ENT.3 What is Happiness

Philosophy, Happiness, Desire

Recently, I read The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson and was struck by Naval’s perspective on happiness. Throughout life, he observes that there is a direct relationship between happiness and desire. This link seems to be the reason some people who have nothing are happy, while some people who seem to have everything are miserable. He makes the noble observation that it is not so much what you have or do not have that makes you happy; this is, at some level, what we all think, but instead it is your desires for such things. Therefore, there are two ways that you can achieve happiness, if you will. Happiness is either to have all your desires fulfilled, therefore not having any, or to have no desires at all. The latter ironically being a specific type of the former. Naval's perspective is that happiness is the absence of desire.

It is interesting to think about the relationship between happiness and desire in this way as I am reminded of synonyms to the word, such as contentment or peace. What differentiates these words and their meanings? As a fluid participant in this language, this is a discussion of my understanding of these words' connotations, littered with presuppositions and impacts from my previous lived experience and life, as all my thoughts are, and not directly a discussion of the literal definitions of these words found within a dictionary. Naval beautifully captures the essence of the vanity of our understanding of these words here through his understanding of happiness, which stands opposed to most of modern thought. To be content or at peace, connotatively speaking, supposes that you have no desires. Yet you have all that you need and all that you want, lacking nothing in the realm of desire. Must you have nothing to desire nothing? On the contrary, must you have everything to truly desire nothing?

The thing that stands out the most about this way of defining happiness as a lack of desire is really the underlying premise of Naval's philosophy on happiness. The central premise that Naval espouses is that happiness is a choice. So many of the philosophies towards the subject of happiness are attempts at trying to find happiness or discover things that bring you happiness, all of which is searching, or desiring, for something to fulfill your lack of happiness currently. This would imply that under Naval's definition, you would finally reach happiness once you have obtained all of your desires, therefore fulfilling them and having no desires. This is the default mentality and the root of constant striving toward repeated desires, only to achieve them and be left continually unfulfilled. Now what? You find that your desire for happiness returns, and therefore, you continue to hold happiness as a desire within itself, condemning yourself to a lifetime without it, as it is the very desire you want to rid yourself of to achieve it.

Naval makes the contrary conclusion as well, that if happiness is to have no desires, then you could achieve all your desires, thus fulfilling them, as stated above, or you can have no desires to begin with. The beauty is that to have no desires is a choice! Train yourself not to want just as you have been trained to want by the world. To continue to be filled with desires, especially the desire to be happy, is a continual trap. This philosophy goes on to validate the saying that if you chase after happiness, you will never find it. To chase after happiness is to desire to be happy, even though to be happy means not having any desires. It is therefore not until you can release your desire for happiness and all other desires that you will be happy or content, lacking nothing. 

This is not to say that you should therefore not act or not function as a part of society because of your lack of desire, but rather to induce a level of self-control over your consciousness. One who does not wish for more than he currently has. To be content in the present, lacking nothing, desiring nothing, wishing for nothing more than he currently has, is where happiness is. He is grateful for everything. All that comes his way is more than he needs at baseline. Even to lose what he has does not affect his happiness, as he is content with less, just as he is grateful for more. Desire, envy, and greed live deep within everyone, usually undetected by the majority or their hosts, yet they all exist voluntarily. That is, you choose to desire more than you have as a direct byproduct of your discontent with where you are. It can equally be said that you can choose to rid yourself of desire as a direct byproduct of truly being content with what you have and where you are. Wanting nothing, lacking nothing, desiring nothing. To choose to be content is to choose to be happy. 

Highlights:

• Direct relationship between happiness and desire

• Happiness = either all your desires fulfilled or no desires at all

• Desires are a choice → happiness is a choice

• If you chase after happiness, you will never find it

• Discontent → Desire ; Contentment → Happiness