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Question without notice
Bunks
Australia Veteran
Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?
I'll take the latter.....
2
Comments
Being right is one of those things that feeds the ego, it’s not ultimately good for one’s growth.
Being happy too can be a mixed blessing, depending on where it comes from and what it does to the rest of your state of mind. Witness lots of depressed people being given “happiness juice” (antidepressants) and often only feeling moderately better.
But I think overall happiness is to be preferred, yes
I'm always both, so....
Seriously though... Seng-Ts’an, aka Sengcan, who died in 606 is attributed with the saying -
“Don’t keep searching for the truth, just let go of your opinions.”
Seems legit advice...
For the most part all I've wanted out of life is to be happy. I think I've come to value truth as the most important value though. I think I'd rather have a hard truth than a pleasant fiction.
That deserved a lol and am insightful @federica
I would rather just be content....
Contentment = happiness
The right thing is to choose both
... that should keep everyone happy
I was miserable until I left so this is a toughie.
Actually, it is rather tough. I can't envision a scenario where I would have to choose.
Left where @David ?
Oh, nowhere really. I was just trying to be punny.
Both! Because from a buddhist perspective, being right about the true nature of things, is essential for happiness to begin with.
It didn't specify what you wanted to be right about. It could be shakespeare's prolific material, and whether it was written by him or not, or whether you can reverse drive up a one-way street. So specifically - you're wrong.
Is that a latter coffee?
I am happy to be wrong if it makes people happy. Just as being right happily changes according to circumstance, ideally to right Being.
Just as we may have established both are preferable, even inevitable, we can explore the third and fourth options ...
Wisdom is a happy state. A sound mind in a sound body. However what if our body or karmic circumstances are difficult? Could we still experience happiness or equanimity?
Live long and prosper
Vulcan Dharma
Bunks Australia Veteran
Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?
I'll take the latter.....
Me too.
When asked "What is the purpose of life?", a wise man said, "To be happy."
My drive to be right about things is partly perfectionism. My drive to be happy is partly fantasy.
When I read Thich Nhat Hanh, I know that to be genuinely right and happy, I only have to let go and arrive wholeheartedly in the present moment.
Awareness we might notice, allows us the spacing between the perfect fantasy that @adamcrossley mentions and the other partings between dualistic awareness ...
In other words in not choosing but being aware, we do not have to be drawn to alternatives. In the moment we are choice.
In other words we have no-choice.
Happy now. Right Now.