etching by Rembrandt
I’m going in search of the adventure of being alive.
And it’s complicated: why am I not looking for happiness when everyone has taught me that happiness is the only goal worth pursuing?
Why am i going to risk taking a path that no one else is taking?After all, what is happiness?
Love, they tell me. But love doesn’t bring and never has brought happiness.
On the contrary, its a constant state of anxiety, a battlefield; its sleepless nights, asking ourselves all the time if we’re doing the right thing. Real love is composed of ecstacy and agony.All right then, peace.
Peace? If we look at the Mother, she’s never at peace. The winter does battle with the summer, the sun and d moon never meet, the tiger chases the man, who’s afraid of the dog, who chases the cat, who chases the mouse, who frightens the man.
Money brings happiness. Fine. In that case, everyone who earns enough to have a high standard of living would be able to stop work. But then they’re more troubled than ever, as if they were afraid of losing everything. Money attracts money, that’s true. Poverty might bring unhappiness, but money wont necessarily bring happiness.I spent a lot of my life looking for happiness, now what i want is joy.
Joy is like sex – it begins and ends. I want pleasure. I want to be contended, but happiness? I no longer fall into that trap.
by Paulo Coelho ( “The Witch of Portobello” )
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Joy is like sex because both are “manifestation of Agape”.
Maybe we’re not strong enough to understand the infinity of Love, so Love reveals him/herself sometimes in bad experiences, sometimes in good experiences.
Bu He/she keeps us going on in Life.
Love
Chris
Sex is not always pleasant, so maybe not a sure joy. But that is the problem to read a part of the story, and not the whole novel. Athena will take love, as far as I know.
Sex is pure life-energy
ESO ES UN HECHO….. NOS HAN VENDIDO UN MODELO DE FELICIDAD TAN ABSOLUTAMENTE CIERTO PARA LA FORMA ACTUAL DE VIVIR.. QUE NO MIRAMOS LOS HECHOS , LAS PRUEBAS, LAS EVIDENCIAS…..SIMPLEMENTE LAS DEJAMOS DE LADO, NOS VOLVEMOS CIEGOS, Y SEGUIMOS TROPEZANDO CON LO MISMO..NO…ASI NO SE PUEDE….BOTO LA TOALLA,NO QUIERO MAS ESO ….SOLO QUIERO …SEGUIR Y VIVIR
The pursuit of happiness is a never ending story …. And not a clear story either … The concept of happiness has been created whitin the soul and that makes it hard to devine or hot to reach it ….. And the avarice of man makes happiness polluted ….. Enjoy that moment that has been filled with joy and learn to live on that feeling for a while….
Enquanto o sexo e o prazer e até o desejo de ter posses forem considerados pecado, não teremos a plena alegria, pois sempre estaremos com o pensamento de estar ou não pecando.
A alegria é ser quem se é e viver o que se deseja, sem medo e sem culpa…
Je viens de lire cela, a cet instant
“Le noir et blanc est la grammaire de la photographie alors que la couleur reste le sujet avant tout.
La lumiere et l’ombre representent des etats d’ame. Ils indiquent le moment de la journee, un cadre temporel d’un souvenir. D’ailleurs on m’a dit qu’un nouveau-ne ne voit qu’en noir et blanc: serait-ce la nostalgie profonde d’aimer ce qu’on a vu la premiere fois.”
Christian Coigny, photographe.
C’est magnifique!
“The black and the white are the grammar of photography whilst the colour remains the subject above all.
The light and the shadow (the darkness) represent the states of the soul. They capture the time of the day, a temporal frame of a souvenir. Besides, I was also told that a new born only sees in black and white : could this explain the profound nostalgia to love what we have seen the first time?”
Christian Coigny, photographer
Joy is like sex- the sex that release the sences of the soul, with that sence of freedom of the human kind, no rules and conditions that destroy the mind.
Hola!…y si!! Por que ir en busca de la felicidad…hace varis años que no pienso ni busco eso..Me saque esa mochila en la que cargaba con un par de datitos ínfimos, hoy voy por el detalle, por el día a día y eso me completa más..Para mi la felicidad no existe es un truco para no poder ver el detalle.
Will it become a boy or a girl?
I like it when you add images to your entries. Images provoke imagination.
lol – Rembrandt’s woman isn’t pregnant, she just isn’t photoshopped…..
Love is agony and pain? What kind of love is that? Sounds like addiction to me… real love is something else, I prosume?
i wish to everyone who hasn’t felt the agony in love yet that they may experience it one day. It might hurt but you will not have lived if you lived without it.
“Love is agony and pain? … Sounds like addiction to me…”
:o)
at least it is not a healthy love …
and obsession likes to feed on those two.
ya it is true…what is happiness..i think i am happy when i recieve love,when i feel safe and secure..maybe happiness is about us feeling content..and secure..wheather emotionally,financially,physically,i mean it is relative,each with what concerns him/her
I think money can only buy pleasure.
Happiness can only come from within.
Son tan fuertes y tan verdaderas tus palabras que cuesta un poco aceptar que esa es la realidad de todos nosotros, aunque nos encontremos en continentes distintos con vidad completamente diferentes. Justo me encuentro leyendo el libro de donde se saco ese fragmento, y ayer leyendo este mismo fragmento en el libro me causo bastante curiosidad, me llamo bastante la atencion. Gracias por percibir lo que todos sentimos, pero que pocos pueden llegar a expresarlo en palabras Pablo!
Love brings both agony & ecstasy – pain & pleasure – to be ‘alive’ we need to experience all emotions, because only when we have had intense pain do we really appreciate immense joy.
Life is a balance of yin & yang – within the fullness of yang, there lies a seed of yin; within the fullness of yin, there lies a seed of yang. One attracts the other and one exists because of the other, one is incomplete without the other. Joy is not joy if you have not felt pain – night is not night if you have not seen day.
i like what you’ve said. i totally agree
Happiness…
Dear facebook users your happiness is being tracked…at least officially in the U.S.A.
”Facebook’s gross national happiness index”…
Dear iphone users you can now track your happiness with an iphone application…
And never forget the Gross National Happiness Index ….for different countries around the world….
But maybe we should also consider…the Global Conscious Project… this is a completely different level….you are being measured whether happy or not…
Satora
To me, happiness is not something to seek as an object. Rather, happiness is a state of mind.
We are all in the pursuit of happiness. Yet not everybody end up being happy. And it is because either they have a misconception of the notion of happiness or else they associate happiness with the wrong objects and habits.
All major religions teach us to seek joy and serenity in life. Yet the nature of life is dualism and it functions like a pendulum, causing our emotions to swing to and fro. When one is experiencing an instant of happiness, sooner or later it will be followed by its opposite.
Here in Mauritius, some weeks back the funniest of our local brand of politicians passed away. For more than 20 yrs he had been nourishing the dreams of becoming the Prime Minister, yet he could never get himself elected even in village election. He was the laughing stock for a great many, including to myself. Until a friend explained to me that this guy may go down in history as a foolish politician, but he lived his life fully. And he was in the pursuit of his dreams and said what he had in his mind, contrary to a great many among us who play down their dreams and ideas for fear of what others might say..
So i believe that happiness lies in pursuit of one’s dream.. and happiness will ensue..unmindful of the outcome..
Vanessen
I believe that what makes up the world is the very little things that you don’t feel / care / while doing it, the moments that everyone can feel, the poor and the rich that is affordable for all humans el 7amdulillah that anyone anywhere can do it and feel these moments ….. these moments some of u might think of it now as “how lame”, “dude wtf”, … but I m sure that u will miss it one day or another…. like having dinner with your family and sharing a story and all of you laugh … sitting with someone in a serene place doing nothing just enjoying the view or the serenity for its sake … reminiscing with your friends and laughing until you pee a little remembering old stories… these moments might also be ….. helping a complete stranger and he thanks you and you feel that it was sincere, and many more….it may differ from one person to another … but I m sure that moments like these are moments you will die for when you grow old, or when u are unable to feel them again.
So cherish these moments and don’t skip on them just to do something silly.
I think we lost happiness when Eve ate the forbidden fruit.that’s why we will be happy only when we return to him and try to keep closer.
There is a Chinese Idiom that ‘zhi zu chang le’. It means that happiness consists in contentment. Only do you have one dollar in your pocket, but you will feel happy as well when you think it is enough. I don’ like this idiom very much, but sometimes, it really helps.
I agree… Happiness is reached in simple abundance, contentment. But isn’t that being conformist? Is being conformist the right path to enlightement?
There can be joy without sex and sex without joy..
Jogging is like sex, talking is like sex, chocolate is like sex, smoking is like sex, painting is like sex,crying is like sex…sex is like sex… to be continued…
The potential for happiness is the only good reason to ever take any risks.
Act is the blossom of thought, and conditions are the result of
action, so that you constantly have in your possession the tools
by which you will certainly and inevitably make or unmake
yourself, and joy or suffering will be the reward.
The Readiness is all….. Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Can U be an everlasting candle flame?
Can U spread warmth and light always?
I believe that this is possible, but first U gotta be that candle.
PS: Joy is having a few laughs on twitter too. hehe
Love
Olta
MY CANDLE burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends–
It gives a lovely light!
one of my favorites bu edns st vincent millay ;)
This is a ramble and I must say that in relating joy to sex you seriously miss the point, joy comes from within and can only be brought about by yourself. So in this sense I guess you could say joy is like masturbation.
Com ou sem dinheiro , o bom é estar em harmonia.
A verdadeira felicidade é aquela sensação gostosa de um vento no rosto, um abraço gostoso, o chocolate quentinho o cão fofinho fazendo festinha, todos no momento certo, na hora certa do prazer.Nesse momento não importa nada e o que conta é estar vivo. Nesse momento eu sou feliz!
I’m agree this is the most beautifull thing that I heard.
joy is like sex
sex is like change
change is like traveling
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
Blake
Money will not bring happiness – but it helps!!
you are also so right
It is totally true.
“Truer words were never spoken.” !!!
What of contentment? If we are content are we not satisfied with where we are and what we have? Acceptance? We can not have joy unless we are able to give it. We can not have happiness unless we are able to share it. All of these fill the spiritual bank of which money can not buy and can be withdrawn only by those who know how to deposit and withdrawal/give and receive. That even in hardship, trials and tribulations these too will pass and the gift awaits on the other side. There is always a gift.
“Joy is like sex – it begins and ends. I want pleasure. I want to be contended, but happiness? I no longer fall into that trap.”
so, what is the difference between pleasure, being contended & happiness?
one can look at sex from a biological point of view. and in this case, it has the function of keeping a species alive. I bet that it is evolution that put in the feeling of pleasure & contentment that can lead to the feeling of being happy.
So it looks to me that this contemplation gets stuck on the “surface”, when looking at the meaning of joy.
I do think that joy has also genetic basis, as sex. just when taking into consideration several disorders that are capable of suppressing the feeling of joy. however, one major component also comes from the inside and from our spiritual part. and when using this part in sex it can transcend the biological meaning of sex and go further.
“Каждый мечтает О ЛАСКЕ,каждый,чем может,заслоняется от этой жизни..”(Жоржи Амаду)
Happy to be sad, because it’s part of being alive. The law of nature is to keep in movement, the day fighting the night, Anima against Animus, to discover the treasures of the opposits.
“Ainsi, parce que tu es tiède, et que tu n’es ni froid ni bouillant, je te vomirai de ma bouche. “
Hello dear Paulo! Sorry for my English. Long ago I want to ask you whether you plan to come to us in the capital of Moscow?
Ola Paulo, definitely! I do agree with you.. for it will always be what joy is about… you contemplate the feeling of excitement in the process and it will end as it subsided… and you would have the joy again when you start to crave and until then… you would inevitably taste your joyous feeling of yearning to have it all over again.
it was heart touching, no one can define happiness because it different for each individual but joy is like sex which comes in seconds and leaves earlier than that.
I like it.
Joy, happiness, sex, peace, sadness, money, content, stress, agony.. These are words that we say and feel some emotions and make some thoughts and then we start the game of … chasing HAPPINESS.
Happiness, as babies was, our mother’s breast..-] Then it is the satisfaction that follows when we fulfill our desires. The desires are our ‘Ego’s dreams and our Will. But every time a dream is fulfilled then … we feel that our dream has .. disappointed us. Reality is poorer than our fantasy. If we desire material things and chase our dreams with passion we, for sure, will arrive at the moment of satiety [κόρος, κορεσμός]. Then we will feel empty and … ‘without a .. dream in our heart’.
I do not believe in collecting ‘hearts’ or ‘bodies’ for JOY and flesh satisfaction. On the contrary, I believe that we must be transparent and careful with other human being’s hearts. I think that LOVE is the only way. Love is communicating directly, mind to mind, soul to soul and then and … ultimately the ecstasy and the KISS. The full surrender of the three bodies to the one, the beloved; the one who has made us forget our EGO. The one who has looked into our own soul and has been able to be ‘in tune’ and ‘in accord’ with our tenderest, inner, softest, vibrations of LOVE. For me, it is, then, the most sacred minutes of the two becoming one flesh’ and those that GOD has united. THE Sacred Marriage.
Until that moment we are … without happiness, without joy, the Adam and Eve away from our HOME, Paradise. May we all taste … our Return home still being in the three dimensional World. To expand and transcend our Mortality.
LOVE,
Thelma xxx
yeah!!
Rembrandt, Woman Bathing, CE 1658
Bathsheba? Rembrandt loved to paint her.
“One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” /2 Samuel 11:2/
David’s sin/JOY with Bathsheba & the woman with a shady past gave birth to the next King of Israel (Solomon); also succeeded David as king.
“(…) But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” /2 Samuel 11:26/
Very true. JOY begins and ends.
Isn’t it interesting that an act that “displeased the LORD” gave the birth of the one who build the temple of the “LORD”? This shows how intermingle are the acts that displeased and please the “LORD”.
to me happiness is worth pursuing . to me happiness is peace, contentment , feeling okay with yourself at the present ,where there are no ties and pains from past ,no anxiety of future , no fear , when we are living only in present enjoying every moment of it as every ,each and every moment is the reward of our intense prayers and hard work and honesty given to us by god . may be whatever i have said is not happiness but this is the thing i want out of my life so this is happiness for me
Sometimes I question everything… is it better to save hard and go in search of your dreams when you are financially stable and secure to do so? Or, is it better to go searching for happiness/joy/bliss with nothing but a heart full of hope? Is life about playing safe, being patient and hoping one day you’ll find what you are searching for? Or about risking everything without thinking or worrying too much about it?
Is one option wise while the other stupid? Is true happiness for a life-time really possible??
Alex, I am in the same position as you. Take the path of my dream now, or wait until school is finished?
To answer your other questions, I’d have to say I don’t know :D. But, it seems to me like it should be a balance. Only experience will tell you for sure. We can think and dream about something all we want; but if we haven’t done anything about it then it doesn’t amount to much.
It’s nice to see others who are asking the same questions as I am :)
I think there is a time for everything,the most important is to know exactly what we want(the lack of a goal is depriving us of the joy of fulfillment ),what would make our heart happy and to stay alert and recognize the propitious moment(the chance) for making our dreams come true.
“To be what you don`t want to be,to be with someone with who you don`t want to be,to do something what you don`t want to do…these are the source of all your sufferings”..Osho
I´ve just bought this book, happy to have done so :)
The love begins with the beginning and it also announces the end, everything depends one commits lives our love. The law of the detachment can avoid us the suffering and especially in love…
Um ídolo pra mim! Se você puder, dá uma olhada no meu blog? http://mentirprasimesmo.blogspot.com/ quer ver se chego as seus pés
Voce tem estilo proprio
i agree with it that “joy is like sex” happiness comes to u,, makes u excited ,satisfied,fulfilled and it is gone after a while ( which seems) and then u need it again the only thing left behind are the memories of that moment that has given u life and a reason to fly ,to feel u r luckiest and happiest of all .
what i believe is if u run after things they run away from u so leave it and just relax and let it come to u
I so agree with you.Nothing is permanent and it’s better to just relax and let it come to you.
The Wedding day/night is supposed to be the happiest day in a woman’s life. Well, mine was unhappy, had a bit of joy & no sex. The funny thing is, I must say, overall, my marriage is a happy one…with a lot of joy & very little sex!
Interesting…Oh, at least you have lot of joy.
Last night, as I “love” to do, I went into my spa, relaxing in hot water while it is minus 0, looking at the sky and I asked myself: “Jojo, what are you looking for?” “Are you looking for happiness in all that you are doing and thinking?” The only answer that came is “I am just looking to be Me, totally Me”, which is the key for being totally happy, in peace, joyful and “rich”. Relation to sex, orgasm … Powerful state of being … could not be inhabited by that power in one shot … would die certainly! Too much intensity all at once. It is a process … transformation … where the Spirit expands … Me expand … Was thinking about Jesus … he is a model of a “man” who possessed the pure joy and happiness of being who he was, acting, speaking. And even if he knew the outcome, even if he prayed that that cup be away from him, he felt joy and happiness in being who he was, living to who he was, knowing the truth, going on his personal path and legend. He had his eyes set on the target. His goal was to be in accordance to who he was, to pursue God’s Will for Him. For me, that is my goal that I pursue, which will bring pure joy, pure peace, pure love, pure power … Jesus knew who he was … for me to find who I am “truly and purely” and to risk letting it Be, be it in what one consider bad times or good times … for me no good or no bad … cannot anymore define as such … it is just a time.
Love, Jojo.
I love the way you expressed this ‘to be ‘Me, totally Me”
The way the world is it is so difficult to just simply be ourselves.
Life is not an intellectual concept. Life is an emotive, pulsating, passionate exercise in immortality. It’s meaning lies in feelings and pleasures and joys moment to moment.
Witch of Portobello…Great, great book!
What I read there about the way she sees love is a human and normal way! And the mother! Oh, the mother! The mother is beautiful because of the way she organizes chaos inside of herself. It is beautiful, it is all love, it is chaos in peace.
Two different energies always fighting, surrounded by a peaceful one, which can bring light and life to all that. Which can give a meaning to all that constantly for eternity. And then all of it needs the help of a great energy in movement to maintain the equilibrium.
Very very, beautiful!
This is a situation which could last forever like that.
All of them together. That is the Him|Her.
I believe that by being able to capture and feel that, you can be able to know what Joy is.
In our real life, unconsciously or not, we divide things from each other and we see peace and chaos, so that we can see their existence.
Joy is like sex, it starts and ends. White and Black!
And it doesn’t last forever, but it comes and goes, like sex. Ecstasy! But does it really have to be Ecstasy there, to be happy? Can’t it happen for happiness to bring Joy?
There is a light who keeps inside a pain which can’t hurt Him|Her, because of LOVE.
I feel Joy, when I love, I feel Joy when I feel I am loved, I feel Joy when I discover a hidden truth. I feel Joy when I give that to others, I feel Joy when I win a fight. I want to feel Joy while I am living this life, because the flight to Haven starts while walking on Earth.
Much Love to Paulo and WOLs
Olta
Ciao Paulo, io penso che la felicità sia il più grande inganno della vita.Penso che sia il più grande velo che cela la verità. Si nasce con il preconcetto e quasi l’ obbligo di dovere essere felici.Invece la vita per me è un percorso faticoso e impegnativo di scoperta , di conoscenza ed anche di sorpresa e di meraviglia. La vita è un’ infinità di veli da togliere , uno dopo l’ altro. Durante questo gravoso impegno, così come si alternano il giorno e la notte, ugualmente si alternano la gioia ed il dolore, la felicità e la drammaticità. La felicità è solo la tonalità di colore di uno dei tanti veli. Il possesso non ha nulla a che fare con la scoperta, perchè alla fine la vita è veramente solo uno stato mentale e lo dimostra il fatto che tutti, prima di partire, dobbiamo lasciare tutto qua! L’amore e la sessualità sono realtà vere sotto i veli da scoprie, forse sono le realtà più vere che la vita ci può dare da scoprire. Ovviamente possono essere rivestite di diverse tonalità di colore, dal bianco al nero. La felicità infine è solo una tonalità di colore. Ciao Rosetta
I so love what you wrote and wanted to add you on Facebook – did you know it’s FortKnox? One can see your wall, but cannot send you a request and not even a message, niente.
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