Sunday 9 July 2006

Pic of the day: The world as seen from (a fairly close-to-Earth) Heaven.

Heaven (& Hell) on Earth

While following certain links I stumbled upon a Wikipedia entry about Maitreya Buddha (the supposed future Buddha), and it mentioned among other things Tusita Heaven. "Because the Tusita heaven is still in the realm of desire, its beings still feel passions, but they require less to satisfy those passions, and are thus calmer and more refined beings." This amused me, as I thought: Does this mean that I and [LiveJournal friend] are in Heaven, while for instance [another LJ friend] is in Hell?

I am certainly not in Heaven. I get sick from time to time, and whine accordingly. I am not too happy about my work either (though I'm more accepting of it than I was sometimes in the past), I just can't whine about it since it is off-limits to the world. And temptations abound on a daily basis, which they should not do in Heaven. But this "Tusita Heaven" sounds more like it. Yes, I have wants, but they are small and easily fulfilled. I generally don't feel the wish to go out there and kill people. Not anymore. The wish, I mean, not the killing.

If we look at it as emotional states, we could perhaps put it like this:
Heaven = happiness.
Earth = struggle.
Hell = loss of control.

By struggle I mean that people always want more than they can have, and they chase their goals, but no matter how much they achieve they always want more, more, more. As the instruction booklet to the original The Sims game said as its final words: "They want it all."

***

I know these emotional realms from my personal experience, although I have spent relatively little time in "Hell". Overwhelming fear and hate I know, but not the long dark winter of despair which some depressed people experience, where nothing that you do or can do matters, where you are only spinning in a void that eats all your actions and drains you to the marrow.

When I was young, there were a few episodes where I was swept away by rage and did things that might have seriously harmed or even killed people, had I succeeded. Miraculously I never did, and I did not maintain that anger for long enough to commit premeditated murder, which would likely have succeeded since I was pretty smart. Still, it was really creepy. I understand that such rage is not uncommon in people, and a very few of my online friends experience it repeatedly. I guess they are in Hell, in a manner of speaking, for the duration at least.

I also have a similar experience with fear, or rather panic attacks, and I have a healthy respect for those. I can easily see why people with frequent panic attacks or chronic phobias become every bit as disabled as a person without legs. The paralyzing cold that numbs not just the body but the very core of the soul... Hell on Earth indeed.

In contrast, the life I usually live is indeed enviable, except that envy is a hellish attitude itself and never makes anyone happy. Instead of envying me, common people should learn from me. No, seriously. Of course, there are other even more "heavenly" people that they may learn from instead, but overall mankind needs to move more in my direction, however they do it. Unfortunately, happy people often have a hard time explaining how and why they came to be this way. I'll make a try again, and unlike some happiness experts, I'll do so for free.

***

The key is, I believe, exactly what that article said: "They require less to satisfy those passions." That is to say, no unrealistic goals. Unrealistic dreams, sure, but keep it clear that they are dreams and to be enjoyed as such. Above all, the understanding that nobody has an obligation to make me happy.

On the AnimeSuki forum I chanced upon a young man with similar values to myself. He had an interesting take on school life. His logic was like this: The Buddha says that all suffering comes from desire. School suffering then must come from the desire to do well in school. By deciding to underachieve, he can sleep well at night despite not having studied.

This may be taking it a bit too far, unless he lives in Scandinavia or the Netherlands where you don't really need to work to live a decent life. But at least you could be like Lao Tzu, who counted as one of his three great treasure the decision to never be number one. That is to say, not compete. Competition can be fun, but it is a primitive activity and not conductive to happiness. Cooperation leads to happiness, but competition does not. "Well, it makes me happy when I beat the others." No, actually it doesn't. That is joy, not happiness. Those two are quite different, although they are both positive emotions. Joy is a rush, a feeling of "high", being swept away by good feelings. Happiness is a contentment, an experience of being where one should be, being who one should be, of things being generally right with the world, at least my own personal world. Competition will never give you peace, which is such an important part of happiness.

I am not entirely happy. In fact, these days I suspect I am less happy than I was 7 years ago. This, I think, is because back then I had someone I cared about, someone who was important to me. A girl I liked, even though we did not even hold hands, much less the other things you imagine so readily. As I say, it takes very little to fulfill my wishes, because my wishes are very small. (By human standards.) But they are not entirely absent. And I am not convinced that they should be. Nirvana can wait. Tusita Heaven is quite good enough for me.