Four Levels of Happiness

4 Mar 11, 01:28 PM, Africa/Lagos

1) There are four different levels of human happiness. The first level, Happiness 1, is physical pleasure and possession of material things. Level 1 is all about gaining physical gratification through fulfillment of the five senses. This level of happiness is good. Without taking care of our physical needs, we would die. But human beings can make the mistake of choosing Happiness 1 as their "end" (goal). We can believe that physical pleasure and the possession of material things is the most important thing about life, and is what makes life worth living. If we do this, we quickly become bored. We lose a sense of self-esteem. We feel like we are living beneath ourselves. We are not happy. And when we suffer, we believe that suffering is meaningless.





2) Happiness 2 is ego-gratification. This is the kind of happiness that comes not just from feeling good, but from feeling good about ourselves. We get a boost of ego when we are successful, powerful, in control, admired, popular, or when we win competitions.

This level of happiness is also good. We need to love ourselves before we can give ourselves away in love to others. But human beings can make the mistake of choosing Happiness 2 as their "end." This will inevitably lead to jealousy, aggression, fear of losing, suspicion, anxiety, ego-sensitivity, and even anger at God when we are not winning. We are not happy. And if our suffering causes us to lose some control or become dependent on others, we begin to think that suffering is useless.




3) Happiness 3 is contribution to others. This is the happiness that comes from making a difference to other people. It's the joy we get from doing what is right and good. We are happy when we know we have been honest, fair, loving, caring, compassionate, patient, humble, and good. We know that we have helped to make the world better for others.

Happiness 3 is wonderful! But if we make it our "end," we quickly become frustrated. Human beings want unconditional Love. We want perfect Fairness, absolute Truth, and infinite Goodness. And want these things to exist forever. But the human community is not perfect. We make mistakes. We have limitations. We die. When we see innocent people suffer, we begin to believe that life is cruel.


4) Happiness 4 is faith and participation in the unconditional love of God. It is believing that there is such a thing as perfect, absolute, ultimate, infinite, unconditional, and eternal Truth, Love, Goodness, and Justice. It is learning that these things can only be found in God, and that God loves us so much, that He wants us to be a part of that Love forever. If we truly believe that this is our "telos," our end, then we know what it means to be human.

A human being is a physical and spiritual being, created by God, whose final goal is to find happiness by accepting the perfectly unconditional love of God for all eternity, and by giving ourselves away in love to others (even when this requires suffering).




When human beings recognize that Happiness 4

is our true goal, four important things happen:

1) We begin to see that human beings have intrinsic dignity and inestimable worth. This means that we don't have to prove our worth to anybody. Human dignity does not come from what we look like, how old we are, what we can do, how smart we are, or even whether we are healthy, sick, or disabled; rich or poor, strong or weak, young or old, born or unborn, living or dying. Human dignity comes from the fact that we were all made to be loved into eternity by God, and to love others as we love ourselves. All human beings have dignity, no matter what their state in life, because we were all made for something Wonderful!

2) It becomes clear that an unborn child is a human person with intrinsic dignity, too. At the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg, this new being has a new destiny, a new end. The final goal of the unborn baby is the same as the final goal of the adult: to participate in the unconditional love of God for all eternity. The fact that the teenager is at an earlier stage of development than the adult doesn't change the fact that the teenager is a human being with intrinsic dignity and inestimable worth. In the same way, the fact that the unborn child is at an earlier stage of development than the teenager doesn't change the fact that the unborn child is also a human being with intrinsic dignity and inestimable worth.


3) We find that the phrase "death with dignity" which is used to allow physicians to kill their sick, disabled, and terminally ill patients, is very misleading. We don't lose dignity when we suffer. God's love dignifies us even in the midst of our suffering. Secondly, suffering can bring many gifts, such as patience, forgiveness, empathy, understanding, and even faith. Thirdly, suffering allows other people to grow in "Happiness Level 3 and 4" gifts. When we are suffering, it takes a heroic act of love to allow other people to suffer with us, to minister to our needs, to take care of us, even to feed, clothe, and bathe us. The word "compassion" comes from the Latin "cum passio" which means: "to suffer with." We owe great respect and appreciation to people who allow us to join in their suffering.




4) Finally, our Happiness 4 goal gives us the all-important answer to the meaning of human suffering. God does not cause suffering in the world. He is not a mean and cruel God, or a stupid and powerless God. We cause suffering when we make Happiness levels 1, 2, or 3 more important than Happiness level 4. God allows suffering because He respects our freedom. But, amazingly enough, He can use our suffering to bring us right back to Happiness level 4.

Remember the story of the people with no elbows? There was a fourth group of people who were watching all of the activity around the table. And as they were watching, they caught a glimpse of the eyes of the suffering people who were sitting across from them. And they noticed a goodness in the eyes of the other. They saw that there was intrinsic dignity, and something of great worth sitting before them. And this understanding moved those people to empathy. And this empathy moved them to compassion. And this compassion moved them to reach out their elbowless arms across the table, pick up the food from one another's plates, and feed each other.

And it was in this selfless act of goodness that the people with no elbows discovered the true meaning behind their suffering...

LOVE.