Valeria Dubkovskaya - Nectar for Your Soul

And so we see that there are more than enough reasons for human suffering. Great minds have exhausted themselves thinking on this question throughout the history of mankind. And simple people have, in the meantime, always searched out their own, common methods for relieving stress. Sociologists have revealed which “stress medicines” are used by modern people:

– Television – 46%

– Music – 43%

– Alcohol – 19%

– Food – 16%

– Medication – 15%

– Sports – 12%

– Sex – 9%

– Yoga, meditation – 2%

These numbers add up to more than 100%. This means that some of the participants in these surveys chose not one, but two or more answers, for example, drinking generous amounts of alcohol and going to a rock concert. The end result of this sort of “medication” we already know from the World Health Organization’s reports on the turbulent rise of stress, psychological disease and suicide.

But along with ignorance, that is a lack of knowledge , a large part of humanity possesses deep misconceptions regarding many of the processes and phenomena in our lives; they live in a system of false conceptions, i.e. are possessed of false knowledge . Modern society is rife with myths and misconceptions. There are so many of them, that just a short description of them took up five volumes, The Encyclopedia of Delusions , released by the Russian publishing house EKSMO in 2004 [8]. In the West a similar book was written by famous author Steven Fry, titled The Book of General Ignorance .

“Many facts that we consider irrefutable are actually downright fabrications, and much of our knowledge is erroneous. We live in a world of universal ignorance and general misunderstanding, but we’re too ashamed to admit it,” asserts the author of this book, and we could’t agree more [9].

However, we must make an important note: far from all ignorance is dangerous, and not all misconceptions lead to tragedy for people. Could our lack of knowledge about the inventor of rubber boots or the myth that the color red will enrage a bull actually affect our happiness? In truth bulls are colorblind. These things fall within the category of benign misconceptions and harmless ignorance.

But then there are other questions. Ignorance or fallacious conceptions about such questions rules out even the possibility of finding happiness. These questions are precisely those that we have come to regard as the eternal questions of mankind:

• Who are we, a product of evolution or God’s creations?

• Where did we come from when we entered the world, and where do we go after death?

• Do people have souls, and are they eternal?

• Is there a life “beyond the grave”? Does that life include a Heaven and a Hell?

• What is the meaning of life? Does each person have a specific destiny, and if so, how do we find out about it?

• Is there such a thing as Fate, and who decides it? Can a person change his/her fate, or is their entire life predetermined?

• Why is the world made to include so much unhappiness and suffering?

• Are souls reincarnated in a new body after death, or do we only live once?

• Do people have guardian angels and how can one make contact with them?

• What is the meaning of our dreams? Do they have some sort of logic or are they simply the expression of our deep-seated wishes and fears?

• Do each of us have a “soul mate” somewhere in the world, and how do we search them out?

It is ignorance about these questions that bring down sorrow upon a person both here and in the afterlife, regardless of whether or not someone believes in life after death. When people do not know the answer to these questions, or when they possess false conceptions regarding them, it is only possible, at best, for them to find physical pleasure and short-lived happiness during their time on Earth.

We assert that happiness is a state of the soul, which is attained through the implementation of the program for its (the soul’s) fulfillment. Only in such a case will one’s “soul sing for joy.” It is precisely the soul, and not the body, which is able to sing from bliss (which is not the same as true happiness) as a result of this or that earthly achievement or physical pleasure. But is it possible to realize your plan if you do not even suspect its existence? Or if you guess its existence, but cannot imagine what it might contain? Of course not. This is why for ignorant people happiness remains an unachievable dream.

One of the most destructive ideas that stems from ignorance is the opinion that people are created for complete happiness. This theory is the opposite of the “original sin” point of view, but no less dangerous. And it is a theory which has a large number of proponents, among them many respected figures.

There is a widely known saying from Leo Tolstoy’s classic of world literature which says that “man must be happy.”

In Russia there’s another popular saying, also attributable to a former author, Vladimir Korolenko (1853—1921): “Human beings are created for happiness as birds are created for flight.” This author and his works have long been forgotten by the general public, but this phrase took flight and is loved by all.

Konstantin Ushinsky (1824—1871), the founding father of Russian scientific pedagogy, also threw in his ten cents in support of this view of man’s fate: “The right to happiness is an inalienable right of all people.” As the highest authority on pedagogy in all of Russia, Ushinksy’s assertion made its way into all school programs in not only Tsarist but in Soviet Russia as well. And again people saw in this idea what they wanted to see: if a person has a right to happiness, then someone else (but not ourselves) has the responsibility of ensuring that happiness.

This deep misconception with respect to the meaning of life has taken root not only in Russian minds; long ago it spread throughout the entire world. It was developed rapidly during the third century B.C. by the great ancient Greek thinker Epicurus (342—241 B.C.), who not only played a major role in the philosophy of antiquity, but who also exercised significant influence on the worldview of millions of people in the following generations.

Epicurus stated that “for us pleasure is the beginning and end of a happy life.” That satisfaction of material needs will remove suffering and lead to happiness is the core of his philosophy, which quickly and easily took root in the soil of Greece and subsequently succeeded in spreading throughout the world.

The noted French writer and philosopher of the Renaissance Michel de Montaigne (1533—1592) proposed that man exists not to create ethical ideas for himself to strive to attain, but rather to be happy. To be fair, in his book Les Essais he does note that “our good or ill has no other dependence but on ourselves.”

“Man is placed on the earth not to become rich, but to become happy.” So thought the distinguished French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), who has greatly influenced the belief systems of millions of people not only in France but throughout the entire world. This is the same Flaubert, by the way, who wrote in his Memoirs (1853): “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, only pride prevents me…” But few are acquainted with this side of his work, and Flaubert’s depression, by the way, had its roots precisely in his false conceptions about the meaning of life and the absence of any concept of harmony in the Universe.