Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

Humans strive for some kind of happiness in a world that is not conducive to it. As each human life is a collection of random thoughts, choices, experiences, memories, and their interpretations, a permanent state of vague happiness does not exist, since everything is temporary. The pursuit of happiness, or the pursuit of anything in life, does not lead to a permanent state or thing. One can only experience moments of contentment in life. Some measure of temporary sense of perceived happiness is achieved not by pursuing it but by recognizing meaningful moments that could be missed during the pursuit itself. The pursuit of happiness is fruitless, as it is the pursuit after something that does not have a clear definition or any permanence. Whatever meaning is given to the concept of happiness, its pursuit is one of the main themes of life. But happiness is not a permanent state of being; it is only a temporary state of mind. But the dilemma of the pursuit of happiness is that one can miss the meaningful moments in life, in which random chance plays a major role in creating these moments, if one is not open to them and is only preoccupied with an undefined state of happiness sometime in the indeterminate future. Human life seems to be a drama to those who are in constant anticipation of the future, but in retrospect life often appears as melodrama and even farce. This melodrama is full of pretense and exaggerated self-importance and emotions, masked by some insightful ideas and efforts to change the world. Set against the background of the immeasurable universe and the limited understanding of reality, a fragmented and finite life appears to be a cosmic accident. And yet many believe that this life has an important role, although in reality human efforts have an insignificant impact on the universe. The tension between this perceptual illusion and reality inevitably results in suffering as reality shatters the illusion. Except for the pain and struggle for survival of the sick and disabled * B.G. Yacobi has a PhD in physics. He held research positions at Imperial College London and Harvard University, as well as teaching positions in universities in the United States and Canada. Email: b.yacobi[a]utoronto.ca.