ABC Radio National

Ockham's Razor





Date/Time 25 Dec 2014 10:48:47pm
There is egotistical, self-indulgent 'happiness' when we imagine ourselves to have received something. It is a form of materialism, and is the predominant 'happiness' of our unhappy Age. The more stuff you accumulate, the happier will you be.This is particularly strong if the gift is unexpected, and, more perniciously, if we recognise that it is undeserved.
Then there is ego-less happiness, the joy not of having, of getting or receiving, but of surrendering to something greater, and submerging oneself in a cosmic ocean of joyfulness. This dissociative type of happiness is ecstatic, in that we stand outside ourselves, and it is probably nothing more than a chemical imbalance in our brain, or so say the materialists. Music does it for me, particularly Beethoven. Bach for wonder, Mozart and Schubert for joy, and Beethoven for boundlessness.
