Suffering is a result of desire and desire is a result of?

Good post. We definitely cover a part of us that is deeply personal, call it a mask or whatever you want to. We are innately insecure, we feel vulnerable and are afraid of opening up since we suffer from a variety of fears and insecurities.. or at times we?re overcome with a sense of helplessness, or distrust of other humans.. basically our pshyche is formed by memories that have been deeply etched in our brains? as a consequence what we do, how we act, how we think is a reflection of one?s immediate association of a particular situation in one?s life with the memories tied to that fact. Our ?masks? are hence a consequence of inborn instincts to protect oneself? these fa?ades result from our insecurities/protection instinct and impede our personal growth?

Any way to work yourself out of these masks is only possible if you can consciously examine thoughts as they arise within you, while at the same time disassociating yourself from any memories that arise alongwith that thought..

There aren?t any noble truths about human perfection. Firstly there is no ?perfect? human state. In fact striving for any sort of perfection is reason enough for more self inflicted pain. We can never be at complete peace.

However what we can do is listen to ourselves and constantly examine our thoughts/fears as we experience them on a daily basis (again an unbiased look without your memory fogging the thought) Also usually we are too pre-occupied with finding something? be that peace, happiness, a meaning to life, or what you may? and so we are always striving to find something? to be something ? In the process we lose the ability (or sometimes never build it) to just live life. The ability to just exist and examine our existence on a daily basis? to silence everything on the outside and listen to our inside (not a meditative state, just a cognizant state) ? Only then can we find our answers and live a more fulfilling, content life?

What a topic. Monsieur Lacan would have a lot to say about what is REAL in the first place let alone real happiness.

According to Lacan we all wish to reach the REAL state we were in before realizing the 'self' or 'I' aspect brought on by language and image.

But he also went on to say alot of things about the Phallus...so we have to take him with a pinch of salt. Ofcourse he famously expelled Luce Irigaray from his school of psychoanalysis.

someone also once said that to be happy you shoudl place the determinant of that contigency on things close at hand: a book, a surpirse unannounced trip to a friends place, football on tv, a swim, a meal with loved ones, talking about things that truly matter. "all of lifes failincs come when we look for permenance" (anon)

great replies! thanks, guys! Cel... wonderful quotes and beautiful thoughts. i agree with you all...

Haq - i do not think being at peace is synonymous with being happy. peace can lead to happiness, but they are not the same thing. peace is accepting what is and being ok with it - in the moment or forever. Peace is the end to the inner restlessness and struggle - no matter how temporary that end is.

Great post! A couple of questions and a thought.

Were we ignorant of the "emptiness, lonliness and heartache" of being human, would we know happiness?

Also, do you think that being at peace and being truly happy are the same thing?

With regards to your statement about being unable to live were it not for our masks and cover-up for our burns...I feel life is lived in the moments when everything sensitive and raw within us is made bare and we learn to move forward still. It is in hiding behind masks and cover-up for our burns that we fail to live.

There is no true happiness or sadness. Life is a mixture of emotions. Our feelings are the same. At one instant, we cant totally eliminate any single emotion. The black of sadness and white of happiness are always mixed together in our feelings to make our life gray. You cant anything perfect in this world and happiness is no different.

?Why is it that even when we are enjoying music or a fine evening or conversation with people we like, why does it seem to be a hint of some limitless happiness existing somewhere else rather than real happiness? ? (Turgenev, p121) . If you realise that this life is a playground of slides, jumps and falls, you come to appreciate the fact that happiness comes and then simply goes. There?s nothing sad or particularly joyful about that - it ?s just the way it was willed. We must accustom ourselves to this. It would be foolish not to. Someone once said that ?happiness is like a butterfly that appears and delights us for one brief moment but soon flutters away. ? However it was William Blake that put this point across most poetically, ?He who binds himself to joy, does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses joy as it flies, lives in eternities sunrise. ? Happiness has but one sibling, but one that never parts its side and this sibling is called ?the moment. ?