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WHY DOES MAN SEEK HAPPINESS
by Ergun Arikdal

In recent months, in the course of conferences convened by our Society, we
always seem to come across questions regarding happiness. These questions meander
along many different routes, until they finally come home to the issue of
whether or not a method can be found for achieving happiness. ''Is happiness
among man's true purposes, or isn't it? What is the purpose of life, anyway?
If happiness is not to be considered among these purposes, then what is it
that we must do? If we change this present order that is causing man's unhappiness,
will we then be rendered truly happy?''

There's no end to the questions, arguments, defences, seekings, searches...
We have been trying to present the method of Spiritualism on this matter for some
time now in our monthly magazine, 'Ruh ve Madde' (Spirit and Matter).
In our opinion, happiness is neither a purpose that must be achieved, nor
a state in which achievement is illusory. Happiness is a result, and at the root
of the causes that will bring about this result lies man's self-sufficiency,
self-knowledge, awareness of the difference between himself and external objects
and between events and orders (that is, knowledge that they are separate things),
and finally his being master of the wisdom and rational conscience that will
enable him to free himself from a conditioned mentality and narrow-mindedness.

We must look into the ways in which seekers of happiness pursue their objective.
The reality is this: Bodily (purely sensual) pleasures, if continuous, make
man happy. To achieve this, we hanker after comfort, money, an easy life, fine
clothing and food, and a good job and position that will make the procurement
of these possible, etc.

However, any kind of emotion, pleasure or even sorrow that comes by way of
the bodily channel is always relative, that is, it is temporary, constantly
changing and totally unreliable. A sensation that gives pleasure today will
cause sorrow tomorrow; music we enjoy one day can be meaningless to us the
next These are all well-known truths. Carnal pleasures cannot be the cause
of the previously mentioned happiness.

If they could, then those people who possess every kind of material comfort
and opportunity would be in continual bliss. Instead, we see that instances
of unhappiness, dissatisfaction and, most tragic of all, of termination of such
meaningless comforts through suicide, have the highest frequency among such
people.

The situation is the same for those who seek happiness at the academic level
or in education. If happiness is a full stomach, warm coat and contentment,
then there should be no problem. But a full stomach is a need that must
be constantly fulfilled, which means it is temporary, passing, and in need
of constant renewal.

Man's lack of self-sufficiency is a necessity born of evolution. Man's lack
of self-sufficiency springs from his ignorance. Of course, ignorance will
always be our state in the presence of the Absolute, yet every stage of evolution
carries with it its own knowledge. Thus, it is the mastering of this knowledge
that will enable man to rise above and remain aloof from the immature illusions,
perverted thoughts and the unfounded value judgements, assumptions and labels
that he has imposed upon himself, and this, indeed, is self-sufficiency. After
this, man moves to the stage of self-discovery and knowledge.

As, through experience, our inner reality meets truth, and as we attain
various states regarding the nature of the self, man feels and then understands
that the structure of the external world and his own structure are of very
different essences. In the words of Ouspenski: ''He who sees himself as completely
different from things and events, who does not identify with them, who refrains
from the worship of these as idols, will remain aloof from them.”Then man
will understand how different the elements that make for happiness are from
the value judgements that have been pronounced and sermonized at various times.
Happiness comes neither from things nor from events. It is a treasure of the
internal reality, a higher understanding, a superior perception, a contact
with Truth.

That which we have labeled 'nefsaniyet' (spite, selfishness), is the state
of man in which he wants everything and evaluates everything.
''For me and in my opinion'' is the greatest obstacle to the formation
of happiness. The narrowness of 'nefsaniyet', from which the cosmos is viewed
as from a one-millimeter crack, causes the inner reality to remain in darkness.
A lifestyle in which there is no reality of spirit, no spiritual life or spiritual
morality, can never bring about happiness. Material reality is supported by
spiritual reality and only in conjunction with spiritual reality can it continue
its existence.

In the view of the reality of Spiritualists, the happiness for which man is
longing is not a goal in itself but a result. To achieve this result, human
life must have an aspect of physical application that takes its form from
spiritual life. If it is truly grasped that this practice can and must be
carried out with knowledge, understanding and rational conscience, the problem
of the materialists' hedonistic conception of hapiness will be solved as well.

People want happiness! To be happy, they run in every direction and knock
at any door. But they do not make, indeed, cannot make the surge of consciousness
that will transcend material hedonism. From time to time they come under the
influence of some kind of intuition or meaning from beyond the bodily reality.
This condition is but a sign of the deficiency of the reality they find themselves
in. This situation demonstrates the poverty of the technology, science, economic
power and materialist philosophy they have so trusted . The 'happiness'
of the well-fed and clad is but a dream; it is the so-called 'living' that
precedes an awakening in which hard realities will be suddenly thrust in their faces.
When we have failed to understand the meaning of life, the search for happiness
can have no end. Life must be rescued from materialism and reordered under
the blessed influence of truths springing from a spiritual source. It will
have to be so. However, neither being material nor being spiritual is enough
in itself. Illumination of SPIRIT and MATTER with the light of knowledge,
perception and rational conscience; maintaining oneself in unity; striving
to attain the identity of a being who is in the service of Almighty God's
Divine Laws of Will - these are what will set man on the road to perfection.
As long as the ‘machine’ culture, mechanical lifestyle, materialistic ideal,
sensual gratification, and Godless philosophy are guiding mankind, we
will never find a satisfactory understanding of this strange thing we call happiness. .
We say that happiness is a fearful illusion, happiness is egoism and selfishness,
happiness is analogous with backwardness, and finally, happiness is a fetter
to enlightenment if it has been reduced to such a misguided philosophy that
we seek it in material things or make it an end in itself. The purpose of existence
is not happiness. Its purpose is to expand consciousness, to heighten perception,
to increase knowledge and actions in accordance with cosmic laws, to evolve,
and to grow. To feel the harmony present in the cosmos, to be in rhythm with
this harmony, to witness the deep wisdom and meaning within all that hapens,
the mystic exhilaration that comes in being; all of these bring forth ever-renewed
happiness. This state is our common destiny, and thus we seek
happiness.

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