Life is precious: Do what you love.

How improbable was human life on earth?

First, our universe had to come into existence out of nothing. Then laws of physics had to be sufficient to create us. Stars and galaxies had to form so that earth and other necessary materials get created. Almost nothing in our body is created by our sun. Heck even water is thought to have come here from outer space. Countless supernovae burnt to forge the elements we see all around us and is crucial for forming human bodies. Then evolution had to occur in such a way that humans were formed. And after all of these miracles, here we are. Singing, dancing, forming tribes and fighting, exploring, building relationships and dreaming about outer space. How sacred and precious existence is!

When I consider how improbable our existence is, it astonishes me. It also makes my heart fill up with gratitude. For a brief moment in the space-time continuum, we get to live. To listen to music. To laugh with each other. To explore, learn and share.

Pursuing happiness is not the purpose of human life.

Happiness is an emotion. Just like any other emotion it’s an indicator. It indicates your state of being.

When you are in the right place at the right time you are happy. It’s your body’s way of telling you: ‘good job, keep doing this’

The opposite is pain, anxiety or boredom etc. These emotions make you feel bad so that you know you are doing something wrong.

The point is happiness is not the goal of life. Happiness is what we get when we advance towards our goal of life.

So what’s wrong with happiness being the goal of our life? Heres why:

1. It’s unstable. Life can’t be all happiness all the time. Suffering is inevitable. If your goal in life is happiness, then suffering makes life meaningless and makes you wanna suicide.

2. It can easily be manipulated. You can be happy doing drugs, watching Netflix, gambling or wasting money any other way. All of these are bad in the long run and a waste of human life.

3. Many things that give life meaning and purpose also make us less happy. Like, it’s statistically proven that people with children are less happy than people without children. But it’s worthwhile to have children. It’s one of the best blessings of life and not because it makes our overall happiness increase but because it makes our overall satisfaction level increase. And they are two different things that are mutually exclusive.
4. Happiness makes a person impulsive. A happy person can be too brave or too generous or too optimistic. This makes them take stupid and dangerous steps that will bring disaster upon them later

The pursuit of happiness irks me. This is what mass murderers use as their arguments. They say if the purpose of life is happiness and most people are suffering then life should cease to exist.

Wrong. Purpose of life is not happiness. Happiness is just another emotion. The purpose of human existence or life in general has to be greater than just feeling one emotion all the time. Even if that emotion feels good.

So what is the purpose of our life? That’s a topic for another blog post..