Tools

Life is a struggle. At every turn you contend with forces that oppose you. In order to live, you must overcome these forces.

As Marcus Aurelius put it, "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing."

Every day is a contest pitting you against opponents seen and unseen, known and unknown. You grapple with people, contend with natural forces, combat sickness and disease, and struggle to master your thoughts and emotions.

The forces swirling around you are largely out of your control and inconsiderate to your wants and needs. In all the chaos of life, only one thing is completely within your custody: your mind.

Luckily for you, it is the only thing you need.

"The mind," as John Milton said, "is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

The carpenter has his hammer, chisel, and saw; with these he hews the wood and bends it to his will. Your mind is your tool box. The tools of your trade are stored in it: the skills, talents, ideas, knowledge, and relationships you have cultivated during your time on this earth.

Your toolbox is unique. No one else has the same combination of tools as you. The solution to every challenge you face, every task you tackle, and every obstacle barring your path resides with you.

There is no useless trivia, no obsolete skill. Every tool at your disposal serves a purpose: you need only find a way to employ it in your favor.

If you remember this and keep a detailed inventory of the tools in your possession, you will find that "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters when compared to what lies within us."

Greatness (Cyrus the Neglected, part 2)

Becoming great at something is no easy task. Even those who are naturally gifted must put in untold hours of training before they can ascend to greatness.

There are plenty of great athletes, actors, performers, salespeople, scientists, public speakers, and writers out there, but I don't know anyone who deserves to be called the Great. Such a title demands accomplishments far beyond the normal scope of greatness, and rightfully so, Being known as the Great means you're not just great at one or two things: you're great at everything you do.

Historically speaking, this title has been handed out like Halloween candy. Seriously. Here's a list of all the historical figures to ever assume the title of "the Great." Ridiculous, right? I get the feeling that a lot of these guys probably just commanded their subjects to call them "the Great"  and promised to torture all who refused.

Not that it matters. When someone mentions "the Great," you don't automatically think "Akbar the Great" or "Herod the Great:" you think of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian Kid.

The Macedonian Kid, in all his glory

Which is a terrible shame. Alexander wasn't the Great. Self-absorbed, vain, paranoid, short-sighted, and narcissistic are just a few of the titles that would've suited him better. Alexander was a glory-hog with no regard for anything or anyone but himself and, more importantly, his legacy.

It just so happens that his accomplishments, however few they might have been, were impressive enough to overshadow his retched character and epic failures.

Alexander's deeds also overshadowed the myriad accomplishments of his idol and predecessor, Cyrus II of Persia, who trumped the Macedonian Kid in almost every regard.

So why don't you know anything about Cyrus?

Until very recently, the only thing I knew about him was that he lead the Persians in Sid Meyer's Civilization, one of my favorite video games. Of the Persian empire I knew only a little bit more: namely, that they were the bad guys in the movie 300, another personal favorite of mine.
 

Maybe it's a case of bad timing--Cyrus died some 200 years before Alexander was born--or due to a cultural divide--if you were born in Iran, for example, you would celebrate Cyrus Day every October 29th--but either way, Cyrus got a raw deal.

The Macedonian Kid might have conquered more than Cyrus and done it faster to boot, but that's about the only thing he's got over Cyrus. The people he conquered in record time rebelled against him incessantly and instead of sticking around to put things in order, Alexander just kept pressing forward, hungry for more glory.

Even his soldiers, sick and tired of dying in foreign lands for the sake of their leader's vanity, eventually turned on him. Most leaders would take this as a hint to turn around and go home, but not the Macedonian Kid. His general Coenus had to plead and beg before Alexander conceded and even then, as if to punish his soldiers for their revolt, he took them through the Gedrosian Desert, the most difficult and dangerous route home, where a large number of them died.

Talk about a great leader. Way to go, Alex.

Perhaps the best example of the Kid's disregard for others comes to us from his deathbed. While catching some much-needed R&R in Babylon, the 32-year old conqueror became ill (or was poisoned, more likely). 14 days later his four generals, concerned about his well-being, circled his bedside. When asked who out of the four generals should get the empire after he dies, Alexander is reported to have answered: "The strongest."

Way to pit your most brilliant generals against each other, Alex. Great parting words. Really brilliant.

A mere 2 years after his death, Alexander's empire was reduced to four separate kingdoms, one for each general.

I'd be willing to call Alexander a great strategist, a great commander even, but never the Great. How can anyone think he deserves such an accolade? All told, his empire lasted 8 years, and that's only if you start counting from his first conquest in 329BCE.

Compare this to the accomplishments of Cyrus, the only Great worthy of the title.

While Cyrus was alive, his empire encompassed everything between the Mediterranean Sea and Indus river. He had the Near East on lock-down. His titles included: the Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.

I like the last one best.

Cyrus didn't just collect titles for show: he held onto them, ruling a vast empire composed of many nations which had only recently been considered empires in their own right. And whereas Alexander's subjects couldn't wait for him to move on to his next conquest so that they might rise up against him, Cyrus' subjects loved him. According to Xenophon,

those who were subject to him, he treated with esteem and regard, as if they were his own children, while his subjects themselves respected Cyrus as their "Father." What other man but Cyrus, after having overturned an empire, ever died with the title of "The Father" from the people whom he had brought under his power?

On the one hand you have the Macedonian Kid, whose empire endured less than a decade and was subject to numerous revolts and insurrections; and on the other we have Cyrus, who was unanimously beloved by his subjects and whose empire would outlive its founder by a couple of centuries.

I realize that I've spent more time talking about Alexander than I have about Cyrus (see, even here the Kid overshadows his peers!) but there's a good reason.

In order to understand the greatness of Cyrus we need a point of reference, someone who lived in the same era and whose accomplishments are comparable. Who better than the Macedonian Kid?
  
The two men have much in common but it is their differences that are most interesting. Both men forged mighty empires--the mightiest the world had ever seen--but Cyrus' lasted over two centuries while Alexander's lasted less than a decade. What gives?

In my opinion, the biggest difference between the two is motivation.

Alexander was driven by a hunger for glory. Like Achilles in Homer's Iliad, he sought to "do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.” We can see this drive in the way he swept across the known world without bothering to lay down the proper foundations of an empire. In Alexander's carelessness and singular desire to press onward, ever onward, we catch a glimpse of the selfish desires that governed him.

What desires governed Cyrus?

In order to answer this question, we will need to return to the Near East, circa 549 BCE where, having just conquered the Median Empire, Cyrus plots his next move.

Cyrus the Neglected

History is littered with people who, through acts of heroism, ingenious discoveries, the perpetration of unthinkable atrocities, and sometimes a combination of all three, altered the world with their actions and ideas.

Many of these characters outlive by way of fame (of infamy) their frail shells. They enchant  future generations with the stories of their lives and lodge themselves in the public imagination.

You know who these historical celebrities are.

Genghis Khan, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Adolph Hitler, Confucius, Julius Cesar, Hannibal, Muhammad, and the apostle Paul are just a few that come to mind and I'm sure that you could add a few names to this list without thinking too hard. 

These select individuals--the heroes, saviors, and wise ones of ages past--fulfill our innate need to believe in something greater than ourselves, to venerate someone or something we see as special or divine. In their boldness, insight, sacrifice, love, empathy, passion, or perseverance, historical celebrities appear to us as more than human--literally greater than ourselves--and incite our awe.

They take on a special quality in our minds. We mythologize them.

For a modern look at this phenomenon, think of movie stars, athletes, and musicians. They appear to us as minor divinities. We obsess and gossip over their private lives and read magazines about them fueled by rumors and filled with trivialities.

In this regard we are no different from the Greeks and Romans who spent countless centuries speculating about the Olympians and telling stories about Zeus' scandalous affairs with mortal women.

Historical celebrities like the ones I listed above don't come often but when they do, they typically leave a lasting impression. We study their words and strive to emulate their character. We make movies about them and cast our own minor celebrities to play their parts. We read about them in science textbooks and employ their discoveries to make even greater scientific leaps.

It is unfortunate that some of these celebrities, either by the willful omission of subsequent powers or some cultural barrier, fade from the public imagination. Once powerful, influential, and wise, these figures are relegated to b-list status. Their accomplishments are trivialized or simply ignored and their fascinating life-stories are forgotten.

They become the ghosts of history, lurking not far from sight but rarely given their proper dues.

Cyrus the Elder is such a ghost.

Cyrus' Standard

Never has one so deserving of accolades been so neglected by the mainstream. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn't heard of Alexander the Great or Julius Cesar, and yet Cyrus' overall accomplishments overshadow those of both men.

Cyrus was a conqueror, organizer, and human rights activist. Beloved by his subjects--both those of his native Persia and of the ones he subsequently conquered--he was also idolized by Alexander the Great and Thomas Jefferson, just to name a few.

More importantly, Cyrus helped fuel a movement that continues to build steam today, some 2,500 years later, despite major opposition from various world powers.

But before I get into that, allow me first to properly introduce the man in question.

Cyrus, or Kurus as he would've been known in his native tongue, was born in 576BCE or somewhere thereabouts. His name either meant "Like the Sun" or "Humiliator of the enemy." Scholars aren't totally sure which one but both names are apt, as we shall soon see.

Little is known for certain about Cyrus' early life. The ancient historian Herodotus writes about Cyrus' birth and upbringing but the tale is so outlandish and archetypical, it is almost certainly myth.

Still, Herodotus' story merits a quick look because it ties into Cyrus' first conquest as king of Persia. According to the historian, Cyrus was actually the Median king Astyages' grand-son. Soon after he was born, the Astyages' magi predicted that Cyrus would one day usurp his grandfather. The king pulled a page out of the evil queen's book in Snow White and commanded his steward Harpagus to take Cyrus out and kill him.

Harpagus was way too squeamish to murder a little baby in cold blood so he tried to get a rugged bandit named Mitradates to do the deed. I can imagine what went through the bandit's mind: "Hey dude, just because I rob people doesn't mean I'm willing to kill a little kid! What do you take me for? An Assyrian?"

Another Saturday night in Assyria

Spoiler alert: Mitradates took little Cyrus into the mountains where he and his wife, deprived of their own son who died at birth, raised him.

Now as I said, this tale is almost assuredly false. Back in the day, it was standard practice to mythologize kings and other influential figures, embellishing their deeds or fabricating new ones entirely out of thin air. But in this rendition of Cyrus' early life we find an important connection to reality.

When Cyrus became king of Persia (modern-day Iran) in 559BCE, his kingdom was a vassal state of the Median Empire, the dominant force of the Near East at the time. Astiages, the same man who tried to have baby Cyrus killed in Herodotus' legend, wasn't terribly popular. His general, the same Harpagus allegedly tasked with slaying Cyrus, convinced the Persian king to rouse his subjects and lead them against Astyages.

The Medes had the Near East on lock.

Four years later, Cyrus marched into Ectabana, the Median capital, effectively conquering the once-powerful empire and laying the foundation for his own empire, one that would overshadow anything that came before it in size, scope, complexity, and organization.

Cyrus the Great had arrived on the big stage.

Join me next week as we further explore the life and deeds of this fascinating historical figure.

Special vs. Not: The Core of Our Religious Problem

(In an effort to branch out and connect with other like-minded individuals, I've invited Daniel Meilleur to write a guest-post. Meilleur is a teacher, humanist, free-thinker, and life-long student of world religions. He is currently working on his first book, The Atheist's Bible. You can contact him with your comments at danielmeilleur83@hotmail.com)

With the exception of Humanism, all recognized major world religions promote in an almost subliminal and unspoken manner the principal idea that humanity is special, chosen, and unique. In their estimation, a human life is worth more than any other. You, my fellow reader, are the most important person in all of the Cosmos.

High five, G.

In Judaism, God chose the Jews, vowed to protect them and smite their enemies, and gave them the Earth and all that exists upon it as their exploitable possession. In Christianity, God sacrificed his only son in order to save us from eternal death and gave us the opportunity to merit an infinite and blissful afterlife. So it goes in Islam, where Muhammad pleaded with the polytheistic Arabs to live righteous lives and honour Allah so that they might be saved from eternal sufferance and torment, because Allah cared about and recorded every human action.

But the Abrahamic religions are not the only ones to indulge in a self-centred view of the cosmos. The Buddha preached that the path to enlightenment could be found exclusively within us and in his pursuit of nirvana, he abandoned his young child and wife. In Hinduism, one must focus on the karmic ramification of their daily actions in order to climb the ladder of the caste system in their upcoming rebirth.

The egocentric nature of our world’s most followed faiths stems from their dates of origin. Until the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century, humanity assumed that our fair planet was of a significant size compared to the greater Universe. This, combined with the illusion that the celestial bodies revolve around us and not the other way around, led to a conviction that human life was of great importance. 

We now know this to be false. We cannot blame our forefathers for their faulty conclusions but we can blame ourselves for continuing to entertain them.

It is crucial that we come to terms with this stone-cold fact: that human life is no more important or intrinsically valuable than that of a kangaroo, a carrot, or a flea. Our sentience is different, yes, but our importance--our “special-ness”--is not.

Moreover, we must accept that the Universe will continue to exist without us, and more importantly, without the Earth. Compared to the size of the Cosmos, the Earth is smaller than a single grain of sand on all of the planet’s beaches combined. Our importance follows suit. The Cosmos will not care when you die. Our own galaxy will be, for all intents and purposes, unaffected when the Earth--and even our Sun--dies. 

How important are we?

Because our outdated religious beliefs have seeped into most aspects of our social order, we run our  lives as though we are special. Evidence of our perceived importance can be found all around us. It can be found in the rhetoric and promises our politicians spew to win votes and in the way corporations appeal to our outlandish egocentricity to sell us their products. 

Our society fails take adequate responsibility for its toxic behaviour due to this same belief. When we pollute the planet, fight wars, overpopulate, and put the Earth’s--and in turn our own--existence in peril, we seldom hear our leaders insist that we are the root cause of these problems. Introspection is never a solution in our God-given society. After all, when we die, all will be made right.

A Muslim acquaintance of mine once told me that Humanists are too arrogant to capture and comprehend God’s work in this life. From the years of research I have done, I have only encountered opposite proof of this claim. Humanists do not believe they are unique, special, or chosen. Moreover, they believe that they are extremely lucky to be alive in the first place. We appreciate what we have in this life and this disallows our capacity to take existence for granted. 

All will not be made right when we die. The only afterlife worth living for is the life of our children--the only life that will assuredly continue after our own. We must preserve the Earth; she is not only our creator but also our only home. 

We are all human. We are all equal. We are all in this together, if only for the simple reason that we have nowhere else to go. If we do not soon come to terms with some fundamental truths, our species will fade away like so many before it. The conviction that we are “special” creates a sub-current within us, informing us that humanity will be around forever. All evidence contradicts this sentiment. We will all die, eventually. The only goal conducive to humanity as a whole is the preservation of human life, first on Earth, and perhaps one day in the Cosmos. 

The first step in ensuring our success in this mission is to accept that we are not chosen or special: we just are. 

Trinity

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead. 

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man." 

--Albert Einstein

There is embedded deep inside the human psyche a powerful urge to venerate, worship, kneel before, and praise forces that transcend and overwhelm our limited mental faculties. It’s no wonder: we’re surrounded on all sides by the wonders and terrors of nature and beyond that by an endless black sea dotted with twinkling stars, each one a nuclear furnace suspended by unseen hands in the great void of space.

In eras past we gave these forces names, faces, and personalities eerily like our own. We grafted humanity onto the elemental. We saw the workings of a superior intellect in the unfeeling, unthinking forces of nature and attributed commandments to it.

Now, in this age of science, we have lost our gods and replaced them with false idols. We worship money, praise celebrity, and place ourselves on altars of our own making. We no longer look upon the cosmos with awe and wonder as our ancestors did. We no longer love that which made us and sustains us.

We have lost touch with the divine that is all around us.

We need not worship false gods or false idols when real deities abound. We can praise our creators without violating the laws of science. Reason and spirituality are not foes: they come from the same source, that undying spark smoldering in the unexplored recesses of your mind, and can be potent allies.

Let us give praise to those who played a hand in our creation; not the gods fabricated by our ancestors but those we can see, touch, hear, and feel.

Let us venerate a holy trinity deserving of our love, fascination, and respect.

Universe
Grand Creator, your thunderous and violent awakening 13.7 billion years ago made possible all that we see today, from the star-studded firmament to the earth beneath our feet.

Like a child roused from sleep you unfolded and stretched forth your limbs across the void, giving form to the formless. We approach you humbly, mere bacteria in your galactic gut, and thank you for bestowing upon each of us consciousness, reason, and free-will so that we may have a brief moment of awareness against the backdrop of Eternity.

We humans are but parts in your galactic machinery, awakened by way of the Logos to the nature of the machinery itself.

We are the culmination of your intelligent design, for what is evolution if not the most intelligent design of all? You worked tirelessly throughout the epochs, painstakingly weeding out organisms ill-suited for life on earth, until there rose an organism capable of receiving your holy spirit and deciphering your secret language.

We gladly accept your gifts, Grand Creator, and employ them to unravel the layers of mystery in which you are cloaked.

Sun

The ancients recognized your power and importance, Mighty Sun. They watched your movements obsessively, tracing your path across the heavens and calculating with great accuracy the waxing and waning of your reign. Our ancestors used your journey through the stars as a model for some of their most poignant myths, many of which live on to this very day.

They saw in your cyclical journey a parallel to the human life. Childhood, adulthood, middle age, and old age: these are the seasons and the transition from each to the other is akin to death and rebirth.

Even the final passage from life is but the dissolution of our parts back to the earth, which yields up more life--another rebirth--until time indefinite.

Imagine if the ancients knew that you set the planets in their orbits and that your light make life as we know it possible; how much would they have worshiped you then? Yet even in their ignorance, they venerated you above all others.

You formed the worlds that surround you and made life possible on this, our one and only home. For this we thank you.

Earth

Enduring and benevolent Mother, you bore life in your womb from its infancy and released it upon dry land. Aided by evolution--the master-worker--and nourished by the Mighty Sun's rays, that life matured and spread forth to cover every inch of you and to become one with your flesh.

The jungles and forests are your lungs; the soil your skin; the mountains your bones; the seas and winds your circulatory system.

We are not your masters, as some would believe, nor have you been given to us for subjugation. We are but lice clinging to your hide. We depend on you for protection, hiding beneath your invisible cloak from the poisons of space. We depend on your for food and drink. In fact, all that we possess--all the discoveries we have made and wonders we have erected--is made possible only by your grace.

We ought to approach you in reverence and thanks; instead, we inject poison into your flesh and fill your lungs with noxious gasses. We are a sickness unto you but by no means a terminal one.

You will endure long after all traces of our existence have faded away.

It is only ourselves who need be concerned with the destruction we sew upon you. The forces of greed and ignorance cause you discomfort perhaps, but threaten to bring us to a final extinction.

We come to you begging for guidance: teach us to live in harmony with you and the plethora of life you have birthed; to restore balance to your body; and to cleanse you of the filth we have spread into every part of you.

Amun.

/rant over

Universal Truths

Contained within your mind there is a fragment of the Eternal, a splinter of the universal intellect that creates and reclaims all things. Fan the spark until it burns bright and you will find the world around you transformed. The Logos (as the ancients called it) acts like a beacon, dispelling ignorance, misconception, and dishonesty to reveal brilliant truths about the human race.

These truths transcend nationality, religion, genre, and culture. They are basic principles that underlie the human psyche and govern human behavior on a fundamental level.

But how can this be? Isn't each person on earth a unique individual? Aren't we all different? How can we all be subject to a set of universal rules?

In order to understand how people from different eras and cultures are governed by the same universal principles, we must first accept a key truth: we are all one people, one race, segregated into subgroups by superficial differences and arbitrary lines. Peel back the layers of belief, judgment, bias, preference, and past experience and you will find that we are all remarkably similar.

Human Family

Trace your lineage back far enough and you are bound to stumble upon an ancestor linking you to every other human who has ever lived. This is true whether you believe that we are descendants of Adam and Eve or that we evolved from a common ancestor. Young Earth Creationists and those who subscribe to evolution stand in agreement: we're all members of a global human family. 

Your family tree is no tree at all; it is merely a branch in the tree of humanity, which is itself a branch in the ancient Tree of Life. We all come from the same roots and as a result, we are all governed by the same primal forces.

These can be boiled down to the principles of survival, suffering, and happiness.

1. The Will to Live

The will to live is a compulsion programmed into our biology. We will tolerate hardship, pain, discomfort, grief, depression, and a variety of other calamities just to go on living. Underlying all other wishes there is the desire to survive.

How else can we explain our existence? What motivated our ancestors to persevere through a wide assortment of wars, genocides, diseases, natural disasters, revolutions, famines, epidemics, and massacres, torture, terror, anguish, sickness, the loss of loved ones, and so on, if not some powerful, internal drive to survive?

The will to live can be lost--people can and often do commit suicide, after all--but this by no means reduces the validity of our first principle; it only shows that suffering, whether physical or mental, when present in sufficient amounts, can sometimes override the will to live.

Barring extenuating circumstances such as mental illness or horrible living conditions, we can safely say that all people wish to survive.

2. We Avoid Pain & Suffering

The connection in our minds between death and suffering was cemented over untold millennium while we roamed the untamed wilderness.

During this time, pain and suffering were counterproductive to our survival. A wound might not kill a hunter-gatherer but it would surely hinder his ability to hunt and gather, thus reducing his chances of survival. Likewise, emotional trauma, anguish, and anxiety would distract him and undermine his mental acuity, impeding him in his pursuit of food, drink, and shelter.

Some people learn to master pain; others grow to enjoy certain types of it. Then there are those who, out of a sense of duty or in the name of a lofty ideal, willingly put themselves in harm's way, exposing themselves to all manner of pain and suffering. Soldiers, doctors, firefighters, and police officers cannot be said to be avoiding pain and suffering; they are, in fact, trying to save others from it and putting themselves at risk in the process.

Exceptions aside, people will avoid unnecessary pain and suffering whenever possible.

3. We Pursue Happiness

Happiness plays second fiddle to survival and the avoidance of pain and suffering. It is only once we have secured our survival and put ourselves in a position to avoid suffering that we seek out happiness.

Think of all the things you do in your life: your hobbies, the TV shows you watch, the video games you play, the books you read, etc. What is the purpose of these if not to inject joy into your life?

Even our jobs further this end. The primary function of work is to provide us with the resources necessary to clothe, house, and feed ourselves--all crucial to survival--but any surplus money is put toward various toys and gadgets, eating out, going out for drinks with friends, or taking a vacation.

Whether people succeed in finding happiness or not is irrelevant: for our purposes, we need only agree that the desire for happiness is universal among humans.

Conclusion

Humanity is in danger. 

We are faced with problems that are too large for one or two nations to handle on their own. In order to overcome climate change, inequality, oppression of the many by the few, and the exploitation of our planet's resources, we must erase the imaginary lines that separate us. 

We are one people, one family. We all come from the same source. Earth is the only home we have and we must share it and protect it or see ourselves wiped from existence, our branch in the Tree of Life cut tragically short.

In order to move forward, survive, prosper, and live in harmony with one another, we must devise a new way of thinking and a moral code that applies to all people and that all people can agree on.

Muslims, Catholics, Humanists, Sikhs, Buddhists, Mormons, Protestants, Anglicans, atheists, socialists, fascists, capitalists, communists, liberals, and conservatives all want the same things: to live, avoid suffering, and be happy.  

If we learn to see our differences for what they are--superficial, arbitrary, founded on misguided beliefs--and to accept the common thread that holds us all together, we will have a much better chance of overcoming the challenges ahead.

/rant over

Getting off the Hedonic Treadmill

Happiness isn't to be found in the world; it's an internal prize, a state of mind, a way of thinking. Once achieved, you stop worrying about the things you lack and start appreciating the things you have.

I grant you this definition of happiness will chafe many people. On the surface it sounds like a cop-out or workaround, a way to bypass a materialistic "happiness" in favour of a cheap, artificial replacement. "It's not true happiness if you have to trick yourself into experiencing it," a critic might say, and to that I would respond by asking how we ought to define happiness? Is it a brief spike of joy, triggered by some worldly achievement, that soon fades away only to be replaced by your usual gripes, complaints, and insatiable desires; or is it a permanent sense of tranquility devoid of negative emotions?

If you believe that the key to happiness lies in the acquisition of material goods or worldly success, I invite you to think about a time in your life when you desired something, committed time, energy, and resources to its pursuit, and succeeded in obtaining it.

Did it bring you joy?

Undoubtedly! For the first month after you purchase your Lamborghini (or whatever object you so desperately sought) you get school-girl giddy every time you think about it. You beam with pride when people gawk as you drive by. You get aroused by the primal roar of the engine.

But your excitement soon fades. The novelty wears off. What you worked so long and hard to obtain becomes just another acquisition, a burden that must be constantly cleaned, waxed, tuned-up, and maintained. The warm glow of happiness cools. You start looking for something bigger, faster, and more expensive to fill the void.

You're nothing more than a junkie chasing the rush of that first high, always upping the ante but to no effect.

In psychology, this phenomenon is called hedonic adaptation or, as I prefer, the Hedonic Treadmill.

You adapt to your conditions. When you obtain your latest prize, you experience temporary joy and satisfaction, but over time this prize becomes a part of your surroundings. The mere thought of it no longer excites you. Quite the opposite, you start to find flaws and inadequacies in it.

If a better version of your prize exists--a newer model, for example--you start plotting its acquisition all over again. If no better thing exists in its class, you may toss it aside and forget about it altogether, choosing to pursue something else entirely.

We're all guilty of it. I know I am. Once you hop on the hedonic treadmill, it's tough to get off. You run and run and run, chasing what you think is happiness via an endless list of things and goals.

You're just running in place.

Such pursuits are inherently hollow. Material goods can sometimes facilitate the achievement of internal happiness but they can also easily be lost, stolen, or confiscated. If your happiness depends on material goods, and material goods can easily slip from your grasp, then you are setting yourself up for misery.

And as we have seen, even if they do not get snatched away, these material goods quickly lose their luster.

As the philosopher Epictetus advises: "It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united."

Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman--the researchers who coined the term "hedonic treadmill"--conducted an interesting study which they published in a paper entitled "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?" In the study they followed two groups: one composed of paraplegics, the other of lottery winners. They followed them from the time their fortunes turned--for the better or for the worse, depending on the group--and touched bases with them at regular intervals afterward.

They found that each participant, regardless of which group they belonged to, quickly returned to their hedonic "baseline" shortly after their accident or winning ticket. Sure, the people who became paralyzed suffered a great deal initially; likewise, the lottery winners experienced massive spikes of joy after winning. But in the end, they all returned to the same baseline.

If your external circumstances have no long-term effect on your happiness, then what does? The answer seems clear: your internal circumstances.

Instead of pursuing your desires, you should learn to desire what you already have.

Easier said than done? Absolutely. Most things worth doing are difficult and require practice. This is no different.

One way to gain an appreciation for what you have is to periodically imagine losing. Imagine various calamities and misfortunes befalling you such as the loss of your car, home, possessions, and loved ones. You don't have to spend every waking moment thinking about bad shit happening to you; just do it once or twice a day or whenever you have an idle moment.

Contemplating the loss of the things in your life will help you appreciate them all the more. You'll grow content with the way things are rather than wishing you had more of this or a different that or less of those.

This technique also prepares you for the misfortunes that will, at one point or another, most certainly befall you. By having seriously considered their occurrence, you inoculate yourself against their effects.

As Marcus Aurelius, my favourite Roman emperor, said: "He robs ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand."

I can't take credit for this neat little trick. It's called negative visualization and it was first devised by the Stoics of ancient Rome, whose philosophy of life applies today just as it did 2,000 years ago. Whereas modern philosophers concern themselves primarily with esoteric matters that have no bearing on the average person, the Stoics were concerned mainly with achieving a state of tranquility—that is, a state devoid of negative emotions—and living in harmony with the universe.

But more on the Stoics later.

The hedonic treadmill is one of several obstacles blocking your path to true happiness. The sooner you get off it, the better. Negative visualization is by no means the only way to curb the adaptation process but it is remarkably effective. By pondering the loss of those things we take for granted, we learn to see them in a new light, to appreciate them while also noting that they could be snatched from us at any moment.

Desire what you have and quit chasing the carrot. Be happy.

/rant over

Awakening

You are a spark "of divine fire struck off from the flint of the Eternal.” Encased in this tomb of flesh, the undying light of the universal spirit lies dormant inside you. It is your destiny to awaken this light.

When you speak of reaching your full potential, living in harmony with yourself and your environment, and helping others do the same, you speak of awakening the Logos, of fanning the spark until it burns bright.

The evolution of your mind, body, and soul rests in your hands. Direct your prayers inward, peel away the falsehoods that cloud your thoughts, and listen carefully to the mutterings of your spirit.

The divine spark slumbers in everyone. It is the source of myth and spirituality; of art, philosophy, and science; of love, empathy, awe, and wonder. It is the common thread that holds us together, the stitching of the collective unconscious. Like a ray of sunlight it cuts through the darkness of the unorganized mind, illuminating hidden revelations and universal truths. It elevates the consciousness, freeing it from the anchors of the flesh, of the here and now.

Before its brilliance, the cosmos assumes a new shape and form. Old eyes see anew.

The Logos dwells behind the curtain of your intellect and consciousness. Its radiance dispels the illusion of individuality, uniqueness, and separation, illusions created by the mask and costume of the flesh.

You are the universe awakened unto itself. You are the dust of dead stars compressed by the unseen hands of the cosmos.

You are a child of the stars.

The Universe is your God. At the dawn of time it unfolded in a violent detonation of matter and energy and spread across the void, giving form to the emptiness and setting rules upon matter.

You were made by God; are a part of God; and contain a piece of God inside you. You are a tiny component in a global machine called earth; earth is a component in a machine called the solar system; the solar system is a component of the Milky Way, which in turn makes up a part of the Virgo Super-Cluster.

You may wander ever outward and never reach an end.

And when you peer inside yourself the illusion of wholeness, of oneness, collapses beneath scrutiny. You are a universe unto yourself, composed of infinitely smaller divisible parts, down to the atoms and beyond.

You may wander ever inward and never reach an end.

What can your limited mind do when faced with such facts? Accept the truth. We are all One. All things are connected by mysterious and unseen forces.

Without this knowledge you are doomed to squander your brief, precious life chasing meaningless trinkets and hollow treasures.

Humankind is a child. It has only recently begun to grasp the nature of this awesome and wondrous universe, the Creator of all creators. Many have already awakened the Logos within: emulate them. All must eventually rise from the bed of ignorance and delusion to greet the glorious day.

The flame of reason, the light of the Logos, must be kindled in every soul until the black cloak of ignorance is dispelled.

You are blessed to be alive here and now. Take advantage of your circumstances: raise the beacon of reason high above the quagmire of dark thoughts and misguided notions so that it may serve as a rallying point for your brothers and sisters who are lost in the world.