M0050: Consciousness and Happiness

M0050

Consciousness and Happiness

by Martinus

1. Where the condition of life is: to kill

All living beings have consciousness but we must distinguish between detailed variations of consciousness. For instance, the consciousness of the plants is only presentiment. They are only capable of sensing a difference between the notion of comfort and the notion of discomfort.

On the other hand, the consciousness of the animal is not only that of presentiment. It is also capable of experiencing in its watchful day-consciousness. These experiences may induce pain or they may induce a feeling of well-being, not only as a state of presentiment, but also as a realistic, fully conscious fact.

Consequently, the mechanism of the consciousness of the animal aims at protecting it against painful or fatal experiences. But since life conditions in the animal kingdom largely are so that animals must live from organisms from other animals, their consciousness will to the same degree be tuned to this condition. It is this killing consciousness which encourages the kind of existence characteristic of the tiger, the lion, yes, all carnivorous animals. The happiness of the beast of prey can only be furthered as long as it is capable of defeating and killing those animals from which it shall live.

If something happens to the beast of prey and cripples it to such an extent that it cannot kill to live, then it cannot sustain its own life, its own happiness. It will, then, be killed itself or die from starvation. The happiness of the beast of prey is, thus, completely dependent on its ability to kill.

2. Man and the killing principle

But what about the happiness of the human being on earth? On what kind of consciousness does he depend? If we take a look at these specimens which are most closely related to the animal, we will find that their happiness is also based or their ability to kill. The killing is simply their religion. We all know the Norse God myths, according to which none could enter the "heaven" of Valhalla until they had killed others or had been killed themselves. Those having killed the largest number were the greatest heroes. The killing was simply an ideal and the means to the highest degree of happiness.

And what about the so-called "modern man" of today? His possibilities for killing, don't they in many ways mean happiness for him? Why has mankind released the last two world wars, yes, indeed all wars through history, between nations as well as between individuals? Weren't all those wars started in order to regain or to conquer happiness? And is the modern business principle not based on the same thing? Aren't the earned profits shamefully high? Don't we experience that people around us deceive us, rob us as well as plunder us? Yes, people even commit suicide to get happiness since they only commit this act in order to avoid unhappiness - or presumed unhappiness.

3. The desire for happiness in no problem for the animal or the plant

To the plant and to the animal the desire for happiness is no problem. On these stages of their development, the living being still hasn't desires other than those which are of vital importance to them.

Differently with the human being on earth. By virtue of his consciousness, which is developed to a much higher degree, he possesses desires which under no circumstances constitute a vital necessity, but, the satisfaction of which nonetheless is regarded as a necessity for the experiencing of perfect happiness.

4. Man's desire for an imagined condition of happiness

The fact that man as a contrast to the animal, has the faculty of desiring things which are of no vital importance to him, yes, which are often even mortally dangerous to him, are today his greatest problem.

Man has a multiplicity of desires which, superficially seen, seem to mean happiness, but, when hidden, may undermine his health, his daily well-being, his daily relations with his environment, his daily economical livelihood etc. That kind of happiness makes no true happiness. On the contrary, it creates a camouflaged foundation for the creation of an unhappy fate.

5. Man himself creates his own, painful fate through the satisfaction of erroneous desires

The only real cause of what we perceive as unhappiness is, thus, erroneous desires. But desires have their seat in the consciousness. But if this is filled with erroneous desires, it can only give its originator the feeling of happiness through the satisfaction of these desires. However, as this is directly promoting unhappiness, man creates his own misfortune, his own painful fate, through his erroneous desires. The only way to a stable and unwavering condition of happiness is, consequently, to purify his consciousness for erroneous desires and instead cultivate those desires, which, alone, will lead to what we are aiming at.

6. How do we distinguish between true and false desires?

But how do we find out which desires are true and which are false? Well, how do we find out which plant seeds are the right ones and which are not? We take a look at the field! A field which is full of weeds has been sown with the wrong seeds, and a human consciousness, which has large areas, on the happiness of which the satisfaction of unnatural desires rest, is in principle the same as a field of weeds. Just as the weeds are detrimental to and obstruct the normal seeds, such is the satisfaction of the erroneous desires, detrimental to the satisfaction of the natural desires. They change into weeds in the consciousness. These "weeds" are identical to dissatisfaction, disappointment, depressions, melancholy, disease, spleen, fear, pessimism etc. These conditions will inhibit and paralyse anybody's consciousness and prevent the seeds of happiness, optimism, health and well-being from sprouting and growing up.

7. It isn't so strange that man is not happy

Thus, it isn't such a strange thing, that modern man is not happy, for he does not know the difference between good seeds and seeds of weeds, when sowing his fields of happiness. The fields on which he is to sow his own happiness is nothing but his consciousness. And like any other field in which to sow, it has to be ploughed, harrowed and cleaned for weeds, so that the harvest, which is his destiny, can be the experience of health, well-being, optimism and a joy of life.

8. What are the right seeds for man to sow for reaping a rich harvest of his life and fate?

What, then, are the true seeds which for man mean the right and true harvest? For developed man, the true desires, or the normal seeds of life and destiny, are exclusively those, which, when gratified, create joy and blessings for everything alive. Any desire going in other directions is a false desire, and as a consequence of this it can only cause false happiness.

But how does ordinary man's consciousness appear today? Is it a good harvest with a few weeds, or are there many weeds? Don't we all too often see, that ordinary man's consciousness in principle is a field with a colossal amount of weeds, which means fatal desires, causes and consequences? Vast uncultivated areas are uncontrolled by desire for nicotine, alcohol and other destructive poisons. Another vast area left idle is the desire for animal foods. Man has long ago grown out of the condition of the animal, so that it isn't any more of vital importance for him to kill animals in order to live. Quite on the contrary, it has become a real condition of life for him not to kill, and, with that, to keep the fifth commandment. Neither with a butcher's knife, with a sword, with a hunting gun, nor with a hydrogen bomb can he fertilise the pure corn field of his mind to obtain absolute happiness. To hold on to or to release the desire of killing is, thus, exactly the same thing as to create for himself a harvest of thistles instead of healthy bread grains.

9. Where enmity enters consciousness, happiness goes out

But also other harmful or fatal desires occur in terrestrial man's consciousness. There is, for example, his attitude towards his enemies. To have enemies and to cultivate enmity is in reality the same as to set fire to the barn of his consciousness and, with it, burn the good harvest stored there. Spiritual starvation will inevitably follow if the fire is not put out. No human will ever be able to obtain complete happiness by virtue of enmity. Where enmity flourishes in the consciousness of man, the seeds of happiness will perish in the flames. Where enmity enters the mind, happiness goes out .

10. Can enmity be avoided?

Can enmity then be avoided? In the epoch of evolution in which mankind today lives, it isn't always that we can avoid that certain people feel antipathy towards us, perhaps even enmity. But that isn't tantamount to the fact that also we have to be infected and become infested with enmity towards those people. We don't have to let enmity enter our own consciousness and thereby destroy the harvest of happiness for ourselves on account of other people's enmity towards us. On the contrary, we must try to fill this area in our consciousness with thoughts of love towards them, remembering, that no human being can be anything else but what he is at the present. Each individual must view life and his existence out from the intelligence and talents which it at the present possesses. To demand something more will only demonstrate our own foolishness. It would be the same thing as sowing weeds among one's wheat.

11. The cosmic analysis of true happiness

The fastest way to absolute and complete happiness is, thus, to clean out our own mental seeds from weeds, sowing only pure seeds. By freeing oneself from the desires which go against one's own wishes of being a blessing for all we come in contact with, we shall come to know the seeds of happiness.

To develop our desire to become a being "in the image of God after His likeness" means: To become a sparkling, mental sun, which radiates light and warmth into all areas of sorrow and there remove all fatal desires from these unhappy areas of dark fate of our fellow men and, with the fire of our love, lead them, so that they will become one with the radiance from the Godhead.

This is the deepest cosmic analysis of true happiness.

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From a lecture given at the Martinus Institute on 6^th November 1955. Manuscript for the lecture revised by Erik Gerner Larsson and approved by Martinus. First published in Danish in Kontaktbrev no. 20, 1956. Translator unknown.

Article ID: M0050
Published in the English edition of Newsletter 1971, oct

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