Happiness seems to be one thing where Newton’s 1st
law fails. I know the laws are meant to be applied to the physical entities.
However I have this habit of drawing come emotional and some logical
(non-physics) conclusions based on the Sir Isaac Newton’s master piece (the
laws that has made understanding nature of things so easy).
Newton’s
First law: Every object continues in its state of rest, or of
uniform motion in a straight line, unless compelled to change that state by
external forces acted upon it.
Applied to a state of
mind, (assume a state of mind being a physical entity, and I am not saying it,
I am just following what my interpretation is of something that was said in the
Gospel "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you
can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing
will be impossible for you."), It
would mean that if you are happy you should continue being happy unless and
external force (something against happiness) is applied on your mental state.
But that rarely happens.
Happened to me once
after watching an episode of “Whose line is it anyway” many years ago, I could
not stop laughing for almost an hour (considered to be very long time for
something like continuous laugh) and my wife (of just a few months at that
time) thought that either I am crazy or (demon) possessed. I am sure that she
even tried to look for some doctor (maybe even a Witch Doctor) contact in the
directory to stop my seemingly uncontrollable laughter.
I just ended talking
with one of my direct reports. He was unhappy with the fact that he did not
receive a great pay raise recently. I tried to convince him that as per the
company conditions and his level/status he is very well compensated (actually
he is the highest paid employee in his level of experience and expertise). But
in the end he was still not happy. I remember he was very happy about his
compensation just a few months back and now that he has received a raise
(though small but still a raise) still he was unhappy. So the state of
happiness even though got a push but changed direction and turned to
unhappiness.
That is to some extent what
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory is about, I guess. So Maslow’s theory in my
opinion is the psychological opposite of the 1st law of motion.
Developing a little bit
on that, so being happy needs a push and continue to be happy is not our
natural state of mind. We by default might be unhappy creatures and continues
in its state of unhappiness, or of lethargy, unless compelled to change that state
by external forces (happy things) acted upon it. Sadly the friction is inborn
to the continuous state of being happy.
That is why it Buddha
said enlightenment is bliss. So Bliss is when you reverse your mind polarity
and make happiness as the natural (continuous) state of things with unhappiness
being an exception at times forced by external factors.
Example: Me and my wife
once were having a fun evening lots of laughing and all of a sudden one of us
said something, the other one got upset, sad, unhappy. That made the person who
had said that unhappy and that person insisted, can you please be happy again?
The answer, “Mood is not like a light
bulb that can be lightened just by the flip of a switch.” Now if it can be closed
by the flip of a switch like a light bulb why can’t it be lighted in the same
way? Big Question; isn’t it? Simple answer; reverse polarity so the mood can be
switched on like a light bulb and cannot be switched off like one.
Confused? So am I, if
reversing polarity was that easy then it would be a blissful life.
My quest to
enlightenment is hidden in finding that switch, reversing polarity and let Sir
Isaac Newton’s law take care of the rest.
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