Unapologetic about my own happiness

by ajpatel • 12 years ago

11 7 12 years ago

polemic• 12 years ago

It's a shame you linked to that video in the same post, because Alan Watt's inspirational message is - I believe - deeply at odds with your final sentiment:

"I wouldn't want to be obligated to anyone because they sacrificed their own happiness for mine."

What a desolate and barren world where we fear connecting with others in case we might incur some sort of obligation.

glifchits• 12 years ago

By saying one is obligated to someone else, I think it implies that the reciprocal action by the receiver would require compromising one's own happiness in some way. By that token, I think this statement is totally reasonable because ultimately, both parties lose some of their own happiness. That was probably an outcome neither of them wanted.

ajpatel3• 12 years ago

Exactly what I was thinking :)

ajpatel3• 12 years ago

To me, his message was to always be thinking of what you desire. What you desire isn't the same as what others desire. Everyone's definition of happiness varies. I'm trying to say if everyone lived the message that Alan Watts so eloquently articulated, then there would be no "sacrifice". What one person thinks of as a sacrifice wasn't really a sacrifice in the eyes of the person who made it because they did what made them happy so that enables you to do what makes you happy.

Because people don't live according to his message right now, we make ourselves miserable by trying to repay the debts of other people's sacrifices for us. Rather, I would have it so we pay those debts forward to the next generation by enabling them to do what makes them happy, not holding them to some standard of what we think makes people happy just because we raised them or provided them with the means or money to do something they enjoyed.

pyrrhotech• 12 years ago

Why are you so happy? Did you sell a startup or something?

ajpatel3• 12 years ago

Nope, but I've finally made a life that works for me with a job I love that lets me travel the world like I want and still accomplish something meaningful. :)

BESebastian• 12 years ago

You kinda sound like a jerk.

Unapologetic about my own happiness

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