Removing Illusions To Find
True Happiness
By Martin K. Ettington
Copyright Page
Removing Illusions to Find True Happiness
by Martin K. Ettington
Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 978-1-4659-5021-5
Formal Disclaimer
This disclaimer is to provide myself as Author of this book some legal protection:
Any techniques or processes suggested in this book are used at the reader’s own risk.
If a reader has psychological or possible medical issues they should see a professional and not avoid doing so due to any ideas or statements within this book
I accept no liability for any actions as a result of reading this book which causes problems or provide discomfort to the person performing those actions since they do it of their own free will.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following persons for helping me with proofreading of this book:
My Son Neil who reads and comments on all my books
Dr. Katherine Ruccione, Psychologist who read and commented on the draft too
My good friend David Shea who did a lot of serious editing reviews of the book.
Book Dedication
This book is dedicated to my son Neil. Neil you are going through a difficult time due to your Mother’s and my divorce and this is something I would never wish on any child.
Also, I know that school is not challenging for you so you need to find other interests to keep your attention.
I hope this book helps you understand how your mind and spirit operate better to help you get through this tough period of your life.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: A History of the Search for Happiness
Chapter 2: Lack of Happiness is due to illusions
Chapter 3: What is an illusion?
Chapter 4: Do we even know what happiness is?
Chapter 5: The Spiritual, Energy, and Physical Bodies
Chapter 6: The Ego makes true happiness impossible
Chapter 7: How Illusions are caused by the Ego
Chapter 8: Illusions due to Fear
Chapter 9: Illusions in Daily Life
Chapter 10: Illusions in Personal Relationships
Chapter 11: Severe Boredom, Depression and Suicidal feelings
Chapter 12: Illusions in Education
Chapter 13: Illusions in your Job, Career, or Business
Chapter 14: Illusions of Nationality & Freedoms
Chapter 15: Illusions in Religion or Philosophical Beliefs
Chapter 16: Limited Lifespan is an Illusion
Chapter 17: The Reality Illusion
Chapter 18: Understanding Stillness and How to Remove Illusions
Chapter 19: Recognizing True Happiness
Introduction
The goal of this book is more complex than my recent writings.
I really want to make readers more aware of all of the types of illusions they live under from a micro to a macro level throughout their whole lives. This is important for our spiritual growth.
The more I thought about it though, the more I figured that a motivator to get people to read the book would be to provide them some immediate perceived value from not only what illusions are, but why it is important to rid themselves of them.
The thought came to me that one of the great benefits in banishing illusions is that each person can become more centered and have happier lives as a result.
The challenge then is to explain all about illusions—what they are, examples of them, how to get rid of them, without losing track of one of the main benefits—to be an overall happier and more satisfied person.
Related to this is helping people realize what true happiness is and how to find it.
To me true happiness is also part of what you get out of the enlightenment process which involves the removal and penetration of illusions.
In fact it could be said that the purpose of life is to find your own happiness.
A good starting point is to see what different sages throughout the ages have said about illusions and their impacts on our lives.
Many thinkers and wise persons throughout history have said that our lives are illusions in many ways. Here are some quotes from those persons to ponder:
Behold!
Human beings live in an underground cave. (…) They only see their
own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on
the opposite wall of the cave.
Plato,
428-347 b.C., Greek philosopher, in The Republic
Castles
in the air – they are so easy to take refuge in. And easy to build,
too.
Henrik Ibsen,
1826-1906, Norwegian writer, The Master Builder
We
are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is
rounded with a sleep…
William Shakespeare,
1564-1616, English writer, The Tempest
A
man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the
sea.
Joseph Conrad,
1857-1924, Anglo-polish writer, Lord Jim
What
is life? An illusion, a dream, a fiction, and the biggest well is
small, because all life is a dream, and the dreams, themselves are
only dreams.
Calderon de la Barca,
1600-1681, Spanish writer, Life is a Dream
In
the night that brings the sleep, the dreams laugh of us, wandering in
front of our eyes.
Petronius, Satiricon,
I Century b. C., Roman writer
Dreams
are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Alfred
Lord Tennyson, 1802-1809,
English poet, The Higher Pantheism.
Those
who compared our lives to a dream have more reason than they thought.
Montaigne, Essays,
1533-1592, French writer and philosopher
Illusion (viparyaya) is false knowledge in the sense that perceived form or characteristic is not inherent in the object. [An actual object is misjudged here.] Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
As you read on in this book, you will see why your actions, goals, and happiness are artificially bound by your illusions on who you really are and how they can limit your happiness.
You will need an open mind to take advantage of some of the concepts in this book since many of them are not accepted by the “common wisdom” of western civilization.
Chapter 1: A History of the Search for Happiness
The history of the search for happiness is one of philosophical discussion going back to ancient times.
Many philosophers have had views on happiness from at least the Greek’s time. Some of the more famous person’s beliefs on happiness are described below:
a. The Buddha
Gautama Buddha was born in about the fifth to sixth centuries B.C. in what is now the kingdom of Nepal in Tibet.
The Buddha said, "No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed."
He developed the Four Noble Truths to address the problem.
1.
There is Suffering-- Suffering is common to all.
2. Cause of
Suffering-- We are the cause of our suffering.
3. End of
Suffering-- Stop doing what causes suffering.
4. Path to end
Suffering-- Everyone can be enlightened.
The Buddha believed that what most people call “happiness” is transitory and the only way to true peace is through the path of enlightenment through his Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path.
The Eight fold Path consists of the following:
The eightfold path consists of the following actions:
Right understanding
Right thought
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right concentration
b. Plato/Aristotle
(1) True happiness, according to Plato, is found only in the performance of one's own duty, which is determined individually by the degree of evolution achieved, and politically by the position one occupies in the State. Aristotle disagrees with Plato's view that individual happiness should be sacrificed for the good of the community. He believes that individual happiness depends not only upon virtue, but also upon wealth, pleasure and the opportunity for leisure. He does not advocate spending those leisure hours in the cultivation of any art, as he considers that artistic craftsmanship belongs to the field of manual labor, and that professional skill in any of the arts is a disgrace to a free citizen. The ideal life, from Aristotle's point of view, seems to be one which is given over entirely to intellectual research and contemplation -- the life of a cultivated and reflective country gentlemen, remote from the workaday world.
c. Jesus
Although Jesus didn’t refer to happiness directly, he was referring to the state of happiness through spiritual enlightenment in some of his statements:
(Matthew 7:24-27 NIV) "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
As a Christian would say-happiness comes to you when you OBEY God. It is the result of OBEYING His Word. To obey God you must know what He says in the Bible. You cannot know God's will or please Him unless you know His Word, the Bible. There is no other way around it. In fact, this is exactly how Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount:
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."
d. St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas was a famous Medieval Christian philosopher who wrote many treatises on God and Christianity which are still in print today.
(2) In Aquinas's thought, the goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God. Specifically, this goal is achieved through the beatific vision, an event in which a person experiences perfect, unending happiness by seeing the very essence of God. This vision, which occurs after death, is a gift from God given to those who have experienced salvation and redemption through Christ while living on earth.
This ultimate goal carries implications for one's present life on earth. Aquinas stated that an individual's will must be ordered toward right things, such as charity, peace, and holiness.
He sees this as the way to happiness. Aquinas orders his treatment of the moral life around the idea of happiness. The relationship between will and goal is antecedent in nature "because rectitude of the will consists in being duly ordered to the last end [that is, the beatific vision]." Those who truly seek to understand and see God will necessarily love what God loves. Such love requires morality and bears fruit in everyday human choices.
e. St. Teresa of Avila
(3)St. Teresa of Avila was a late middle ages nun who also had a wonderful understanding of prayer and stillness for reaching an everlasting peace and happiness.
She was born in Avila, Spain, March 28, 1515. She died in Alba, October 4, 1582.
Her views on prayer and stillness were embodied in her book called “ Way of Perfection”
In Way of Perfection Teresa addressed to her nuns, teaching them therein the major virtues that demand their solicitude, casting further light on the practice of prayer, and using the Pater Noster as a vehicle for teaching prayer at greater depth.
This book is sometimes referred to as the apex of Teresa's ascetical doctrine. The Interior Castle is the principal source of mature Teresian thought on the spiritual life in its integrity.
Chief emphasis is laid on the life of prayer, but other elements (the apostolate, for example) are also treated.
The interior castle is the soul, in the center of which dwells the Trinity. Growth in prayer enables the individual to enter into deeper intimacy with God--signified by a progressive journey through the apartments (or mansions) of the castle from the outermost to the luminous center.
When a man has attained union with God in the degree permitted to him in this world, he is "at the center" of himself; in other words, he has integrity as a child of God and as a human being.
Each of the apartments of the castle is distinguished by a different stage in the evolution of prayer, with its consequent effects upon every other phase of the life of the individual.
f. Thomas Jefferson
A statement about happiness we should never forget is in the founding documents of the U.S.
The United States Declaration of Independence, which was primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, and modified by James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and others was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The text of the second section of the Declaration of Independence reads:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Have you ever thought that it is patriotic for us to find our own happiness?
g. Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was the founder of the psychoanalytic movement and was one of the originators of the idea of the unconscious mind.
(3) Freud argues that the only purpose in life people agree upon is to be happy. In its purest form happiness can only be achieved through the pleasure principle (living for the satisfaction of all needs, for pleasure).
Unfortunately, the very best sort of happiness can only be had when there is "a sudden satisfaction of needs" that has been pent up for some time. If we satisfy each desire as it arises the happiness in satisfying that desire is lessened.
The Reality Principle comes into play when the extreme possibilities for suffering presented by the external world force an individual to consider himself happy because he has escaped suffering. Avoiding suffering becomes the goal.
It’s interesting how Freud’s idea of avoiding suffering is very similar to Buddhism and other eastern religious beliefs.
Here are some modern writer’s ideas the subject of happiness:
h. The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama’s book “The Art of Happiness” is an insightful description of happiness and how to achieve it.
Drawing upon 2500 years of Buddhist wisdom, combined with the latest findings of modern science, and mixed with a healthy dose of common sense, these remarkable volumes offer a practical approach to human happiness—a rational approach that can be practiced by individuals from any background, tradition, or religion.
There are many facets to leading a happy life. It begins by understanding the true and legitimate sources of happiness. The Art of Happiness is based on a few basic premises:
1) The purpose of life is to seek happiness.
2) Happiness is determined more by the state of one’s mind than by one’s external conditions, circumstances, or events—at least once one’s basic survival needs are met.
3) Happiness can be achieved through the systematic training of our hearts and minds, through reshaping our attitudes and outlook.
4) The key to happiness is in our own hands.
i. Jonathan Haidt
Haidt’s writings on happiness say the following:
(4) We often hear that happiness comes from within, you can’t seek it in external things. And for a while, in the 1990s, psychologists agreed with the ancient sages that external conditions don’t matter.
But now we know that some do. Find out what you can do to improve your happiness, including spending money well.
Buddha and Epictetus may have gone too far; the Western emphasis on action and striving is not so bad, when done right.
After reviewing this short history of the search for happiness we can see that the historical thinkers on these subjects all had a few concepts in common.
The first is that happiness is very important to all of us and we should make finding happiness a primary goal in our lives.
Secondly, happiness can only be found by tapping into our eternal spirit and learning to feel the peace and calmness that follows as a result.
Lastly, the illusions we live under have a major effect on our happiness.
In the next Chapter we will review how Happiness can be affected by Illusions.
Chapter 2: Lack of Happiness is due to illusions
Fortunes are made selling self help books. Why? Because, most people are not happy—and they want somebody to tell them the magic formula to become happy.
To be happy you have to be satisfied with the way your life is now and not want to change it. Everyone is looking for something they can learn or read to become happier.
Almost all of us want more than we have and more than our current life offers us.
Great religions, religious teachers, gurus, and self help teachers all fill the need of people for direction on how to become happy and fulfilled.