Happiness vs. Delight
It’s intuitive to think that ‘delight’1getting what you wantand ‘happiness’2being satisfied with what you haveare the same. But they’re not.
‘Happiness’ and ‘delight’ are fundamentally in different planes. Happiness is broader. Delight is more like a piece of the puzzle.
This means: suffering & happiness can coexist.3Not usually, of course.For example:
Imagine a soccer game. You’re supporting the underdog team, facing the best team in the world. The chance of winning is <1%. Yet, it’s the last minute, and your team is leading 1-0! You and your friends are already pumped; it’s about to be the biggest upset of the year…then the other team scores. It’s a tie.
When your team got scored on, it hurt; there was suffering.4You didn’t want it to happen.Yet, you’re happy with the results51 point from tying the game. It could’ve been 3, but because you were expecting 0, the results are satisfactory.
But, yes. In the moment of delight, you will be happy(satisfied)…probably. It’s nuanced.
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Peace
What you actually want is ‘peace’.6The people who don’t want peace (much) are those who have it, ironically. You don’t actually want to be happy all the time…that’s for another discussion.
The way to get to ‘peace’ isn’t by delight. You don’t get peace by getting the next thing that you want.
That “happiness”, from getting what you want, doesn’t last. Even with great accomplishments, you’re back to where you were, a few months later.
Delight always comes with suffering…if it’s your only way to be happy (for a moment). If you’ve “earned” your peace(via ‘ownership’), it should be semi-permanent.
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Selective
You’re selectively(& voluntarily) suffering over a few things, clearly.
Instead of having all kinds of emotions, all the time, you’re dissolving the chaos and making the story make sense.
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