the hellish life of pleasure, people can seek evil
pleasures on earth that then bring them a contorted version of happiness.
Delighting in momentary evil pleasures on earth leads to a confirmation of evil
loves. Even though moments of evil love don’t necessary change people’s lives,
moments of evil pleasure can create a fake show of happiness, which is where we
get the hellish idea that happiness can come from moments of self love or
admiration or from putting down others to make ourselves feel good.
People can find fake
happiness within a life of engagement from evil loves as well. As people
conform to more evil desires and let those lead them to a fake sense of
happiness, they confirm evil loves like loving the temporary things of the
world. The influence of evil spirits gives people the opportunity to feel fake happiness
based on having lots of money or possessions. On earth, people can feel happy
because they have more cars than their neighbor. Because of this evil love of
the world, earthly possessions seem more important than following the Lord’s
word or other “treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:20). Having excess money or a huge
house will not provide lasting happiness, but it can feel that way because of
the impact of evil loves. This happiness is temporary, because it puts objects
above people; this perverted evil desire restricts real happiness that comes
from loving the neighbor and the Lord.
In the meaningful life where evil pleasures
dictate happiness, people feel happy from love of self and a desire to be
worshipped instead of God. “Self-love and love of the world are the reverse of
celestial and spiritual love. And being the reverse they are loves which
endeavour all the time to destroy the celestial and spiritual things of God's
kingdom” (AC 1691). People will feel happy because they are in power, with
others loving them instead of them loving others. They feel important and
valued, because other people matter less than they do; they are more powerful,
more interesting, and better than other people. This idea, when given full
power and strength, completely overturns all good and twists it into evil
desires. But outwardly, self-love provides people with earthly happiness and
satisfaction, even though that fake happiness is a façade of falsities and
evil.
If we examine the
things that make us happy in our lives to find and eradicate these hellish
influences, we can find real happiness. The danger in looking for ways to
spiritually judge ourselves and others is that sometimes the things that appear
to be happiness come from a place of evil, just as the goats in the Last
Judgment acted good on the outside, but inwardly loved evil. Examining
happiness allows us to have more insight into the origin of our happy feelings and gain more insight into the
happiness of others. With this insight, we can use what little we understand of
happiness to order our exterior lives and lead us toward heavenly loves.
Conclusion
Earthly happiness differs
from heavenly happiness in one essential way: On earth, we have both heavenly
and hellish influences affecting our idea of happiness, and because of those
influences, our reasons for being happy continually change, while angels are
already set in a ruling love. In heaven, angels have a ruling love that
determines in which degree of heaven (natural, spiritual, or celestial) they
live. We are subject to the influences of each heavenly degree, as we have influx
from both heaven and hell. We can choose what makes us happy by denying the
evil and choosing the good. We have the ability to judge ourselves and others,
determining how we want to live our lives, and what kind of happiness we want
to support in others. Our sense of happiness gives us a tool to use to improve
and grow spiritually closer to the Lord. We are in control of what makes us
happy, because the Lord gives us the freedom to choose Him and deny evil, to
choose heavenly happiness and deny evil pleasure.
Happiness is a choice, not a feeling. We can
deny those moments of hellish influence when we just want to steal someone’s
money so we can buy coffee from the café; because even if we think that that coffee
would make us happy, we have the ability to know the truth: that coffee won’t
make us happy. That happiness is fake. Real happiness comes from a confirmation
of heavenly loves, for “the happiness of heaven enters so far as the loves of
self and the world, regarded as ends, are removed; and the happiness which
succeeds on their removal is so great as to exceed all human comprehension” (NJHD
238). Our happiness on earth stemming from use is the biggest indicator of our
affections. By identifying what makes us happy, we can change. We can deny evil
and learn more truths, supporting the good loves in our minds. Support good,
deny evil. Our happiness points us toward the path to heaven or the road to
hell, and the Lord gives us the power to change.
13 comments:
Excellent work Hanna! First of all, I loved the quotes and the picture at the beginning (super cute).
Second, I had never heard of this Seligman fellow before. That's incredible, how nicely it lined up with what the writings teach us. I really liked how you explained how each of his three kinds of happiness relate to natural, spiritual, and celestial happiness.
Lastly, I love how you italicized feel sometimes, and how you closed with that statement about feeling. I think it is so important to realize that happiness isn't necessarily going to come from feelings of joy or excitement or pleasure. We need to keep checking up on where these feelings are from, because they will help us realize if we're heading in a heavenly or hellish direction. So nice work.
Lovely blog!
Hannah!
Great job! your paper was so well written and interesting to read! I also agree with Ivy, I've never heard of Seligman before but its incredible how well it lined up with the Writings! such an awesome paper. good job!!
Alex
This is a fascinating topic to look at, particularly since society has such an emphasis placed on happiness being fleeting feelings of pleasure on this earth. I think the use of quotes was a good illustration of the worldly happiness issue. They seem like sweet little comments but they certainly lead to terrifying places if followed to the root. I really liked the comparison of Seligman's work to the Writings, I thought it presented some interesting parallels. Nice work!
Hanna,
I loved how you said that we can get hints of heavenly happiness through our natural happiness here on earth. And then your suggestion to judge others by their happiness so that we can know who to hang out with – quite confrontational!
Your comparison of the psychologist's ideas with the three degrees of heaven was fascinating. Are there other people in the field who say similar things?
Also, your image of hell as an upside-down heaven hammered home your discussion of the inverted nature of earthly pleasures. But couldn't you argue that $ and material possessions are more pleasure-based rather than engagement-based?
Congrats on this paper!
~ Becca
P.S. "Happiness is a choice, not a feeling." Boom. Love it.
This paper flowed very logically and naturally. The distinctions are very clear between the levels of happiness and between heavenly and hellish. What would you say is the guiding principle to tell the difference between heavenly and hellish to someone not accustomed to the Writings? Do you need the Word to make this distinction? Do you need the Word to be happy?
Do you think there is significance and value in things that make us feel happy? I would imagine because of correspondences that many things give us that feeling, like food, or sex, or beautiful things, or puppies for heavenly reasons. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your work!
I loved your picture!
I thought your paper was very clean and clear. I appreciate how you differentiated the different levels of happiness. The structure of hell has always interested me and I thought your description of it being upside down and invert was very interesting. It made me think about my earliest presentations on faith alone and what that looks like in the spiritual world.
I thought the last sentence with its emphasis on feeling was really good and made me chuckle a bit.
Very nice paper!
Great Work Hannah!
I loved hearing your take on the Happiness question, and it was wonderful seeing how the Writtings have so many different routes to take to end up with the same conclusion.
Tying the Nat/Spir/Cele and their counterparts to Seligman's happiness theory was a great way of grounding these concepts in something relatable and easy to understand, amazing how well they lined up, he must be on to something :)
So from all of this, how could you tell a friend who didn't believe in the Lord, but did believe that "feeling" happy is being happy, that the way they are living is making them miserable?
Thanks for your insights and hard work!
David
Wonderful paper, Hanna!
I loved the connection you drew between the work of Seligman and concepts in the Writings.
It was a very conversational paper and I was continually compelled to continue reading. It was never once redundant or uninteresting.
The one part which caught me off guard was the sentence about goats near the end. I know what that means, but it was a bit abrupt and introduces a whole other topic without really addressing it.
I did like the three levels of heavenly happiness you described, and the mirrored yet up-side-down levels of hellish happiness. It was well organized and insightful.
Once again, lovely paper!
Kristin
Terrible. Awful. Hated every word of it.
JUST KIDDING! I loved your paper. It was very much 'you', very true, and very logical, straightforward, and progressive. I found the correlations between Seligman and the Heavenly Doctrines to be fascinating. I'm wondering, how much did you have to nudge what he said so that it fit the orders of happiness? Or did it just happen that way naturally? -- which is what seems to be the case. They lined up so well, it almost seems too good to be true.
Also, I knew it was your paper right away from the picture. What a Hanna picture.
--Luke
This is a great paper!
I really liked that you were able to take some ideas from the Writings that can come across as offensive and abrasive and explained them in a clear and appealing manner. I especially liked your conclusion that happiness is something we choose, not just something we feel.
There are many earthly happinesses that can appear like real long-term happiness, when they are actually based on love of the self/world, and I wonder if we must have the Writings to identify these teachings, or if we can identify them in some other way.
I also really liked the idea of seeing happiness in other people who are working to love others and the Lord. This reminds me of the emphasis on the importance of choosing your friends wisely in LJ and LJC.
Enjoyable read Hanna!
Your title caught my eye because I'm always invested in the relationship between friendship and happiness. However, after reading this paper I realized that it not only applies to your friends but your personal "friendship" with real and fake happiness.
"Treasures in heaven" (Matt 6:20) is a beautiful image for the happiness we must strive for. Your paper clearly and strongly expressed the message that one must "choose what makes us happy by denying the evil and choosing the good." I also loved your thought-provoking question "What kind of happiness do we want to support in others?" This question alone could inspire quite a bit of self-reflection and conversation.
The following are questions that came to mind after mulling over your paper: Is the distinction between heavenly and hellish happiness really that simple to determine? Do we make it more complicated than it needs to be or is it really just complex? Can evil and good pleasures be present at the same time? I wish I knew the answers (if there are ones) to these questions. It would also be interesting to see this topic be taken with a focus on friendship with the neighbor.
Thanks for bringing this topic to my attention,
Tess Brown
I really enjoyed this paper.
It gave a comprehensive view of earthly and heavenly happiness, as well as their relationship. The in-depth analysis coupled with relevant exterior sources gave it a well rounded and impactful impression.
One area where there could be improvement is in the use of happiness to judge. There are parts that may lead to an unintentional inference that we can spiritually judge. A little more clarity and perhaps some more scriptural reference could clarify and reinforce your point.
Overall, this was an excellent paper.
I enjoyed reading your paper! It was very clear and flowed nicely. It was well organized and easy to follow.
I liked the idea of examining happiness (both in ourselves and in others) and gaining insight on those feelings so that we can be led towards heavenly loves. Trying to judge where happiness is coming from (especially in others) seems like a daunting task, but I'd agree that it's worth doing.
You also said that happiness is a choice, not a feeling. I agree with this sentiment and appreciated the succinct wording.
What's the difference between hellish happiness and general unhappiness (assuming there is a difference)?
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