It’s been 230 (of 365) Days since we started this journey of #PrayersWrappedInQuotes! 🙏 🕯️ REFLECTION GUIDE below ⬇️
😊 as you read this! Your day is going to be awesome after spending the next 10 mins reflecting!
🕯️: Today, I would like you to explore the distinction between RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE happiness. I will use the distinction made by Jōsei Toda, founder of Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist organisation formed in 1930, and one of Japan’s biggest Buddhist organisations.
He says it is by chasing RELATIVE happiness — when we should be chasing ABSOLUTE happiness — that we short-change ourselves, and sometimes others.
Relative happiness describes the more common, but also more transient concept of happiness. It’s what we look for outside ourselves — in people, things, and accomplishments. Though it’s easier to attain, it’s also ultimately not sustainable. It doesn’t last, and we find ourselves craving more.
Absolute happiness describes a kind of happiness or sustained joy that we find within ourselves. It doesn’t rely on people, places, things, or goals — and so it is stable through the flux of life. Unlike relative happiness, it doesn’t fade due to circumstances, and it makes both your life and the lives of others richer.
Toda puts it this way: “absolute happiness means that living itself is happiness; being alive is a joy, no matter where we are or what our circumstances. It describes a life condition in which happiness wells forth from within. It is called absolute because it is not influenced by external conditions.”
Face yourself today and ask yourself this: when I look at my life and my actions, what happiness am I chasing? Am I going after relative happiness? Or am I in a state of absolute happiness already? What can I do today to nudge my journey to absolute happiness?
Would ❤️ to hear what you think. 🔆 Share your thoughts below. 👇
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