Dave1992 said:

Ace said:

For a long time, I was miserable. Oh, sure - I had times where I was deliriously happy. But they never lasted. My mood was tied to my "success" in wooing and/or keeping whichever woman I was interested in at the time. I saw this as the only path to happiness.

Boy, was I fucking wrong!

Long story, short: I began exploring Zen Buddhist philosophy and found an excellent shrink. I started employing the things I'd learned from these places, in my life and - bingo! - I found that I was in total control of my happiness, at all times.

Since then, I have the occasional moment where I get a little down (usually due to not getting proper rest), but these are fleeting.

I now feel good 95% of the time, so I am offering this as a "feel-good" story.

THE END.

Yo Ace, could you illustrate how exactly philosophy made you happier? Was it simply a learning process? Learning about human psychology and the little tricks we can play on our minds in order to get the proper hormone-cocktail flowing in our heads? Is it more than that? Have you become spiritual or have you simply learned how to use rationality to your advantage?

I've been feeling pretty depressed for quite a while now and somehow I also always had happy moments, which never really lasted. I'm depressed for three months and then happy for a week. It's become exhausting, but I don't really feel like whining. I'm fine constantly dealing with the thought of finally dying and I'm fine being annoyed by this fucking world and all its stupid people. I'd just like to check out whether being happy for longer than just a week would really change the person that I am and how I feel about the motherfuckers on this fucking planet.

Cheers!

Oh do I understand what you're feeling right now, Dave

I went through phases of this for a long, loooong time. I'm a person who loves to laugh... I mean, I do it all the time. And I love to experience new things.

But it seems that happiness can be so fleeting. Even surrounded by friends in the middle of a Rave (aka the 90s) and dancing until the sunlight, I used to have these internal conversations with myself---why am I not happier? Am I just going through the motions?

Buddhism, like any religion, in my opinion can be very harmful if you join it during desperate moments. People tend to become fixated on religions and go over-the-top with them.

However, I will say that many of the philosophical principles of Buddhism were (and are) helpful (though not bullet proof) to me.

For example, I've learned to a great extent to control my temper--not perfecty, but much better than before.

I've also learned see myself through others (something I had never been able to do before), but not pass judgement as they did.

I'm not sure how deep into the philosophy Ace has gotten into, but he may be practicing the idea of dependent origination, and doing meditions on that.

Depedent origination proports that there is no seperate "self". No "thing" that can be held as a seperate individual entity--it can always be divided down further into conditions and parts that make it what it is.

Therefore, when you're angry, who is angry? Your mind? What is your mind? Your brain? And what is your brain? Tissue? Tissue from what? molecules and atoms, etc. etc. It's not nihlism by any means, but it does show you that your state of mind is conditioned. And conditioned thinking can be trained to some extent.

it does sound like Ace has studied this principles a bit more than me at least in practice.

Dave1992 said:

Ace said:

For a long time, I was miserable. Oh, sure - I had times where I was deliriously happy. But they never lasted. My mood was tied to my "success" in wooing and/or keeping whichever woman I was interested in at the time. I saw this as the only path to happiness.

Boy, was I fucking wrong!

Long story, short: I began exploring Zen Buddhist philosophy and found an excellent shrink. I started employing the things I'd learned from these places, in my life and - bingo! - I found that I was in total control of my happiness, at all times.

Since then, I have the occasional moment where I get a little down (usually due to not getting proper rest), but these are fleeting.

I now feel good 95% of the time, so I am offering this as a "feel-good" story.

THE END.

Yo Ace, could you illustrate how exactly philosophy made you happier? Was it simply a learning process? Learning about human psychology and the little tricks we can play on our minds in order to get the proper hormone-cocktail flowing in our heads? Is it more than that? Have you become spiritual or have you simply learned how to use rationality to your advantage?

I don't believe in religion. And I wouldn't describe myself as "spiritual". The best way I can describe it is...an adjustment in perspective.

I used to view the glass as half-empty (at best) and measured my "success" against the most-privileged.

My definition of "privilege" has since changed radically. Privilege, to me now, is having your health, a roof over your head and food on your table. So many people in this world are without. We don't realize how incredibly lucky we are.

Funnily enough, the first thing that really piqued my interest in Buddhism was a book called Zen Judaism. It was given to me as a gift and consists of Zen Maxims spun with Jewish humor.

I might recommend the book Basic Buddhism Through Comics as a primer.

Here's wishing you much happiness, Dave!

imago said:

I'm not sure how deep into the philosophy Ace has gotten into

Not that deep (at least yet).

it does sound like Ace has studied this principles a bit more than me at least in practice.

No. My studies, so far, consist of some scattered reading and documentary footage. On the subject of "self", from Zen Judaism:

'If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?'