Journey or Desination?

[aphorist]

I'll preface this by saying I'm 20, I feel a bit naive and a bit invincible at the same time.

When I was younger, I fought hard for the premise that happiness was my main goal. Then I got a little older, and realized I wanted to figure out "truth." The problem is that, right now, these things seem to be in conflict. It seems like happiness is a journey that won't lead towards truth and, on the other hand, truth is a destination that requires less focus on happiness.

I know this is oversimplified, but I'd like to know what your perspectives on this are. Is living in each moment the better way to go, or do goals which make you sacrifice mean more? It seems like a life of meaningless joy would become monotonous pretty fast, but a life in searching leaves out certain human emotions.

Maybe I'm making this too black and white and some kind of mix is the best way. It's just that within all of this PD talk of knowledge and changing yourself, there seems to be a tone that basic human emotions and living without life-long motivation is wrong.

[RT Wolf]

The Power of Now

That may help frame your thinking. Do check out the book he's referring to. It's quite good.

Pavlina's premise is pretty simple: the point of setting goals isn't to actually get that thing that the goal is about, but to grow from the experience. So, if you think that a certain goal will cause tremendous positive growth through sacrifice, do it. Future goals should also improve present moment experience of reality by either getting you motivated or happy, etc.

In some sense, part of your happiness comes from having clear goals.

[Parthon]

Hmmm .. That's an interesting question.

My view on lie is that everything is an experience. Happiness is just one of the many experiences, and it's a good one, but all the others are also valid too. The state of experiencing though is to be aware and unattached. Experience them fully, but let them go as well.

In my world, you would both be looking to maximise your current experiences and also working on maximising future experiences. Working on opening up more possibilities for interaction in the future as well as fully experiencing the now. However, that precludes working towards the "someday, maybe" that most people get stuck in. You have goals and destinations, real and concrete. Not vague feelings of possibly future happiness. You know what you want, and how to get it, it's just a matter of taking the right actions. This doesn't diminish your experience of the now, it just focuses it.

It could be the same for happiness. You don't sacrifice your current happiness for future happiness. You just focus on bringing in the maximum happiness in the present, along with acting in such a way that you bring maximum happiness in the future.

[The Cloud]

Neither the happiness nor the "truth" you are seeking are valid, or you would have found them already . Whatever you think you're searching for or trying to achieve, you are wrong or you would have already found and achieved it. It's a tough lesson, but the sooner you learn it the sooner you can have what's really worth having. You are doing it wrong; otherwise, you would be doing it right .

[aphorist]

Thanks RT, and Parthon, that helped me out.

Cloud: so you're saying that everything i'm trying to achieve should have already been achieved? it's not that i haven't found happiness or "truth" it's that i'm in a constant look for it. I've redefined them constantly, i've gained insights and continue to grow. Basically you're saying nobody should seek anything if they haven't already found it, no?

[Parthon]

I think it's more that in the seeking for happiness, you create a lack that doesn't already exist. In fact that hapiness is already there, you are just looking outside of yourself instead of within.

Everything you need is right here, right now. That's not to say that you can't set goals and achieve them. Do it from a place of abundance and not lack though.

[aphorist]

Thanks for the clear up. I get how emotionally I should search from within. I'm actually not in a search for happiness, I know where happiness stems from in my life. I am currently working towards trying to find an objective viewpoint on knowledge, though. Should I be thinking that I already have this knowledge and I should just look within? It seems that with something like knowledge, you need to look towards others for passed down, and built upon works.

I actually do think that I'm working from a place of abundance. The world is my oyster. But I think there are different paths from this place of abundance. I've already learned a lot from these responses though, so thanks.

[SimonaRich]

You will never find truth if you are doing something that makes you unhappy. Only if you enjoy your life it will lead you to the truth of who you really are and what this life is about.

Life is a journey, and if you are only looking at the destination, you will miss it.

When you think that you are very far from your desires and you do not like where you are now, you disallow yourself from moving towards your desires.

You should enjoy where you are even if you do not like it, because enjoyment of your present environment will enable you to move forward. You should focus on things that make you happy in your current reality, and ignore the ones that make you upset.

Feelings are the indicators how close you are to the truth. Truth is who you truly are. So if you are feeling any negative emotion, it means you are distancing yourself from the truth.

You should always do things that you enjoy, and if someone says that you need to work hard and struggle to achieve true happiness, they are talking nonsense.

Those that struggle and achieve something are always disappointed because they hoped for true happiness but all they got is emptiness.

[Parthon]

Originally Posted by aphorist

Thanks for the clear up. I get how emotionally I should search from within. I'm actually not in a search for happiness, I know where happiness stems from in my life. I am currently working towards trying to find an objective viewpoint on knowledge, though. Should I be thinking that I already have this knowledge and I should just look within? It seems that with something like knowledge, you need to look towards others for passed down, and built upon works.

I actually do think that I'm working from a place of abundance. The world is my oyster. But I think there are different paths from this place of abundance. I've already learned a lot from these responses though, so thanks.

Knowledge is everywhere for a start. In the grain of sand under your finger tips, to the gust of the breeze in your hair. Knowledge is knowing, and there's no end to the things you can know, and by know, I mean connect with. When you know something as you know yourself then you know the truth of it. That knowledge is real power.

There's really no need to seek knowledge, the world will bring it to you. All you need is an open and inquisitive mind and the mysteries of the world unfold.

I believe these points go together:

• Knowledge is everywhere
• Knowing is infinite
• To gain knowledge, be open to all knowledge

[aphorist]

Thanks Simona and Parthon, really helpful responses... It's amazing how in 2 months my views have shifted so far from where I started. It's still a bit hard for me to step back and see the bigger picture, but I guess that will come when I'm no longer focused on the small picture.

Parthon, I think I started to crave my own experiences and ideas on things when I finally realized that our education system (at least in the US) rams information down us without any nod that it could be false. I was always being taught theories which came about in the past 30 years as if they've been "true" forever. It's wrong that we're taught what to think insted of how to think.

[The Cloud]

Originally Posted by aphorist

Cloud: so you're saying that everything i'm trying to achieve should have already been achieved? it's not that i haven't found happiness or "truth" it's that i'm in a constant look for it. I've redefined them constantly, i've gained insights and continue to grow. Basically you're saying nobody should seek anything if they haven't already found it, no?

What you're looking for, you already have. Whatever method you're using to find ultimate truth/happiness is not working and not going to work. If you can't cast out your old thought patterns and old methods, no matter how attached to them you are, then you will always be questing and never be finding. Your methods are the journey, and once you stop journeying you'll be at your destination.

[aphorist]

Originally Posted by The Cloud

What you're looking for, you already have. Whatever method you're using to find ultimate truth/happiness is not working and not going to work. If you can't cast out your old thought patterns and old methods, no matter how attached to them you are, then you will always be questing and never be finding. Your methods are the journey, and once you stop journeying you'll be at your destination.

I think we're saying the same thing. I find happiness in questioning. And I currently have no need to find. Therefore, I'm on a great journey. It's not that I want to find ultimate happiness/truth (even if it does exist), it's that I enjoy the journey.

My initial post was me questioning what others find useful in goal setting/living in the moment. But I think I've had the answer for me all along and the posts here just confirmed it. I'm currently in a period of rapid change, or at least it feels that way, and sometimes it's nice to get a handle on my situation through seeing others pov. Thanks Cloud.

[Parthon]

Originally Posted by aphorist

Thanks Simona and Parthon, really helpful responses... It's amazing how in 2 months my views have shifted so far from where I started. It's still a bit hard for me to step back and see the bigger picture, but I guess that will come when I'm no longer focused on the small picture.

Parthon, I think I started to crave my own experiences and ideas on things when I finally realized that our education system (at least in the US) rams information down us without any nod that it could be false. I was always being taught theories which came about in the past 30 years as if they've been "true" forever. It's wrong that we're taught what to think insted of how to think.

Your welcome.

That's something I found as well. After 12 years of schooling I knew a lot of useless information about stuff I would never want to know, and it was told to me as truth and if it's always been that way. I didn't even know anything about the world or history. I was pretty resistant to schooling though, always curious and looking for my own answers.

Just questioning the validity of what you hear, not as a nervous doubt but just a reserved curiosity, you make yourself open to anything that might contradict what you know, rather than not even noticing it. When you find new information, you can question that too, and then see if it fits. Even stuff that seems true is still open for debate.

[Eric Roosevelt]

I've have gone through very similar conflicts in the past. However, I'm slowly becoming more convinced that happiness and truth are intertwined and basically inextricable from each other. At least that's what I think.