Happiest man in the world?

[flowperson]

This is an interesting discussion. The reading I've done confirms that the right and left argument for brain function is mosty an information processing differentiation. By the way women's brains have more and richer left-right side interconnections than men's brains. There are specialized parts in the brain on both the left and right sides, but there are singular bodies in the brain that help to coordinate emotional and sensory inputs so that our consciousness' are supplied with complete pictures of what we perceive. Beyond pictures sometimes, perhaps even alternative versions of realities around us. I believe that this is where the Bhuddist claims of mental and emotional healing and health through ritualized meditation practices fits in.

The singular bodies include the amygdala, the pineal , the superchiasmic nucleus, the hypothalamus, the pituitary, etc. Brainscans tracing sensory inputs and pathways that they follow show that the brain lights up all over in processing and evaluating informational input. There is no specialized function that the brain cannot adapt and adjust for over time so that sensory inputs and perceptions may be retained and maximized.

A little known fact that I find interesting is that the brain contains about two and a half billion particles of magnetite. This is an iron-based substance in our blood that can align themselves in distinct patterns depending upon the brain's activities, or even electromagnetic fields that the barin is exposed to, ie. cell phones, power lines, etc. So theoretically this might play a part in memory storage of images in the brain. The more emotionally charged the memory to be visually stored becomes, then perhaps the longer and deeper the memory retention.

17th you are correct to a point since the brain has built in receptors for cannaboids, opiates, and other naturally occurring substances that were widely used by our ancestors as medicines and palliatives, and by us as recreational escapes. But some of them have been refined and distilled to such an extent that they can be hazardous to our physical and mental well-being when one succumbs to the law of diminishing returns syndrome. It's like, why drink a pint of 100 proof vodka, when a few pints of ale will do the job nicely and give you some nourishment to boot, and not to mention some exercise in walking back and forth to the WC ?

flow....

[samabudhi]

Originally Posted by InLove

Hi again--

I was re-reading my last post, and I just want to make it clear that I am not making fun. What I mean is that I have a long way to go before I can realize that sort of control over my body and mind. But for the perceived ()time being, maybe my vision is becoming purer....

InPeace,
InLove

Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.

~Longchenpa(14th century Tibet)

[Tariki]

Glad to see that Flow is advocating - at least implicitly - the downing of multiple pints of ale as one means of gaining "happiness". At least this is one "technique" I would be able to follow - if so inclined - to its conclusion.....................Nevertheless, whatever sides of the brain are involved, I tend to side with Chuang Tzu (if only because it excuses me from any strenuous effort) who has said......

"My greatest happiness consists in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness. If you ask 'what ought to be done' and 'what ought not to be done' on earth to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have a fixed and predetermined answer to suit every case.............."

As Thomas Merton has said, "the way of conscious striving is fundamentally a way of self-aggrandizement".

Anyway, speaking of Merton - as I often do! - I was thinking of posting the following on the "Thomas Merton" thread now on-going. Perhaps it is more appropriate here, for anyone interested....

From his journals dated December 1964......

"Lay in bed and realized what I was: I was happy. Said the strange word 'happiness' and realized that it was there, not as an 'it' or object. It simply was. And I was that. And this morning, coming down, seeing the multitude of stars above the bare branches of the wood, I was suddenly hit, as it were, with the whole package of the meaning of everything: that the immense mercy of God was upon me, that the Lord in infinite kindness had looked down on me and given me this vocation out of love, and that he had always intended this, and how foolish and trivial had been all my fears and desperation. And no matter what anyone else might do or say about it, however they might judge or evaluate it, all is irrelevent in the reality of my vocation to solitude, even though I am not a typical hermit. Quite the contrary, perhaps. In the light of this simple fact of God's love and the form it has taken in the mystery of my life, classifications are ludicrous.............The only response is to go out from yourself with all that one is, which is nothing, and pour out that nothingness in gratitude that God is who He is. All speech is impertinent; it destroys the simplicity of that nothing before God by making it seem as if it had been 'something'......."

Also perhaps a chance to give another favorite quote of mine, by Eckhart, that seems to relate - in part - to the theme of "happiness" and its pursuit ( or non-pursuit)....."They can truly enjoy the feast who would just as willingly fast"

[InLove]

Originally Posted by flowperson

17th you are correct to a point since the brain has built in receptors for cannaboids, opiates, and other naturally occurring substances that were widely used by our ancestors as medicines and palliatives, and by us as recreational escapes. But some of them have been refined and distilled to such an extent that they can be hazardous to our physical and mental well-being when one succumbs to the law of diminishing returns syndrome. It's like, why drink a pint of 100 proof vodka, when a few pints of ale will do the job nicely and give you some nourishment to boot, and not to mention some exercise in walking back and forth to the WC ?

Leave it to "advanced" modern societies, huh?

Originally Posted by Merton (by way of Tariki)

"They can truly enjoy the feast who would just as willingly fast"

One of my all-time favorite quotes.

Originally Posted by samabudhi

Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.

~Longchenpa(14th century Tibet)

That's a new one for me! Thank you!

InPeace,
InLove

[Eudaimonist]

Originally Posted by wil

Is it that they are saying he is able to see or chooses to see the good in people and situations?

Isn't that what many of us would like to strive for?

When you put it that way, yes.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by flowperson

17th you are correct to a point since the brain has built in receptors for cannaboids, opiates, and other naturally occurring substances that were widely used by our ancestors as medicines and palliatives, and by us as recreational escapes. But some of them have been refined and distilled to such an extent that they can be hazardous to our physical and mental well-being when one succumbs to the law of diminishing returns syndrome. It's like, why drink a pint of 100 proof vodka, when a few pints of ale will do the job nicely and give you some nourishment to boot, and not to mention some exercise in walking back and forth to the WC ?

flow....

but who cares? Let the good times rolls.. "What about tomorrow!?" I don't care about tomorrow!! ( lol I love that advert....) Happiness is happiness? Suuuurley, so what does it matter if one type of happiness is hazardous and the other isn't... I am still happy.... Oh it may effect my health? Well, I'm not planning on living forever, but I do intend to have a blast while I'm here. I don't drink ;/ I get my kicks in other Uh hum ways. I don't even think anything effects it, if it is something that brings happiness what's wrong? It costs too much!! But the person is happy... It's bad for them! They're still happy.... They have to spend to much work or time on it! STILL HAPPY!$£$£!"

In the inspiring words, of a true man... Peter Griffin...

"This is life. So go and have a ball. Because the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you may not be right for some. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have...my opening statement. Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog."

[InLove]

I would like to just stick my head in the door for a second and say a very quick "OOPS!" I attributed the following quote to Merton, but it is from Eckhart, as Tariki had originally posted. So here's my correction:

Eckhart (by way of Tariki) "They can truly enjoy the feast who would just as willingly fast"

(Sorry--I think I had Merton on my mind because of the new Merton thread!)

InPeace,
InLove