People have always needed some sort of "problem-free philosophy," something to guide them in their daily tasks and keep them feeling good; some version of Lion King's Hakuna Matata, which means "No Worries." As far back as Ancient Greece, people relied on signs in order to discern the will of the gods. It was important to know such will if one was not to disregard it and suffer the comeuppances. Ancient Greeks were scrupulous in this regard, and promptly offered sacrifices to show remorse whenever they were guilty of transgressions. Ancient Romans were the same way, as were most other ancient cultures. In Medieval Europe, the focus gradually became monotheism. Judaism first gave to the world the concept of one God, without origin and without demise. This God created everything, and supervised universal affairs with a circumspect eye. Disobeying such a divinity's will was tantamount to enduring despair. God was omnipotent, omniscient, omni-everything. Anselm, Aquinas, Augustine, Bonaventure, Scotus and scholars like them of the medieval era made sure we never forgot the immensity of God.
In the modern era, the focus shifted from religion to any of two broad schools of thought: rationalism and empiricism. Rationalists such as Descartes believed that reason was the way by which humans could know the purpose for their lives and live by it. Through rigorous thought, people could come to understand the meaning of life. Cogito ergo sum was Descartes' mantra, and it means: "I think, therefore I am." Radical rationalists have stretched Descartes' stance as far as to imply that all humans can be summarily reduced to the thinking or intellectual aspect of themselves. This dualism aims at separating the spirit from the body; affirming the former, and denying the latter. Empiricists on the other hand deny whatever information that is not sourced from the physical senses. Empiricists such as Hume and Locke are of the view that all we can know are sense-perceived data. For them, when we see or feel or taste or hear or smell anything, we know that thing as best we can. The rational processes that aim at intellectualizing images derived from sense perception are, in the view of empiricists, not to be trusted at all. For example, I flip a switch and the light comes on. A rationalist would easily say that flipping the switch caused the light to come on. An empiricist on the other hand would say that there seemed to be a correlation existing between the flipping of the switch and the light coming on. But owing to the impossibility of physically sensing the concept of causation, such an empiricist could not say for sure that any causation existed between the two seemingly correlated events of switch-flipping and light coming on.
In Post-modernism, there seems to be a return to aspects of the ancient era, in addition to critical approaches to epistemology. Henry Newman for example presents us with a Grammar of Assent, a true discourse on epistemology. In it, he talks about inference and assent. The former is based on rational argumentation, whereas the latter is based on devotion. The bridge between inference and assent is the illative sense, which in the best of humans justifies certitude and ratifies true knowledge. When we have certainty and assent to it, we are wise. A parallel in this regard is the alignment of the acquired intellect with the agent one. Aristotle, Averroes and Avicenna are agreed in this regard. The beatific vision of certitude is the unmistakable state of intellectual or spiritual perfection, a situation of meta-cognition; a situation wherein an individual can exclaim: "I know that I know." This is secondary, reflexive assent. Herein lies the background to our further discourse on the nature of happiness and the secret to its attainment.
Happiness, which ordinarily means the circumstance of feeling good all the time, is the situation of courageous persistence in doing what one knows beyond a doubt to be right regardless of the challenges that may arise along the way. We started out our discussion today by saying that humans of all eras have sought to live by some guiding principle, a philosophy that would give life some meaning so that it doesn't feel like a meaningless rollercoaster ride to nowhere. They searched for this guiding principle in a reality outside themselves; a reality that caused natural disasters; poor and rich harvests; sicknesses and deaths - a reality that was obviously too powerful to be crossed. In fearfully wanting to please this reality, people of the ancient era groped for signs to reveal the divine will hoping that, in knowing what that will was, they could live by it and so escape pain and disaster for themselves and their loved ones. Over time, sign-searching gave way to organized religions based on the concept of a monotheistic God, but the end-goal was the same: seeking to know the divine will so as to live by it and escape doom. After religion came schools of philosophy and methods of understanding - and still the aim was the same: finding a "problem-free philosophy" by which to live, in order to escape pain and destruction; in order to be happy.
Against the backdrop of the following, we have therefore defined happiness as the situation of courageous persistence in doing what one knows beyond a doubt to be right regardless of the challenges that may arise along the way. Remember when Archimedes was given a difficult problem by his king to solve? Archimedes thought deeply about the riddle, but could seemingly find no answer. He thought for a very long time about the issue, until one day he went to the public baths and, as he lay in one, the truth finally came to him; his acquired intellect, born from the activity of his potential mind, became aligned in that instant with the agent intellect, and he knew that he knew. He knew he had found the answer, and so he ran briskly home, shouting at the top of his voice, "Eureka! Eureka!" "I've got it! I've got it!" The beatific vision Archimedes experienced, which sourced from his eventual knowledge of the problem he had been dealing with for so long, caused him to be happy. To finally know that he knew, and to subsequently act on his knowledge in the surety of that vision; to popularize the knowledge and give it as heirloom to posterity - this was the crux of his enduring happiness. "You shall know that truth, and it shall set you free" (Jn 8:32).
Knowledge, which is of the truth, makes us free from pain and suffering; from want and despair; from sickness and deprivation; from poverty and destitution; from loneliness and need; from ostracism and disgrace; from dejection and depression - from every bad thing. Our knowledge of the truth, our certitude, will lead us to pleasure and liberty. When we are free from pain, we begin to experience only pleasure. It's not rocket science: Imagine for a moment that you had a headache or any illness whatsoever, and then imagine that you knew what exact medicine or potion or spiritual formula to apply to make the ailment go away, and then imagine that you actually applied what you knew and the pain did go away - would you not feel pleasure? Would you not be happy? And the happiness would have come because you knew for sure what to do, and you went ahead and did it, regardless of how hard it might have been for you to do it. I mean, you might have had to walk miles to fetch the medicine or the potion; you might have had to study or to learn about mixing potions - there might have been a thousand and one things for you to do in order to solve your problem, but after solving it you hardly recalled the struggles at all.
Or think of a pregnant woman. When she is carrying the child within her, it is heavy and painful. When she is birthing the baby, it is even more painful. She has to push and claw and scream and cry through it all - hours of unimaginable pain and suffering. But when she eventually holds the baby in her arms, the feeling of happiness she experiences makes all the pain go away. Happiness is like that. In seeking out knowledge, and in applying the knowledge sought out, challenges abound. But when we apply the knowledge successfully and solve our problem, we experience happiness - all the hardship is summarily forgotten. Hence we see that happiness is the application of discovered knowledge; a true species of wisdom; the experience of heaven on earth. Jesus says in this regard that happiness is "like a treasure hidden in a field, which a person finds and hides again; and from joy over it goes and sells all that they have and buys that field" (Matt 13:44). Again, Jesus declares that happiness is "like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, goes and sells all that they have and buys it" (Ibid.v45-46). Happiness is the perpetual feeling of pleasure. It is heaven on earth.
A happy person is never depressed; a happy person is never short-tempered. A happy person is hardly ever sick, especially as we now know that most illnesses are psychosomatic. A happy person is a blessing to be around. When we're with a happy person, life feels good, because the joy radiating from the person is infectious. Happiness is infectious - it lights up and energizes the atmosphere. It excites the people we come across in the course of our day. Happiness for Aristotle (in his Nicomachean Ethics book) is the teleological end of all humanity. A happy person responds to situations differently than an unhappy person does. A happy person is optimistic, always seeing the glass as half full, while the unhappy person sees it as half empty. A happy person is trusting and trustworthy. A happy person always smiles from the heart and is like a child. Jesus says in this regard: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never become happy" (Matt 18:3). A child acts with confidence, as if it was sure (has certitude) about everything. A child is not overburdened with worry; does not stay upset when accosted with unexpected misfortune; does not sweat the small stuff; does not fret over mundane matters. A child does not worry about the future, where the next meal will come from; a child is not paranoid or schizophrenic or beset with mental maladies. A happy person, like a child, is weaned and at peace, and unconcerned about grand matters (Psalm 131); a happy person rests snugly in the divine embrace.
So far, we've been describing what happiness is. Now, let us explore how to attain it. There are two aspects to happiness, as we've seen. The first is searching out and finding certain knowledge. The second is going ahead to apply what knowledge we've found in our daily lives. Both tasks can be challenging. To begin with, we have to search for truth, for certitude, for knowledge. We have to know the will of God. We have to engage in epistemology. Like people of all eras, we have to seek out the truth wherever it is hidden. Steve Jobs used to say: "Remain hungry for the truth." We should always be hungry. This use of the word "hungry" for the search for truth makes me recall what Caesar said concerning Cassius: "Yonder Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks very much." Apparently, Cassius was hungry for knowledge, and perhaps that was why he thought very much. We should, like hungry people, seek after knowledge. The psalmist exclaims in Psalm 42:1: "Like the deer that thirsts for running streams, so my soul is thirsting for you my God"; and who else is truth but God himself? Jesus, true God, said of himself, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6). So, seeking truth also means seeking God; seeking that treasure Jesus spoke of, which the fellow that found it went off and sold everything else they had just to buy it. This truth we find is the will of God. It is a holistic truth. It is a compendium of aha moments. It becomes for us a "problem-free philosophy," an object of assent; an alignment of our intellect with the agent one; a beatific vision of truth; an illative-sense-sanctioned meta-cognition; a reflexive assent; a certainty.
Finding truth is challenging. Lies abound. But we all have reason and conscience, and so we can find truth. We have to perennially adopt a posture of contemplation. Whenever we wake up in the morning, we should say to ourselves: "I am going to continue my search for truth today." As long as we are always searching, we will find. Jesus says that "everyone who searches finds" (Matt 7:8a2). The search for truth is a lifelong process. No one can say, "I know everything about everything." We may know everything about something, or something about everything, but no human being can know everything about everything. Only God can know that. But we can know a bunch, and if we hold on to God, we can benefit from the divine knowledge too. Whatever the case, our task is not to know everything about everything, but only to make sure that we remain searching. In the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30), the master condemned the servant for not at least putting his talent in the bank, even if he refused to invest it. We must keep searching for truth; maintain a hungry, philosophic posture; we must always be alert to truth.
A story was once told of a dog that saw a rabbit. It began to chase after the rabbit. Other dogs saw it chasing something. They did not know what, but they joined in. The dogs chased and chased. After a while, the dogs who did not see the rabbit to begin with started to drop by the wayside. Eventually, only the dog that had seen the rabbit continued on the chase. In the same way, when we've glimpsed of the truth, we have to apply it. In the example of Matt 13:45-46, after the person discovered the treasure, they went off, sold everything else and bought it. Similarly, the truth we have found is precious. We have to go to all lengths to apply it in our lives. We cannot stop at finding truth; we must use it. We cannot fall by the wayside as if we never tasted of the sweet nectar of truth. No senor! We have to keep at it. The bible says, "So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left of it" (Deut 5:32). In other words, once we know the truth, especially if revealed to us by God, we must pursue it to the end. We must live by it, "deviating neither to the left not to the right of it." Again, Jesus says: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will become happy, but only the one who does the will of God who is in heaven" (Matt 7:21).
Acting on, living by, pursuing the truth we've glimpsed through search and intellectual disposition is the second leg of the struggle for happiness. It is ethics after epistemology. It is putting into practice what we've learned. It consists in good deeds. Truth can never inspire us to live immorally. Indeed, our actions are a test of what sort of truth we claim to have glimpsed. If we are inspired to behave badly or wantonly or selfishly, then it cannot have been truth that we glimpsed. If we are found cheating and lying and stealing and doing bad things - how can we claim to have truth; how can we claim to have tasted of the beatific vision? If, on the other hand, we are found doing good all the time; acting justly; loving tenderly, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8), then we have glimpsed the truth. Aquinas in his lifetime was favored with a vision of the truth in a trance he had, and after the trance, he refused to write any more philosophy. He simply began to live the life of a saint. At his last confession, the priest on leaving the confessional said, "Ah, the sins of a five-year-old!" This is what the beatific vision does; it makes us live till ripe-old age with the nonexistent sins of a five-year-old.
So there you have it. True happiness is courageous persistence in doing what one knows beyond a doubt to be right regardless of the challenges that may arise along the way. It consists in thirsting after truth (epistemology), and applying the fruits of such thirst (ethics). It is the situation wherein we align our acquired intellect with the agent one, and subsequently act in accordance with the beatific vision derivable therefrom, adopting such vision as a "problem-free philosophy," an object of real assent; a certainty. It is synonymous with heaven. People of all ages around the world have sought happiness, what Aristotle avers is the teleological end of humanity. The greatest saints and leaders of all ages have lived according to the secret of happiness which I reveal to you today. Nelson Mandela for example, great leader that he is, exudes lasting happiness. He was courageous enough to act on his vision of equality, in spite of the hardships he faced, including 27 years in prison. Today, he continues to live the vision of freedom he glimpsed many years ago as a young man. We all, like him, are called to thirst for a glimpse of the beatific vision, and when we have found such treasure, we are exhorted to live by it, deviating neither to the left nor to the right of it. Always.
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