sky to heaven - the invisible life.

1. It seems that over 90% of the world is unhappy.
2. Most people seem to want money, and spend much of their lives trying to make money, because they think money will make them happy.
3. But many people with money are not happy; rich people still divorce, have problems with their children, get cheated out of their money, worry about losing money, and want to make even more money. They appear only slightly happier than poorer people.
4. Is happiness possible? And if so, where is it?

A great majority of people seem to view money as the primary goal and instrument to achieving happiness. Money is the near universal means for the acquisition of almost all material things on our planet today. If you want clothes, you need money. If you want a car, house, diamonds, land, or anything material on this planet, you need money. Money is the symbol of the material world.

According to my analysis, people do not desire money itself, but they desire it because they think money will fulfill one or more deeper objectives. Nobody wants money unless they can exchange it for something now or at a later date. The five most common objectives I have observed so far are: security, comfort, fun, respect, and power.

A person who wants to live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, may be seeking security and comfort. A person who wants to travel a lot may be seeking fun. A person who wants to be treated better and liked by more people because of the money they have, may be seeking respect. A person who wants to be able to “do whatever they want,” or make people do what they want them to do, may be seeking power. These objectives are often intertwined: a nice house may not only fulfill a desire for security, but also desires for comfort, and respect.

Security, reduced to its most basic fundamentals, is simply the goal to survive, to live. People desire security because they want to live, and don’t want to die. So when a person buys bread, it is not actually because they want the bread per se, but because they want to live. When a person buys a nicer car, it is not because they want the car per se, but because they want to drive more comfortably, have more fun, or look better. So whenever a person uses money to buy a material thing, it’s actually not just for the thing itself, but for a deeper objective. It is this deeper objective that the person desires, and not the money or the things that money can buy.

But security, comfort, fun, respect, and power – all these things are immaterial in nature. (Another word for immaterial is spiritual, which just means it is invisible and you can’t see it.) You can’t see, touch, or use any of the other senses to grasp“security,” “comfort,” or “power”. They are not material things you can simply go to a store and just buy. You can only feel them, because they do not exist in the outer world. They are states of being that you feel inside your heart, and that you can feel in the hearts of others. Feeling safe, comfortable, fun, respected, or powerful is a state of being. If you desire security, comfort, fun, respect, or power, you desire a particular feeling and state of being.

And people desire more of these things because they feel a lack of them – they don’t feel they have enough of these things. They are unsatisfied with how safe, comfortable, fun, respected, or powerful they feel in their lives.

But it is a logical mistake to use material things in the outside world to fulfill immaterial needs in the inside world. I believe that in the majority of cases, any happiness that is achieved through this manner will not be genuine, and it will also be only short-term. It is short term because this kind of happiness relies on external conditions and circumstances to match the individual desires of the self. This happiness is by nature dependent, vulnerable, and unstable. External circumstances, whether it is the economy, the stock market, politics, the weather, or the heart and mood of your lover, are all constantly in a state of change, so it is therefore not possible to achieve long-term happiness in this manner. This is why most people experience “good” days and “bad” days - they attach their happiness to external conditions, to what happens to them throughout any given day. The external world is always changing, and more often than not, it changes in a way that is not in accord with individual wishes. This is why most people are not happy - because the external conditions of the world rarely match their personal desires.

I believe long-term, genuine security, comfort, fun, respect, and power are achievable. But their true forms can only be cultivated and realized inside the heart and mind. True security is not being afraid to die, and the wisdom to identify and resolve potentially unsafe situations. True comfort is the capacity to be comfortable everywhere. True fun is the ability to create fun at any given moment without having to pay for others to provide services or products for your enjoyment. True respect comes from self-respect. True power comes from knowledge of one’s own power in any given situation. These goals appear difficult, if not impossible, for most people to acquire. But I believe they are not only possible, but not as difficult as they seem (but these are subjects for other papers).

Security, comfort, fun, respect, and power are all what I would classify as secondary objectives. Other secondary objectives include health, knowledge, and love – all of which are also immaterial goals. Knowledge is immaterial because in its basic form, it is an “experiencing of truth.” The arithmetic truth that 2+2=4 is an idea, although it can be expressed in a material form on this paper: 2+2=4. But the idea itself does not need a material form in order to exist. Physical health is the most material desire, but in the end it too is also immaterial, because most of us desire it as a form of security, and as a necessary condition in order to live. By secondary objectives, I mean that all of these objectives are pursued because they are considered necessary components to a greater, primary objective.

This greater, primary objective is happiness. The reason why a person desires security, comfort, fun, respect, power, knowledge, health, or love, is because they believe having these things will help make them happier. And happiness is the most immaterial, invisible, intangible, elusive goal of all. It is a state of being and feeling that is not only difficult for people to define, but also difficult to achieve and sustain over a long period of time. Happiness is essentially a spiritual problem and a spiritual goal.