Wore end piece
As the title suggests, this post has to do slightly with language. More with other things though.
I'm going to kind of build on Observation Twelve here. At that time I felt really happy. But, as the different words in existence suggest, there are multiple ways to interpret "happiness." Does it mean a joyous mood? Does it mean merely contentment? Or is it something deeper? Are there degrees of happiness?
I'm going to say that rather than degrees, there are types, or even levels.
First is the purely emotional. I remember one day I felt absolutely wonderful, for absolutely no reason. I just had a good mood going all day long, with no apparent cause. But I think this is the same type of happiness that does come from a cause. Like getting an A on a paper. It just makes you feel good. Getting a D on a paper in your next class can make you forget all about it.
Second is a deeper-rooted type. This comes from things you really care about. (Which isn't to say I don't care about my grades. I do. But you know what I mean.) For example, two people I know are experiencing deep personal growth at the moment, and both of them are happier than they've ever been before. This is a big deal to me, and makes me happy, in turn, for them. But even though this happiness is in a way directed at them, and also caused by them, it still originates in me. Otherwise I wouldn't BE happy. This type is harder to break down. Something I care about just as much as these people would be necessary to stop it.
Third is the deepest kind. What to call it? TRUE happiness? I don't really like that term. I prefer to call it peace. This kind of feeling runs so far under all the other kinds of happiness (or unhappiness) that even when they come and go, they do not affect it. They're like snow that piles up and then avalanches off of a mountain. The mountain stays the same. This type of happiness, or peace, is the hardest to obtain, and keeping it is complex. It runs on the same base foundational level as depression. In a way it's the opposite (though not in all ways, since depression comes from a very different cause). This is why you can be temporarily happy while depressed, and unhappy while at peace. What causes it? Generally not much. I find it comes from not just the things you care about deeply, but the things you care about MOST--Whatever you give yourself to, be it a pursuit or a person or even a state of being.
This is why one should be very careful what or who or where to give oneself. In fact, I would say ONLY to give yourself to something that is not only worth it, but will never change. Say what you care about most is another person's well-being. As long as that person is well, you will be at peace, no matter what else happens, because everything else is less important to you. But people's well-beings do change. And is that person becomes unwell, you will lose your peace for as long as both conditions (their unwellness and your caring about it most) persist. Now, most things change. One thing doesn't, and only ONE. But this is good, because the One thing that doesn't change is in a state that will give you peace as long as it remains the recipient of your self. So now the peace becomes dependent on only one condition, because the other condition is constant.
And now, Observation Thirteen: One should be careful to choose what one cares about most.
I'm going to kind of build on Observation Twelve here. At that time I felt really happy. But, as the different words in existence suggest, there are multiple ways to interpret "happiness." Does it mean a joyous mood? Does it mean merely contentment? Or is it something deeper? Are there degrees of happiness?
I'm going to say that rather than degrees, there are types, or even levels.
First is the purely emotional. I remember one day I felt absolutely wonderful, for absolutely no reason. I just had a good mood going all day long, with no apparent cause. But I think this is the same type of happiness that does come from a cause. Like getting an A on a paper. It just makes you feel good. Getting a D on a paper in your next class can make you forget all about it.
Second is a deeper-rooted type. This comes from things you really care about. (Which isn't to say I don't care about my grades. I do. But you know what I mean.) For example, two people I know are experiencing deep personal growth at the moment, and both of them are happier than they've ever been before. This is a big deal to me, and makes me happy, in turn, for them. But even though this happiness is in a way directed at them, and also caused by them, it still originates in me. Otherwise I wouldn't BE happy. This type is harder to break down. Something I care about just as much as these people would be necessary to stop it.
Third is the deepest kind. What to call it? TRUE happiness? I don't really like that term. I prefer to call it peace. This kind of feeling runs so far under all the other kinds of happiness (or unhappiness) that even when they come and go, they do not affect it. They're like snow that piles up and then avalanches off of a mountain. The mountain stays the same. This type of happiness, or peace, is the hardest to obtain, and keeping it is complex. It runs on the same base foundational level as depression. In a way it's the opposite (though not in all ways, since depression comes from a very different cause). This is why you can be temporarily happy while depressed, and unhappy while at peace. What causes it? Generally not much. I find it comes from not just the things you care about deeply, but the things you care about MOST--Whatever you give yourself to, be it a pursuit or a person or even a state of being.
This is why one should be very careful what or who or where to give oneself. In fact, I would say ONLY to give yourself to something that is not only worth it, but will never change. Say what you care about most is another person's well-being. As long as that person is well, you will be at peace, no matter what else happens, because everything else is less important to you. But people's well-beings do change. And is that person becomes unwell, you will lose your peace for as long as both conditions (their unwellness and your caring about it most) persist. Now, most things change. One thing doesn't, and only ONE. But this is good, because the One thing that doesn't change is in a state that will give you peace as long as it remains the recipient of your self. So now the peace becomes dependent on only one condition, because the other condition is constant.
And now, Observation Thirteen: One should be careful to choose what one cares about most.