Last week I was watching a movie about the origin of the earth and exactly how the earth came to exist in the universe. Of course I know that this is all speculative and is nothing but facts obtained and theories developed by scientists, for the most part, but it was pretty interesting to watch the history of life on the planet and how it all came to be billions of years ago.

First, single-celled life in the oceans, then plant life, then fishes, then mammals, then dinosaurs and then humans in this long chain of life. I found it particularly interesting to see that although the earth is calculated to be 4,500 million years old, humans have only existed for the last 1.5 million years. We're been here a very short time, in the scheme of things.

And then think about the fact that today a particular human life span is expected to be not even 80 years in a developed country. A human life is amazingly brief, in relation to the scale of the planet.

But, getting more into the matter at hand about the pursuit of happiness, what I found really fascinating to watch about the program were scientist's speculations about what life was like for the early original humans in our species. Obviously, life was very simple: survive. Period.

The aspects of existence back then were obtain food and probably find shelter from the elements, and don't die in the process.

Then things became more refined as the millenia passed to having three aspects of existence: obtain food, find shelter, and get clothing. This is more akin to how we are today, in 'modern society'.

So, although things were considered to be very simple for many hundreds of centuries when humans were in existence, they are now somewhat more complex as we like to be proper and cloth our body, mostly to protect it from the elements.

So, let me ask you a few questions with consideration of the title of this article....

When did life become: obtain food, find shelter, get clothing, and acquire money?

Were humans created in this long line of existence of life on earth so that they could make money?

Were you created as a human so that you could live your existence pursuing money and accumulating as many objects during your existence, before you die?

Or, simply asked: is your purpose of existing to make money?

I know I just turned the focus of this article to a personal, in-your-face one with these questions. But, why am I asking these blunt questions? Well, it occurred to me that in spite of the fact that the human creature has very simple basic needs for survival, somehow human existence was bastardized into becoming something that it's not.

Just because we humans can create an economy that focuses on money, doesn't mean we should have it be the focus of our existence.

Okay, I know that I'm being particularly tough here and probably making many wonder what it is that is being attempted to be imparted here. Well, it's not too hard to distill the dross of life from the actual needs.

Watching that movie made it particularly clear to me that life is something that has become a pursuit for our species; however, the true pursuit of life as a human, the desire for happiness with existence, is usually translated in modern society through the pursuit of money. The pursuit of money, and everything that goes along with that obtainment process along the way. The objects, the experiences, the people, the power. All of it.

We spend our days pursuing money because we want to be happy, essentially. We just don't focus on that connection, as we're usually too engrossed in the pursuit. We want to have as much money all along the way as we can accumulate so that we can accumulate things that we silently believe will make us happy.

But, is it this obvious? No. It's quite subtle and hidden. It's secret. The innate desire of a satisfying existence, the pursuit of happiness, is secretly hidden behind what's become the pursuit of money for most humans in existence on this planet now.

Now, I know that this has been distilled down to a level that is very simplistic and general, but it still is apropos. One could even say that the pursuit of many other things is what life is about but I surmise that they are almost always tied up with money as part of the equation. Money is either there before the pursuit is started, or it most certainly is part of the equation after the object of the pursuit is held by a person. Even if that object is something intangible, like power and control.

Think of how many things in your present life have become about money, but in actually are about you just wanting to be happy with your existence. One buys things so that one has a better sense of oneself, so that one is happier and feels more secure in life and all its strife and turmoil. One does things so that one is happy with existence, including experiences and having people in one's life that are liked.

But, we all know through personal experience that anything money can buy or provide both comes into our life usually with happiness riding on its back, and goes, along with the happiness associated with it.

We all work so that we can have money. But why do we need the money, really? So that we can survive and continue to exist, right? We want to have that occur as comfortably as is possible and this is where the simple pursuit of happiness of existence becomes the secret pursuit of money so that the pursuit of the happiness of existing can occur. But then things go awry.

The money gets separated from the happiness, as it becomes the focus, and we forget why we need the money, and how little we each actually need to survive, and be happy with our existence.

If one can reattach the two aspects, money and happiness, then one would see that the simple secret of life is happiness and it takes not a lot of money to have that occur. Having enough money for food, shelter, and clothing makes for a very happy existence and satisfies the most basic needs of human existence. We continue to survive and we continue to exist with these true basic needs met.

We continue to fight, to die, to destroy, and to kill when money is involved as the primary pursuit of our existence.

Yes, it is a secret. Yes, it is part of the pursuit. But the secret pursuit of happiness is something that once known, once seen, once out in the open, forever changes one's relation to the pursuit. Seeing that the purpose of existence as a human is to just to continue to exist, to live, to be happy in relation to living this existence, that is an insightful moment.

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly not going to my grave with the regret 'I wish I made more money during my life.' I will regret not doing everything I can to facilitate being simply happy with my existence while alive, but not through the acquisition process revolving around money and having simple lasting happiness sight unseen.

Sure, money is needed to exist, but when the secret pursuit of happiness, is distilled down to simply the pursuit of happiness, and then basically just happiness with existence, things become a whole lot more simple. And happier.

And isn't that what is being pursued in the first place: happiness?

Written by Andre Best
http://www.andrebest.com
'...insights :: insightful information for inquisitive individuals'

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