Happiness short revised

Happiness and the Secret of
Divine Civilization
By Keyvan Geula MFCC

• What is the major difference between happy people and unhappy people?
• Can everyone be happy?
• Should everyone be happy?
• What are the relations of good and bad events and human happiness?
• Can people learn to be happy?
• Can a person be happy and sad at the same time?
• How long does it take to become happy?
• Is happiness a question of law and legislation?
• Does money bring happiness?
• Can physical pleasures bring happiness?
• Is adversity good or bad for happiness?
• What are the degrees and qualities of happiness?
• Is happiness a question of this life or the next?
• Can a soul be happy in this world and sad in the next or vice versa?
• What has religion to do about happiness?
• Are religious people generally happy or sad?
• Can we make another person happy?
• Should others try to make us happy?
• Of all human relations which one is the real source of happiness?
• How much genetics and experience each effect human happiness?

The order and scope of things
• the primary purpose in revealing the Divine
Law -… is to bring about happiness in the
after life and civilization and the refinement
of character in this..
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Page: 46)

Significance of Knowledge in
human happiness
• The happiness and
pride of a nation
consist in this, that it
should shine out like
the sun in the high
heaven of knowledge.

Happiness is the primary purpose
of civilization
• The primary purpose, the
basic objective, in laying
down powerful laws and
setting up great principles
and institutions dealing
with every aspect of
civilization, is human
happiness; (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of
Divine Civilization, Page: 60)
• Our words and actions
testify to our hidden
thoughts; together they
express out inner spirit.
This is our life’s
testimony, our purpose
here on earth: to manifest
the very nature of our
spirit, which is touched by
the spirit of God. Rumi,
Masnavi V. 236,250

What constitutes human happiness
individually and collectively?
• and human happiness
consists only in drawing
closer to the Threshold of
Almighty God,
• and in securing the peace
and well-being of every
individual member, high
and low alike, of the
human race;
• Do not try to develop
what is natural to man;
develop what is
natural to heaven. He
who develops heaven
benefits life; he who
develops man injures
life. Taoism:Chuang Tzu 19

What is our main resource for
happiness?
• …and the supreme
agencies for
accomplishing these
two objectives are the
excellent qualities
with which humanity
has been endowed.
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization,
Page: 60)
• In a study that followed
the exploits of over 100
adults for a period of two
years, it was found that the
effect of “good” and “bad”
events quickly faded. That
is, subjects’ happiness was
not dependent on the sum
of events but on what they
made of those events. Suh,
Diener, and Fujita 1966 of the !00 simple
secrets of Happy People p. 191

Qualities of Education in securing
Happiness
• the extension of education,
• the development of useful arts and sciences,
• the promotion of industry and technology,
• (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Page: 14)

Qualities of legislation in
safeguarding Happiness
• the setting up of just
legislation, in accord with
the Divine laws which
guarantee the happiness of
society and protect the rights
of all mankind and are an
impregnable proof against
assault
• insuring the integrity of the
members of society and their
equality before the law,
Page: 14)
• I believe in the absolute
oneness of God and
therefore of humanity.
What though we have
many bodies? We have but
one soul…I know God is
neither in heaven nor
down below, but in
everyone. Mohandas K.
Gandhi

Money does not buy happiness
• the happiness and greatness,
the rank and station, the
pleasure and peace, of an
individual have never
consisted in his personal
wealth, but rather in his
excellent character, his high
resolve, the breadth of his
learning, and his ability to
solve difficult problems.
Pages: 23-24)
• In this country, more people
buy lottery tickets than
vote….But lottery winners
often find that instead of
enjoying a lifetime of
happiness because of their
wealth, they face family feuds
and disputes with friends.
• A study of life satisfaction
looked at twenty factors that
might contribute to happiness.
Nineteen of those factors did
matter, and one did not. The
one that did not matter was
financial status. P. 190

Happiness is an expression of the
soul
• Spiritual progress ensures
the happiness and eternal
continuance of the soul.
The Prophets of God have
founded the laws of divine
civilization. They have
been the root and
fundamental source of all
knowledge.
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Promulgation of Universal
Peace*, Page: 142)
• Happiness is an
expression of the soul
in considered actions.
Aristotle How we Choose p. 21
• Let me embrace thee,
sour adversity, for
wise men say it is the
wisest course. WS, Henry VI

What is pleasing in God’s sight
must be pleasing to ours
• How is it that we are
satisfied today with this
miserable condition, are
engrossed in our licentious
passions, have blinded
ourselves to supreme
happiness, to that which is
pleasing in God's sight, and
have all become absorbed in
our selfish concerns and the
search for ignoble, personal
advantage?
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Page:
9)

What God, hereafter and His justice
has to do with human happiness?
• Supreme happiness is
man's, and he beholds the
signs of God in the world
and in the human soul, if
he urges on the steed of
high endeavor in the arena
of civilization and justice.
• "We will surely show
them Our signs in the
world and within
themselves."(4)
• In a study of those
who have been a
victim of a crime or
known someone close
who had, those who
believed the world is
ultimately just retained
a 13 percent higher
level of life
satisfaction p. 151

Ignorance is a bliss only for a while
• And this is man's uttermost
wretchedness: that he should
live inert, apathetic, dull,
involved only with his own
base appetites. When he is
thus, he has his being in the
deepest ignorance and
savagery, sinking lower than
the brute beasts. (`Abdu'l-Baha:
Secret of Divine Civilization, Page: 4)
• If you do not believe
yourself to be moral,
satisfaction is
unattainable.
• People who feel they lack
morals report they are half
as likely to feel happy
compared to those who
feel they are moral. P.100

Fulfilling our social responsibilities
brings happiness
• How excellent, how
honorable is man if he
arises to fulfill his
responsibilities; how
wretched and
contemptible, if he shuts
his eyes to the welfare of
society and wastes his
precious life in pursuing
his own selfish interests
and personal advantages.
Page: 4)
• Life satisfaction was found to
improve 24% with the level of
altruistic activity. P. 126

Our plague of pessimism
• The most deadly epidemic menacing
children today is not AIDS, gang violence
or teen pregnancy—it is the plague of
pessimism
• 1995 Michael Medved

Service to humanity and its effect on
human happiness
• the honor and
distinction of the
individual consist in
this, that he among all
the world's multitudes
should become a
source of social good.
• An analysis of volumes of
previous research on the
subject shows a strong
consensus that
volunteering contributes to
happiness by decreasing
boredom and creating an
increased sense of purpose
in life. Volunteers, on
average, are twice as
likely to feel happy with
themselves as non-
volunteers. P. 58

Serving the cause of peace brings
happiness
• Is any larger bounty
conceivable than this, that
an individual, looking
within himself, should
find that by the confirming
grace of God he has
become the cause of peace
and well-being, of
happiness and advantage
to his fellow men? No, by
the one true God, there is
no greater bliss, no more
complete delight. (`Abdu'l-Baha:
Secret of Divine Civilization, Pages: 2-3)
• If I can stop one heart
from breaking,
• I shall not live in vain;
• If I can ease one life the
aching,
• Or cool one pain,
• Or help one fainting robin
unto his nest again,
• I shall not live in vain
Emily Dickinson How We Choose to be Happy p.
173

Human happiness
• We should continually be establishing new
bases for human happiness and creating and
promoting new instrumentalities toward this
end.
• (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine
Civilization, Pages: 3-4)

Knowing God
• Whoso hath known Me
hath known the Goal of
all desire, and whoso
hath turned unto Me
hath turned unto the
Object of all adoration.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Aqdas, Page: 69)
• The soul says to her base parts,
“My exile is more bitter than yours:
I am celestial.” The body desires
green herbs and running water,
because its origin is the Infinite
Soul. The desire of the soul is for
knowledge and wisdom; the desire
of the body is for orchards,
meadows, and vines. The desire of
the soul is for ascent and sublimity;
the desire of the body is for gain
and the means of self indulgence.
Rumi, Masnavi III. 4435-9

The source of human happiness
• and human happiness consists only in
drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty
God, and in securing the peace and well-
being of every individual member, high and
low alike, of the human race;
Civilization, Page: 60)

The divine religions are the basis
of human happiness
• the Divine religions, the
holy precepts, the
heavenly teachings, are
the unassailable basis of
human happiness, and that
the peoples of the world
can hope for no real relief
or deliverance without this
one great remedy. (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret
of Divine Civilization, Page: 99)
• Research on the effect of
religion on life satisfaction
found that regardless of
what religion people
affiliated themselves with,
those who had strongly
held spiritual beliefs were
typically satisfied with
life, while those who had
no spiritual belief
typically were unsatisfied.
P. 44

The most beautiful and profound
emotion
• The most beautiful and profound emotion we can
experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the
sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion
is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand
rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is
impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as
the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in
their primitive form—this knowledge, this feeling, is
at the center of true religion. Albert Einstein quoted in the enlightened mind
an Anthology of Sacred Prose Edited by Stephen Mitchell p.191

Real losers are those who are
Confined within the walls of self and
passion(Baha'u'llah: Seven Valleys and Four Valleys, Pages: 19-
20)
• Thus it is that certain
invalid souls have
confined the lands of
knowledge within the wall
of self and passion, and
clouded them with
ignorance and blindness,
and have been veiled from
the light of the mystic sun
and the mysteries of the
Eternal Beloved; …Such
is the worth of the people
of this age!

Feeling the joy of nearness to God
• That first sight of Carmel, with its mystery, “the Holy
Mountain of the Lord,” broke me down. I am still
empowered when I look at it, and as I grow more
sensitized I will surely feel it more and more. Here the
Divine Spirit breathes and reveals itself. I know now.
Ah, the poor human hearts to whom that spirit is not
revealed, to whom the material is everything, who
cannot know of the spiritual Kingdom surrounding
them, who have not rent the veil! Will they believe me
when I return to testify? I would “ascend to the cross”
for them! The Diary of Juliet Thompson p. 6

The joy of feeling the true limits of
human consciousness
• To breathe this Truth into the world I would give my own last
breath with joy. I can now understand the ecstasy of the martyrs.
I pray to be one of them, to be worthy of their destiny. I know
now what the Master means by the Holy Fragrances. I have come
to the center of their emanation. The air is laden with the Divine
Incense—verily, the Breath of God. It is almost unbearable. I am
lost in it. My prayers used to grope through space. Now I am
conscious of a close communion with a heart-consuming Spirit
of Love, a Spirit more intensely real than the earth and all the
stars put together, than the essence of all human love, even than
mother-love
• .The Diary of Juliet Thompson p. 6

Significance of Divine physicians
• This panacea must, however, be
administered by a wise and skilled
physician, for in the hands of an
incompetent all the cures that the Lord of
men has ever created to heal men's ills
could produce no health, and would on the
contrary only destroy the helpless and
burden the hearts of the already afflicted.

Serving with the Power of Our
Example to spread Hope and faith
• the Faith of God must be propagated
through human perfections, through
qualities that are excellent and pleasing, and
spiritual behavior.

To choose to love
• “We who lived in concentration camps can
remember the men who walked through the huts
comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in number, but
they offer sufficient proof that everything can be
taken away from a man but one thing: the last of
human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own
way.” Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Man’s supreme honor and real
happiness
• man's supreme honor and real happiness lie
in self-respect, in high resolves and noble
purposes, in integrity and moral quality, in
immaculacy of mind.

True faith
• If a man is not characterized by these
excellent qualities, it is certain that he has
never attained to so much as a drop out of
the fathomless river of the waters of life that
flows through the teachings of the Holy
Books

Let deeds not words by your
adorning
• nothing on earth can be demonstrated by
words alone(`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Pages: 98-99)

Proof of man’s nobility
• is there any deed in the world that would be nobler
than service to the common good? Is there any
greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that
he should become the cause of the education, the
development, the prosperity and honor of his
fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God!
• (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization,
Page: 103)

Pure motives and Only for the
sake of God
• The highest righteousness of all is for blessed
souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and
deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement
and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for
the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote
themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting
their own worldly advantage and working only to
serve the general good.

DNA and Daily Life decides who
we are
• Everything a person is and everything he
knows reside in the tangled thicket of his
intertwined neurons. These faithful tiny
bridges number in the quadrillions, but they
spring from two sources: DNA and daily
life. The genetic code calls some synapses
into being, while experience engenders and
modifies others. A general Theory of Love
p. 148

The Genes and the Genie
• While genes are pivotal in establishing some
aspects of emotionality, experience plays a central
role in turning genes on and off. DNA is not the
hearts destiny;p. 152
• A child is born with the hardware of limbic
sensing, but to use it skillfully he needs a guide.
Someone must sharpen and calibrate his sonar;
someone must teach him how to sense the
emotional world correctly. P. 155

The Clay of His Command
• O SON OF BOUNTY!
Out of the wastes of
nothingness, with the clay
of My command I made
thee to appear, and have
ordained for thy training
every atom in existence
and the essence of all
created things.
(Baha'u'llah: Persian
Hidden Words, Page: 29)
• A baby begins life as an
open loop. His mother’s
milk provides
nourishment, and her
limbic communication
provides synchronization
for his delicate neural
rhythms. As a child
matures, his
neurophysiology
internalizes some
regulatory functions. P.
GT of Love p. 157

The Potter and the Clay
• O SON OF BOUNTY! Out of the wastes of nothingness,
with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and
have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and
the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue
from thy mother's womb, I destined for thee two founts of
gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love
thee. Out of My loving-kindness, 'neath the shade of My
mercy I nurtured thee, and guarded thee by the essence of
My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that
thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become
worthy of My invisible bestowals.
(Baha'u'llah: Persian Hidden Words, Page: 29)

Adult emotional learning is tough
• Unfortunately, the brain’s
biology and its
mathematics both oppose
adult emotional learning.
The plasticity of neurons
to sprout fresh
connections and encode
new knowledge-- declines
after adolescence. P. 163
• The emotional mind can
change in the adulthood.
The old patterns can
undergo revision, although
the task is not easy. P. 164
• Let the mothers consider
that whatever concerneth
the education of children is
of the first importance. Let
them put forth every effort
in this regard, for when the
bough is green and tender it
will grow in whatever way
ye train it.
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Selections ... `Abdu'l-Baha, Page:
125)

Emotions as our guide
• Whenever I ponder my
evil doings and Thy
benevolence, my heart
melteth within me, and my
blood boileth in my veins.
(Baha'u'llah: Aqdas: Other Sections, Page: 97)
• …be thou so steadfast in
My love that thy heart
shall not waver
• (Baha'u'llah: Baha'i Prayers (US), Page:
212)
• In all cases, emotions are
humanity’s motivator and
its omnipresent guide.
• Emotions is the messenger
of love; it is the vehicle
that carries every signal
from brimming heart to
another.
• For human beings, feeling
deeply is synonymous
with being alive P. 36-37

thoughts and feelings
• O God! Make our souls
dependent upon the Verses of
Thy Divine Unity, our hearts
cheered with the outpourings
of Thy Grace, that our
thoughts, our views, our
feelings may become as one
reality, manifesting the spirit
of union throughout the
world.
(`Abdu'l-Baha: Selections ... `Abdu'l-Baha, Pages:
86-87)
• Emotional life can be
influenced, but it
cannot be commanded.
P. 33
• In humans, the
neocortical capacity
for thought can easily
obscure other, more
occult mental
activities.

The greatest gift and good
• Know, verily, that the soul
is a sign of God, a
heavenly gem whose
reality the most learned of
men hath failed to grasp,
and whose mystery no
mind, however acute, can
ever hope to unravel.
(Baha'u'llah: Gleanings, Pages: 158-159)
• The greatest good you
can do for another is
not just to share your
riches, but to reveal to
him his own.

Time, time, time
• This is the day which Lord
has made. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it. Psalms
• The secret of health for
both the mind and body is
not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the
future, nor to anticipate
troubles, but to live the
present moment wisely
and earnestly. Buddha How we
Choose to be Happy p. 153

The best of men, the worst of
men
• "The best of men are those who serve the
people; the worst of men are those who
harm the people." (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Page: 103)

Thy heart is a divine trust
• The heart is a divine
trust; cleanse it from
the stain of self-love,
adorn it with the
coronal of pure
intent(`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization,
Page: 116)
• This is true religion; to
cleanse oneself with
pure thoughts, pure
words, and pure deeds.
Zroaster: Zend-Avesta God’s Big Hand book
for the Soul p. 119
• Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall
see God.Mathhews 5.8

O SON OF SPIRIT! I created
thee rich
• why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty?
Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase
thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave
thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from
anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I
molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with
another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou
mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty,
powerful and self-subsisting.
(Baha'u'llah: Arabic Hidden Words, Page: 13)

Promoting the happiness of the
entire human race
• We must now highly resolve to arise and lay
hold of all those instrumentalities that
promote the peace and well-being and
happiness, the knowledge, culture and
industry, the dignity, value and station, of
the entire human race.

The other world!!!
• Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, “the world outside is vast and intricate.
There are Wheatfield's and mountain passes, the
orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of
galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing
at a wedding.”
• You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up in
the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer.
• There is no “other world.” I only know what I’ve
experienced. You must be hallucinating. Rumi (1207-1273) The
Enlightened Mind, p. 102

The highest end of all learning
• We have decreed, O people, that the highest and
last end of all learning be the recognition of Him
Who is the Object of all knowledge; and yet,
behold how ye have allowed your learning to shut
you out, as by a veil, from Him Who is the
Dayspring of this Light, through Whom every
hidden thing hath been revealed.
• (Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Aqdas, Page: 57)

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