I have 3 simple questions for you:

what makes you happy?
why does it make you happy?
do you feel like you are limiting yourself to achieve this happiness?

You can answer these questions anyway you see fit. They can be in relation to the grand scheme of your life, or what you are feeling right now.

I am asking these questions to you philosphers RIU because I have a friend that is struggling with society's image of good/evil and true happiness. He asked me these questions earlier tonight and I'm thinking about them more.

Here are my answers that I gave to him and I think it pretty much sums up my happiness right now in my life. Take a minute to answer them yourselves and ponder your philosphy on true happiness.

1&2:
weed, my girlfriend, music, making money, success in school.

These things all make me happy in different ways. weed = a vice, I think all people should have a vice (hopefully something non-lethal) because you can use it as a reward. I think of weed as a reward after a long day, it's why I put up with bullshit at work or school because I know I'll be able to smoke a bowl at the end of the day.

My girlfriend because she honestly loves me. That makes me significantly happy right there.

Music because it helps guide my thoughts and attitude. I could go on and on about music, but you guys are smokers so you can understand the synergy of life and music.

Making money, though I hate to say it because I don't consider myself materialistic, but everyone has made money the sole competition between people. Instead of hunting for our food, or competing overland, we use money as our way of survival. Making money makes me happy because I know I am competing and surviving on my own. Plus, it feels good to get a paycheck after a long day of work.

Success in school is another part of my happiness right now because I feel priviledged and believe that my schooling will only better prepare me for the future. I think being educated is one of the greatest things you can do as a human being and I think it defines us and seperates us from the animals. We can philosophize and ponder.

And for 3, I said I don't think any of those aspects are limiting me. The only one I was leaning on was my girlfriend and I only say this because in a relationship you must have compromise. And sometimes that's not always close to what you wanted. But in the long run, this doesn't really bring me down because the benefits are worth the sacrifice


Anyway, sorry for the long post but I'm stoned and thinking too much

Peace

__________________

1)Spiritual Learning and Enlightenment.
2)Because it is ultimately rewarding for the spirit and soul. It gives my soul hope, my spirit is constantly reaching for it.
3) Our egos(the I/me one calls themself) ties us to the ideas and things of this world, through the processes Calcination and Dissolution we can kill our egos to over come a large barrier to true happiness.

True happiness is the realization that we are not bound to this world as we veiw it daily. That we have the power to make anything real. So when your friend has issues with how society veiws good and evil, it is really his ego telling him what is good and what is evil. This is the biggest hurtle, getting over the walls your ego builds called society.

If you are really interested in true happiness do some reading into Eastern Philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism. Or read into Alchemy, Hermeticism, and the Emerald Tablet(this is what I have been studying).

1) happy people , good happy attention , getting a reward or result of hard work
2) i like happy people they give me something to be happy about , i like attention because i guess i just like to comunicate or intercat with other people , i like getting a reward after doing work or working on something because then i seem to appreaciate the reward alot more
3) not a chance .. happieness is my goal by being happy i am going past my limits the happier i can be the farther i am going

__________________

when i wake to the sun on my face....when i do some good and help someone out...when i make my wife happy.....p.s:"Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down"......

Cannabis makes me happy
Feels/Smells/Tastes great,keeps me thinkin' straight, never lies, never turns me down
YES I'm limiting myself - can't seem to get a job making more than 25,000 a year & I refuse to quit for a drug test. I don't think it's right.
Other things make me happy like family,friends,music,etc., but I always wonder when I'm smoking am I in love or just an addict?

i could write a long list of happy things. but in truth, happiness is based on chemical reactions in the brain from stimulation of reward centers.

what makes us happy is different for everyone but it will involve rewarding our behavior.

people wired wrong get rewards from evil behavior. rape, murder, etc...

normal people seem programmed to behave in altruistic ways for social cohesion. so, their behavior is rewarded by others in the group, and then the praise they receive has personal rewards in their own self esteem.

this is separate from the rewards we receive by flooding our brain with chemicals when we get high. the pleasure we receive from these external chemical stimulus' can be psychologically addictive.

anti-porn activists are trying right now to attack the porn industry by re-defining porn as a drug, which should be illegal, because looking at porn causes the brain to secrete the chemicals from the reward centers of the brain, which they are trying to prove is what makes it addictive.

just a rant on happiness. its all chemical.

__________________
This proves my theory!