Happiness

The idea that "We have a natural physical understanding of good and evil through our understanding of physical joy and suffering." from the "Thoughts" entry mentions our physical connection to our perception of duality within creation. The basic perception of joy and suffering gives us a reference point, such that we might understand good and evil despite any mental limitations. Without the context that our physical body provides, we would be unable to understand these concepts easily. Then, it is possible that good and evil are concepts modeled on our experiences, not necessarily definite metaphysical reality. So, good and evil relate to change within creation and time that is an effect (i.e., joy and suffering are effects), not necessarily a cause (e.g., someone's will). Our will is free to choose its direction during our life within creation and can not be considered good or evil. Good and evil are effects that we believe exist (based on our perception of joy and suffering), but they represent the change within God's image. When God's fragmentation is reduced by someone's will (that represents the will of God), we perceive it as a good effect in whatever capacity we are able to. The person's will is not good since the cause and effect are separate (the will is instead acting to create a good effect). The idea that good and evil are related to human pleasure and pain is an idea initially developed by Baruch Spinoza.

Life should be the pursuit of a long-term "good" state of being (many good effects throughout a lifetime), which is described as happiness or contentment. This pursuit of happiness is not hedonism, but is instead the pursuit of harmonizing your will with God's will as good effects manifest, such that we perceive good effects (using joy as a reference point) within creation and time.

Research has shown evidence that long-lasting happiness is found with intrinsic goals (e.g., friendship, health, enlightenment) rather than extrinsic goals (e.g., power, wealth, fame) when studying people over a certain length of time. Notice that the intrinsic goals reduce the fragmentation of God's image within creation and the extrinsic goals increase the fragmentation of God's image within creation. The most important intrinsic goal discussed in previous posts is relationships (i.e., friendship) because they focus and strengthen people's wills. The most important extrinsic goal discussed in previous posts is power since it is the antithesis of humility.

Pursuing a lifetime of happiness is pursuing God's will. When people pursue suffering, they generally have been persuaded that the "ends justify the means" in some way.

Health is connected to happiness in a metaphysical way. Shamanism is generally tasked with restoring health within a tribal culture but often is unable to cure physical illness. Shaman often restore metaphysical health by helping the person accept their illness, so that they are able to experience some happiness and peace. Western medicine is able to pursue blunt methods by which physical illnesses are removed or suppressed but often happiness is not a factor in the decisions that are made.