by Alison Fernandes

Created on: July 11, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

It has to be said that if there is indeed a secret to happiness then it is the worst kept in the world and yet the hardest to attain. We are constantly bombarded by external influences, each claiming to hold the key to our happiness. The entire hypothesis that there is some secret to attaining a state of happiness is based upon myth.

The consumer society would have us believe that if only we become beautiful people, if only we own this and achieve or enjoy that, we will then attain some mysterious state known as happiness. In today's society it is rapidly becoming apparent that we have been sold packaging that contained nothing within. Having woken up from the myth of happiness through expenditure, where are we to look next?

The great scholars and, indeed, scores of not so great scholars, would have us believe that happiness lies in the gathering of knowledge for its own sake. That learning holds the answer to attaining happiness. It is self evident that having more knowledge does not lead to happiness, but to discontent and disenchantment, disenfranchisement from a society that is in dire need of restructuring and has ever less respect for morality and virtue.

The church has been at the forefront for many generations of telling us that it holds the answer; that life on earth is a fount of misery and that true happiness awaits us in some far off, unenvisaged heaven. Obedient submission to the shepherding of the clergy would result in our living an eternal afterlife of bliss.

Perhaps the truth lies more in the gospel of St Thomas, the original "doubting Thomas" of biblical times. His gospel, amongst others, labelled as heresy by the church and therefore excluded from the accepted Christian scriptures, would seem to point to a much simpler viewpoint. He tells us that we will not find God in a church, but if we lift a stone and look beneath, there we will find God. No wonder his thinking is not popular with mainstream Christianity, despite his writings being found as part of the Nag Hammadi library, not so very far away from the location in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and being of equal antiquity.

The great religions of the world give us many different viewpoints of what they consider the true path to spiritual enlightenment; the state of nirvana or never ending bliss. A kind of do it yourself package for the seeker of godhead.

Ignoring, or setting aside, all the conflicting messages, what are we actually left with? Well, unless we are fortunate enough to experience the divine, to have an enlightening encounter with an angel or saint or even to be present somewhere in the vicinity if and when Jesus returns to walk among humankind, we have to look at a much humbler, far more personal understanding of the myth.

Perhaps we need to examine those times when we do experience happiness to understand the myth that has cast a veil across our understanding, separating us from our true destiny. It is surely when we are one with ourselves and the cosmos that we are truly happy; when we are absolutely and unconditionally, even if only for a moment, living in the now and aware of our connection with the divine creation. It is at that moment our hearts and souls soar on invisible wings to a heaven that is here with us eternally.

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