False Solutions

If someone says, "If only I had more money I would be happy!" they should consult those who do have a lot of money and they will find out that these people have not achieved happiness. We could go through a long list of activities and at the end we would always find suffering.

 One thing that many people do is confuse a brief instant of happiness with a sustained happiness that continues to grow over time. For example, a poet might say, "All I need to do is to look at a flower to be happy." And it is clear that she will be happy… for a brief moment. This is true of any pleasurable activity. The pleasure of the moment dies with the moment. On the other hand, a state of happiness that lasts through time, no matter how small it may be, will grow. This is possible if a meaning in life orients that state of happiness, and not just by a simple action that dies immediately.

 We are not saying that pleasure is harmful, but only that it is short-lived. We are saying that it is fine for the moment it happens, but that by itself it cannot give a basis or meaning to life. You should be able to tell whether your life is growing more full or more empty as time passes. Then, you will know if your happiness is growing or diminishing. But how can you know this? You must learn how to compare different times or moments of your life in an accurate way: if the good moments in my life now are not as good as those I had in the past, then something is going wrong. If the good moments now are better than before, then I am well oriented.

 You must also know how to compare the negative aspects. If my bad moments now are worse than the bad moments I used to have, then something is not right. If my bad moments now do not affect me as strongly as they used to, then I am advancing, growing internally.

 In the measure that a new meaning orients my life, the comparison between the positive and negative moments of the past and the present will result in a favorable balance.

 No matter what I do, if the end result in the comparison is not favorable, it will be clear that I am living with false solutions that will lead me, sooner or later, to non-meaning.