By Dwija Ramesh
Recap:
Last week, we talked about Dharma and how it means to integrate and uphold/sustain. This is the essential nature of a thing.
Discourse:
In today’s class, we had a debate. Each team had 10 minutes to support/negate the resolution. Then, we had time to create a rebuttal and our closing points.
Resolution: Happiness is your nature
Team 1: Negating Team
-Environment affects your happiness. If Happiness is something you have to find again, is it really your true nature – why is it not our default, how can one specific emotion be our nature when we feel others more easily. If it’s our nature, why do we want things/look outwardly….why do we feel sad, angry and react? In the basics of survival, if happiness was our only instinct, we would not feel compelled to survive or do anything like that.
If somebody dies, if you automatically be happy, that takes away a sense of empathy – we would never solve our problems/you wouldn’t see the problems in the world and it would be ignorance? – for loss or our most vulnerable moments, why do we not respond with happiness if that is what we fundamentally turn to?
If we have happiness, there must be sadness and vice versa. The essential nature of fire is heat, but does fire go on a lifelong journey to find it? It’s easy to say that everything is happy, but all the experiences that we value are the difficult ones where we react with negative emotions. If you are constantly avoiding pain, then is that our nature??
“Goal to become happy?” How can our goal be something that we already have? It’s like having a goal to have straight A’s while already being the class valedictorian. Whatever our nature is, our emotions fluctuate too often to say that Happiness is our nature.
In conclusion, our nature is our inherent feature. We wouldn’t need to try to achieve it. If we have to reach happiness, it means that it is outside of us. That which you see/perceive, you cannot be!!! If happiness was inherent,, why do so many people die from suicide? If happiness was inherent, we would feel that, we wouldn’t commit suicide, we wouldn’t be angry or jealous.
Team 2: Affirming Team
If we think about the definition of Dharma, it is whatever supports your health. Everything that we do is to escape pain or go towards being happy so it must be inherent. Happiness is our nature because we are always striving for it – never looking to be actively unhappy. Happiness is one of our main emotions. Our definition of Happiness: what makes a human…..human. Happiness can affect every aspect of our life and draws from every aspect of our life. Our goal as a human is to be happy.
The negative team won 3-0. But personally, why do I feel confused…..sad?
RAW Debrief:
Each day, write down 5 things you did that day and label them as Dharma or Adharma.
Thoughts: One reason Sumanji asked us to do this is because we always talk about living intentionally. But to do this, we have to be aware of the knowledge we possess. We have to be alert on how to lead this life of being intentional.
This week’s RAW is:
- Tell a joke to at least two people (a really good one!)
- What is Happiness?