BLISS

Complete Happiness . . .

… is how Merriam-Webster defines BLISS.

Messages bombard us daily saying that we deserve to be happy, that we’ve earned a right to know bliss 24/7, and, if we ain’t feelin’ it, something’s wrong, or so we’re told. Even the language of bliss or happiness overflows with words such as awesome, great, wonderful, mind-blowing!

Slogans convince us to buy things that will make us happy. Happiness comes in face creams, perfumes, foods, pills, spritzers, beverages, music, sex, cars… an endless list of blissful possibilities.

Bliss-Point

Bliss-point is a major factor in many, if not most products, and is common in the food industry. Bliss-point is specifically designed “to capture that perfect amount of sweetness that would send us over the moon, with [the company’s] products flying off the shelf.”* A bag of chips has a bliss-point calculated so that you “empty it without thinking”.** In sum, we eat to feel bliss. We buy to feel bliss. We seek bliss-holidays and parties. We want to be completely happy. For info on bliss-point, check out the links at the end of this blog— eye-opening!

Stats Don’t Match

YET, today’s stats state that we are depressed, suicidal—definitely not completely happy. We ain’t feelin’ bliss! Recent headlines tell an unhappy story:

Our bliss is missing! Complete happiness is obviously ebbing more than it’s flowing. Bliss-point in products is clearly not enough to supply us with the happiness we think we deserve.

Are we missing the how-to manual for knowing bliss? Do we miss the happiness that comes our way because we look so long at the door that closed on happiness that we do not see the one that has been newly opened for us? (Helen Keller)

Wisdom Writings

Sages write that happiness or bliss is but a wave that slips away and returns again, all in its own time. Life is a flow of living and dying, of searching and finding. Accordingly, happiness is not a constant.

Some say happiness is found within. Others say it is a direct result of our actions. To quote Mahatma Gandhi: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do, are in harmony.” Scientist, teacher, and author, Ashley Montagu, says that “the moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”

Wisdom literature which generally frowns on narcissism, applauds the giving to others as the way to know happiness. An ancient Chinese proverb suggests:

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.

If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.

If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.

If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
^{Chinese Proverb}

The third chapter in the wisdom book, Ecclesiastes, is often referenced when it comes to our quest to understand the rhythm of life and its impact on our happiness. It says that we are to enJOY our work which is our lot in life. We should enJOY our daily efforts because we’re only ever guessing about what the future may hold. The ancient text goes on to say that there will be a time of weeping and a time of laughter.

It Just Is

By accepting life’s natural course of gain and loss, happiness and sadness, that life is a stream of opposites, and that the winds of change blow strong, we can relax, take things in stride, and thereby conceivably find true happiness in daily existence. This acceptance of life’s modus operandi, we’re told, opens the door to compassion and forgiveness, to understanding and serenity—and perhaps also to bliss.