English
WISDOMLIGHT

WISDOMLIGHT

Menu

HAPPINESS

850 Peinture de guérison
850 Peinture de guérison


It is our own happiness that produces peace and harmony in the world – and in the universe. The quest for happiness must become our priority if we want to live in a better world.


On this page:

Prayer for Happiness
What is Happiness?
The Quest for Happiness
Twelve Practical Advice


Prayer for Happiness

I decide that happiness is my priority
I choose happiness in all circumstances
I work for the happiness of all beings

I accept full responsibility for my life
I abandon the causes of my misfortunes
I free myself of harmful beliefs 

I express myself with truth, authenticity and transparency
I stop judging others, the world and myself
I forgive my mistakes and those of others 

I cultivate beneficial emotions
I give up disruptive emotions
I know how to laugh at my mistakes and misadventures 

I live in the present moment
I open my heart to happiness and love
I interact with kindness, patience and generosity 

I enjoy universal abundance
I marvel at the beauties of nature
I have gratitude for everything that crosses my life 

I perceive the interconnection and unity of all life
I change my vision of the world and myself
I create a world of peace, beauty and harmony 

I decide that happiness is my priority
I choose happiness in all circumstances
I work for the happiness of all beings

What is Happiness?

Pierre Wittmann, you wrote a book entitled A Guide to Happiness for the Third Millennium. Firstly, what exactly do you mean by "happiness"?

Etymologically, the French word for happiness, “bonheur”, comes from the word “heur” meaning “good fortune”. The definition of happiness, according to the dictionary, is “the state of fully satisfied consciousness”. I will go further by saying that happiness is a state of harmony, because harmony implies the idea of relationships, relations with other people, relations between the different parts of a whole, as well as relations with ourselves. Happiness exists when these different relations are good, healthy, balanced, peaceful. The idea that one can find happiness without caring about others or the state of our environment is an illusion. That one can find happiness while both exploiting nature and living at the expense of others is an even bigger illusion. The present problem of the world is that a greedy minority thinks that it can find happiness while maintaining the majority of the world population in servitude and poverty and squandering the planet's natural resources. This simply doesn't work! It is critical to fully understand that we are not separate beings, but that we live in interrelationship, not only with all other forms of life, but with the entire universe. Happiness encompasses all aspects and levels of the whole and the interrelations between its different parts. 

What are these different levels?

On the individual level, our being is composed of four levels: the physical, emotional, mental and the spiritual. These four levels must be in harmony if we are to be happy. Each has its particular requirements and needs that we disregard at our own peril. 

The physical level includes our physical body and its essential needs, such as air and food, and our material comforts. In rich countries, most people enjoy a comparatively high level of material comfort, which they are led to believe is the source of happiness. But if they fall into poor health, or they constantly breathe polluted air and eat unhealthy food, the conditions for their happiness on that level are not fulfilled. 

The emotional level includes all our feelings and the ways in which we react to the circumstances of our life. Some emotions are beneficial to our health, our inner well-being and our relationships with others. Others are, on the contrary, extremely harmful. To learn to manage our emotions is, therefore, one of the most essential tasks to master before one can find true happiness. 

The mental level houses our ideas, opinions and beliefs. These colour our concepts of reality and our perception of the world in which we live. If, however, we are conditioned from cradle to grave and manipulated by our education, the media and those who rule us, then our beliefs are not in agreement with the truth and with the laws of nature. We will thus always be in conflict and in disharmony. 

The spiritual level connects us to the divine, to the source of all life, to the subtle forces that govern the universe. In our materialistic world we often disregard this connection, probably the most important to finding true happiness. It is this which allows us to overcome the suffering and the difficulties that manifest on the other levels. 

Besides these four levels of our individual happiness, we should not neglect our relationships and harmony with the various sets of which we form part, such as the family, our groups and communities, society, the planet and its ecosystem, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe… Our personal happiness depends on our healthy and harmonious relation with all these different sets. And it also has a significant influence on the harmony of these different levels. 

It is our own individual happiness that produces the peace and the harmony in the world – and in the universe. The quest for happiness must become our priority if we want to live in a better world.

The Quest for Happiness

Three Essential Stages:

To become aware of your present situation
To decide to change
To take action to co-create your transformation

All beings wish to find happiness and to avoid suffering. Yet, despite our many efforts, we don't succeed as often that we would like. Besides, the constraints of society and the vicissitudes of the world don't make this task easy for us. 

In our world of duality, however, pleasant sensations alternate with unpleasant sensations, and happiness is inseparable from its opposite, suffering. When we understand the nature of the reality in which we live we can, however, learn to manage this paradox, and to understand what causes and prevents happiness. It is also important to realise that happiness is a state of mind, and that to be happy is a choice that, despite appearances and our belief system, is offered to all. 

There are mainly three things that stop us from being as happy as we would like: the illusion of separation, the belief that we live in a world of lack, and fear. When we realise their opposites – that we are part of a whole, that universal abundance is at our disposal, that love can heal all ills – we will already have made true progress on the path to happiness. 

We will understand at that moment that we are interconnected not only with all beings, but with everything that exists in the universe. So, happiness is not an individual problem, but a collective quest that addresses all levels of our existence: domestic, social, global, cosmic. If we don't bring peace, harmony and happiness to all beings, without exception, our own happiness will never be total nor definitive. Society's well-being is inseparable from our own, and to create a world of peace and harmony, it is necessary to begin inside oneself. 

–our personal situation and that of our planet. Then it is necessary to decide to change, to change ourselves and to change the world. Finally, action is necessary to co-create the transformation, once more on an individual level and on the global level. 

To become aware of the present situation means exploring the past to understand the present. It takes courage to look for the truth, our truth and that of the world and to decide what we want to believe in all the information that assails us every day. We must recognise that we are conditioned, manipulated, exploited, that we have lost our health, our power and our freedom, and that we constantly live in stress and in fear. We also have to discover our ills, those of society and those of the planet, and to understand their causes. 

To decide to change is the choice that we must make now, before it is too late and our ills and those of the world drive us irremediably towards an irreversible disaster. The only sound decision is to refuse to continue to be powerless victims and frustrated aid recipients, and to become responsible beings. We must accept responsibility for everything that happens to us and stop blaming others; take our own happiness in charge, decide to heal ourselves and change our attitudes. To understand the notion of interrelationship in creating harmony and that of synergy will help us recover our power. To connect and to form groups and communities able to manifest happiness and abundance for all will speed the transformation. 

To co-create change is our role for the future. It consists of defining a new world view based on the search for an ideal, for the meaning and the value of existence, and for a new level of consciousness. Once we have decided that that we want to change, it is necessary to take action in applying the numerous means of transformation that already exist in our society. By understanding that when our goal in life is to use our talents and joy to help the world, we will be able to use our capacities, our creativity and our enthusiasm to create new structures and new social systems. The opening of the heart is the secret that will allow us to find the energy, the love and wisdom to accomplish this task. 


Twelve Practical Advice to Progress on the Path to Happiness

Gratitude: Let's know how to appreciate who we are, what we do and what we have, the beauties and the joys of our life, and the lessons that our difficulties teach us. 

The pages: Let's write three pages every morning to listen to the messages from our subconscious and to learn to draw on its immeasurable treasures. This is also an excellent way to develop our creativity. 

Beliefs: What to believe? What makes us happy? What are we afraid of? Let's make a list of our beliefs and our conditioning in order to discover our blockages and to thus release them. 

Forgiveness: Let's give up hatred, grudges towards others and towards ourselves, and let's free ourselves from guilt while practicing an authentic process of forgiveness. 

Laughter: All is illusion! Let's stop taking ourselves so seriously, but contemplate the circumstances of our life with humour. Let's not hesitate to laugh about our weaknesses and our mistakes. 

Kindness: Let's learn to be caring, smiling, helpful, gracious… to live in harmony with others and with the world. 

Nature: Let's cultivate our interconnection with the whole, with life in all its forms. Let's enter into communion with nature and let's contemplate its beauties with wonder. 

Daily Practice and Disengagement from the World: Through a personal practice, such as meditation, let's learn to live in the present moment and to disengage from the world, the better to help it. 

What Can We Do? What is our vision of the ideal world? Let's make the decision to choose our future and to manifest it. Let's act for the happiness of all and let's create a new world. 

The Emotions: Our negative emotions are the cause of all our torments and our suffering. Let's learn to manage our emotions in order to recover health, joy of living and freedom. 

Prayer: Let's discover what our true needs are; let's learn to connect through prayer to the source of happiness and abundance, and to accept the help and the support that are offered to us. 

Knowing How to Connect: Let's learn to use love and communication to resonate with all those we meet, and let's discover the power of synergy in groups and communities.

Created by Pierre Wittmann