November 19, 2024

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Finally as promised: The Four Levels of Happiness:

 

This entry includes my thoughts and writings intermingled with an article on Happiness by Father Spitzer.

 

A priest I enjoy following is Fr. Spitzer, who is a renowned physicist. He has debated Stephen Hawkins on the Larry King show and made numerous TV appearances on questions about God, creation, physics, suffering and human happiness. You will also find him on EWTN.

 

He asks: What are the “Four Levels of Happiness?" According to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, happiness is the one thing that everyone seeks. So if we want to be happy, Fr. Spitzer insists we ought to know what we are seeking.

 

Level 1: Our first desire (Level of Happiness) is the fulfillment of external material desires (eg., experiencing pleasure). At its basic level, this is the desire for food, shelter, clothing, affection, and procreation (things necessary for our survival). One can indulge this desire in excesses of all kinds. It is important to note that the pleasure and happiness will only last as long as the duration of the act. Certainly a sumptuous meal can lead us to contemplate things of a higher order (eg., The Eucharist?). This level can be good or bad depending on: the level of consumption (eg., gluttony), or can be problematic when the action becomes immoral.

 

Level 2: The second desire (Level of Happiness) can be driven by ego. For example, when we find pleasure in succeeding in an activity, or achievement. Such as receiving a higher degree in eduction, excellence or advancement in our work, possessing material things, or achieving excellence in sports. A danger is when it becomes solely focused on comparing ourselves to others. This happiness is not bad in itself, but remember there will always be someone that is better, smarter, prettier, and perhaps has more toys than you. Lol

 

Level 3: The third desire (Level of Happiness) is when we find a deeper fulfillment in our desire for other people to be happy. It is rooted in empathy which helps us to recognize the dignity and value of the “other.” It enables us to give up our own needs and desires so that others can fulfill theirs. When we learn to serve, there is a deeper fulfillment and purpose in our lives which can lead to Level Four.

 

Level 4: The highest desire or (Level of Happiness) is for “something beyond this present life". To connect with God for whom we were created to know and seek. Often labeled by materialists as “wishful thinking” this fourth level of transcendent happiness flows from our desire for the sacred, as well as our desire for greater truth, love, justice, goodness, and beauty. When we see the first three levels of happiness through the lens of Level Four; we can become aware of how God is allowing us to experience a deeper sense of fulfillment and purpose connected to our desires, activities, and accomplishments.

 

Many people only achieve the first two levels, which are fleeting because the emotion, and or feeling of perceived happiness, only lasts during the engagement of the action. People of Faith can rise to levels three and four, which are rooted at the spiritual level of the heart. So this happiness is not fleeting nor merely temporal, but of an eternal nature and what we were created for (God and the Transcendent). It is a lasting happiness. Sadly, many people in our secular world will not experience enduring happiness because the material world ignores the Spiritual and invisible realm and reality of God.

 

The link (article) below summarizes the book by Fr. Spitzer on the Four Levels of Happiness:

 

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The magiscenter is a Fr. Spitzer site.

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I will leave you with this quote from St. John Paul II.

 

“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you the shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improve yourselves and society making the world more human and fraternal.”

—St. John Paul II's address on World Youth Day August 19, 2000

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Vivat Jesus,

Father Vic Gournas

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