What Determines if our Lives are Happy or Not?

What ultimately determines whether our lives are happy or not is our View of the World! 

If we believe that we are helpless victims and that the world is against us, then of course, we will find it difficult to achieve our goals and be happy.  

I will suggest several analogies in this post that will make this point clear:

The World as a University

If you are admitted as a student into a prestigious, long established University, is it a cause for celebration or despair?  Of course, you would be overjoyed and looking forward to pursuing your goal (degree) in whatever field you desire.  

Similarly, if you think of the world as a university, you too would celebrate your being born on this planet. You would also be looking forward eagerly to your life. You would consider it a blessing and not a curse!

Now what would you have to do in order to succeed at your goal of getting a degree?  You would have to focus on your studies, do research in the library or the labs provided and get help from your professors and friends to overcome any small problems.  You have the confidence that you can study; you don't have a victim-mentality. Of course if you refuse to do whatever is necessary, you will fail and may have to repeat the year.

In order to pass your exams, do you have to send gifts to the founder of the university?  Do you have to start every morning by garlanding a photo of the founder, sing praises of him and beg him to help you to pass?  No, you don't!  As long as you do your course work, assignments and study for your exams, you are bound to succeed in getting your degree.

It is the same with any goal in life - you would have to focus on and find the solutions to any problems you may face in going after the goal!  You don't have to keep begging or bribing god or any higher powers with gifts and flattery, in order to succeed.

The Creator has already set up the world and blessed you in such a way that you can use the power of your Mind and access the Universal Mind to get answers to all your problems in life!  You don't have to keep asking, or pleading for help.  As quoted from my book 'The GOD Soliloquy':

Analogy of the World as a Lovely Island

Imagine there is a beautiful island far from the mainland.  It has lovely hills, forests, streams, waterfalls and nice sandy beaches.  It would make an enchanting holiday resort.  Now assume two groups have landed on the island, on opposite ends of the island. 

The First group is made up of adventure seeking people who have agreed to be stranded on the island for six months - to prove their survival skills. After leaving them on the beach with a few essentials like matches, knife, clothing and so on, the boat sails off.

The Second group happened to be sailing nearby when their boat capsized (on the opposite side of the island).  But all of them were able to swim safely to shore. Some luggage and boxes containing essentials like matches, knife and so on were washed up on the beach .

So, now the situation is this:

Both groups are stranded (with the same basic necessities) on the same delightful island; the only difference being the First Group chose to be stranded and the Second Group did not.

Thus their viewpoints are very different! Although both groups are on the very same island with the very same resources, which group do you think will not only survive, but be happy doing it?

You say the First Group. Why?  Because they look forward to it as a challenge, an adventure and not as a disaster.  Also they know that after six months a boat will come to take them back.  So they have a positive mindset, which makes them happier.

The first group would start to make preparations to build some form of shelter with branches, tree leaves etc. They would also plan how to get food for the day - by hunting small animals or fishing and looking out for fruit trees.  

And what about the Second Group?  The second group will be busy blaming the captain of the boat, their travel agent, cursing their fate and so on.  Some will be busy praying to all their gods because they feel helpless. Generally the second group will have a 'victim-mentality' because they think they don't have any power.  

They will be busy discussing fate, karma, bad-luck etc.  None of these discussions will help them to survive on the island.  

Until they decide to accept the reality they are in, and take steps to change their viewpoint, they will struggle and be miserable on the island.  Not knowing when or if they can leave the island, will be another sore-point with them!

Let us now apply the above two viewpoints to life on this world. But let us remember that any viewpoint we have is just a belief that we have accepted as true - even if it were not true!

First Group's View of the World

We could just as easily be like the 1st Group and believe that this planet is a lovely place we have chosen to come to in order to experience an adventure as well as have fun overcoming challenges.

In fact, there are many modern-day energy healers and teachers online who believe that our being here is not fate or bad karma! They believe that it is we who chose to be born in this country, to our parents, at this time in life, for a specific purpose of our soul! 

They believe, as I do too, that when we have completed our particular purpose, we would be automatically promoted to the next level of our soul evolution. 

Thus, they are able to live enthusiastically in this world, going after their goals with confidence.They also do not fear the afterlife unlike what all religions teach us!

Second Group's View of the World 

What about the 2nd Group's views?  They believe, as most people have been taught for centuries, that we did not choose to be born here, we had no choice of our parents etc.  That it was all fate, bad-karma, or the curse of some sages.  That we are powerless victims at the mercy of so-called gods who were vindictive and whom we had to appease with prayers etc. if we were to have some peace on earth.

With this viewpoint, every project they begin is begun with fear, not with confidence - thus easily leading to failure instead of success. This confirms their belief that the world is against them and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Each time they fail, instead of rationally evaluating the results and making the necessary changes, their victim-mentality will make them helplessly rush to their gods in prayer!  In addition there is the over-arching fear of the afterlife.

Thus their life is one long cycle of fear, tentative efforts at achieving their goals, giving up easily, relying hopelessly on shamans, mediums, astrologers etc. and overall live a miserable life.

Conclusion - The Choice is Yours

Now you the reader, have several ways of choosing to look at life, to change your habitual beliefs.  As Andy Dooley says in the image below:

Some choices will make you live a happier, more fulfilled life with no fear of the afterlife, while others will make you live in abject fear, failure and misery with ever-present fear of the next world.

First, would you choose to believe in the happy concepts of this world as a University - a place of learning, or a Holiday Island - to have fun while overcoming challenges?  You also know that when your purpose is complete, (whether in 6 months on the island, or in 70 or 100 years on earth) you will be promoted to the next level of your soul's evolution. Hence you have no fear of death and the after-life!

Second, would you prefer to think of this world as a Penal Colony where you are banished for your own sins (karma) or the sins of your ancestors? Your life would then be one of suffering while waiting, hoping and praying for your eventual release from this earth.

Third, would you choose to think that you are Castaways on this planet, brought here by mistake; hoping and praying to be rescued by someone?

The viewpoint you choose is how you will make life work out for you - whether you are miserable or joyful!  

(NOTE: I realize that this may be a difficult choice for the majority to make - given the brainwashing we have all undergone for centuries. But it is worthwhile making the effort to consider these viewpoints at least, in the interest of happy living.)

Personally, for the past ten years or so, I have already chosen the joyful viewpoints (the Joycentrix View) instead of the misery making viewpoints (the Religious View)!  Hence I am much more at peace with the world.

My next post will be about  "What Prayer Means - to My Wife and to Me!"