Jackson Radcliffe's Blog - Posts Tagged "happiness"
What is the secret of happiness?
In my novel, The Yoga Sutras, my protagonist Dave is searching for the secret of happiness. His yoga teacher, Kali, and his friends Chris and Mike are eager to offer him their recipe for happiness, but none of their advice rings true for Dave.
Dave’s quest for happiness takes him on a spiritual and philosophical journey and leads him to question his core beliefs and even his sexual identity. His search leads him to an answer, but will it be too late for anti-hero Dave?
And what is the secret of happiness, you’re wondering? You’ll have to read my book!
‘When we practise yoga,’ said Kali. ‘Our body, mind and spirit work together in perfect harmony. As we move, the body releases endorphins, which makes the mind happy and allows the spirit to soar.’
Dave wasn’t entirely convinced by that argument. It was hard for your spirit to soar when you spent half the yoga class upside down or staring at someone else’s bottom. Although admittedly, there were some very nice bottoms in the class. Pert bottoms, brazen bottoms, jaunty bottoms, spirited bottoms. Even bulging bottoms and swollen bottoms; voluptuous bottoms and wanton bottoms. Women really needed to start worrying less about their arses. They needed to wake up and smell the testosterone. It was rare to find a bum that wasn’t a complete man magnet. Men simply weren’t that discerning.
But were endorphins really the secret of happiness?
‘The secret of happiness,’ Chris had once told him, ‘is a cold beer and a big screen TV.’
‘The secret of happiness is WARM BEER and a TRIO OF NAKED GIRLS!’ was Mike’s opinion.
Dave had said nothing. He didn’t know what the secret of happiness really was. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been so unhappy, obviously. But he suspected it was something altogether different, less ephemeral.
It probably didn’t involve beer at all.
Dave’s quest for happiness takes him on a spiritual and philosophical journey and leads him to question his core beliefs and even his sexual identity. His search leads him to an answer, but will it be too late for anti-hero Dave?
And what is the secret of happiness, you’re wondering? You’ll have to read my book!
Life is not a journey, nor a circle
Two popular metaphors for life liken it to a journey, or a circle. Yet both are entirely unhelpful I find. For there is no circle of life, nor any destination.
Every life is a unique set of experiences, to be lived once and never repeated. When it is over, it’s over. Life is not a progression towards some final state or goal, or a path to an unknowable beyond. It is here. It is now.
Nobody truly knows what life is for, but the philosopher Alan Watts perhaps came closest when he described life as a dance. And the point of a dance, he said, is the dancing.
One day there will be no more dancing. So I urge you, dance until the music stops.
Originally published on jacksonradcliffe.com.
Every life is a unique set of experiences, to be lived once and never repeated. When it is over, it’s over. Life is not a progression towards some final state or goal, or a path to an unknowable beyond. It is here. It is now.
Nobody truly knows what life is for, but the philosopher Alan Watts perhaps came closest when he described life as a dance. And the point of a dance, he said, is the dancing.
One day there will be no more dancing. So I urge you, dance until the music stops.
Originally published on jacksonradcliffe.com.
