Quote:
Originally Posted by ttt  Buddha was fundamentally happy, but he still achieved a lot  If a person gets in a happy state and doesn't need progress to stay happy, would he still make progress? This time as a result instead of progress being a goal. Maybe lightworkers and darkworkers both strive for happiness, and once they reach that state they are no longer at the level of polarization? |
I should have touched on this earlier-happy is a terrible word for this. Happiness is fleeting. Anyone who pursues it will end up disappointed. The word you're looking for is peace, or inner calm, or self-control. Each of those is different but they're all aspects of a particular state.
Pay attention to what I'm arguing. I'm not saying someone can't accomplish anything if they're calm and centered, I was pointing to the logical end of your assumptions as I perceived them. If the difference between lightworkers and darkworkers is that one of them is always happy and the other is always at unrest, and that unrest is what drives progress, then the other side could never gain any significant power.
As I understand it, peace is not the same thing as enlightenment. I know this because peace comes fairly early upon committing to a path. The difference between the peace you know upon polarizing and the peace that comes at the end is that the latter is imperturbable. (One of the reasons I use peace over a word like happiness is because you can be at peace even when angry or sorrowful. The key is knowing you are not your emotions and that emotion will rise and fade entirely on its own as part of the natural processes of life.) Now, I can hardly claim to understand it fully, and I doubt anyone else can either. Truly enlightened people are rare and I doubt any of them spend their time on internet forums. I'd love to have a chat about it, but it's unspeakable-there aren't words for it.