A Happy Life May Not Be a Meaningful Life

Psychology

Date: February, 2014

Source: Scientific American

” A study recently published in the Journal of Positive Psychology helps explain
some of the key differences between a happy life and a meaningful one.  The surveys asked people to answer a series of questions on their happiness levels, the degree to which they saw their lives as meaningful, and their general lifestyle and circumstances.
More broadly, the findings suggest that pure happiness is about getting what we want in life. “


So, the key question is : ” What do we really want in our life ? “
And, to answer this question, we need first to ask : ” Who really is this one who want ? “. Once we have identified the doer, the one who want something, and how this doer functions, we may come back to the first question with a completely different answer.


Radha Burnier, former International President of the Theosophical Society wrote : “A person pursues money life after life. In one life a child dies, in another he loses his reputation, in a third his wife desert him, all sorts of things happen, and he asks himself : ‘What is this money worth ? It does not bring me the happiness I need.’ Then he begins to enquire : ‘What is real happiness ?’ Thus the evolutionary power pushes him until he begins to use rightly the freedom to become aware and act in accordance with that awareness. That freedom is inseparable from intelligence.”


Article : A Happy Life