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    Being Happy: Part 1
    Being Happy: Part 1
    Being Happy: Part 1
    Ebook20 pages12 minutes

    Being Happy: Part 1

    By David Tuffley

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    About this ebook

    True happiness, lasting happiness can be achieved through a process known as Self-Actualisation, or Self-Realisation. This is a natural state and within the reach of all human beings. It comes from having satisfied all of one’s human needs.

    This is the kind of happiness that cannot be obtained through the acquisition of things. The fleeting gratification in receiving goods or services is not true happiness. That is an illusion created by our global consumer society. I am not suggesting that you should avoid having nice things, just that they are not a source of true happiness.

    Truly happy people are Self-Actualised (SA) people, so called because they are a much fuller expression of their unique human potential than non SA people. The state has been given many labels, enlightened or awakened being two of them. In Zen, it is described Satori.

    While you cannot order happiness on demand, you can create the right conditions in yourself for Self-Actualisation to occur. This eBook describes what these conditions are, and how you might go about creating them. The rest is up to you.

    The humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow is well-known for his ideas on a hierarchy of human needs. Basic needs must be satisfied before higher order needs are felt. The hierarchy is represented as a pyramid, with the basic needs at the pyramids broad base, and with self-actualisation at the apex. A Self-Actualised person has found a way to satisfy all of his or her lower needs and has cultivated the conscious awareness of their highest self. They allow this awareness to express itself more fully in their lives.

    The achievement of Self-Actualisation is recognised by Maslow as a human need, so in a sense it is everyone’s birthright to be happy.

    The need for Self-Actualisation asserts itself once we have satisfied the lowest-order needs for food, shelter, sex, then middle-order needs for safety and security, then the higher middle-order needs for love and belonging. Above these is the higher-order need for self-esteem. The highest need of all, sitting like the capstone of a pyramid is the need for Self-Actualisation.

    The annals of various religions tell us that a person can achieve enlightenment with only some or none of the higher and middle order needs being met, and with only the barest of lower-order needs like food and shelter being satisfied. This is more difficult, requiring you to become an ascetic recluse and engage in mortification of the flesh in order to free yourself of these normal human needs. This eBook is not recommending this course of action. Our body is not an impediment to happiness. Quite the opposite, it is a great ally. We owe it to ourselves to take the best care of our body that we can by eating well, getting enough exercise and rest, and avoiding toxic and/or addictive substances.

    Self-Actualised (SA) people, whoever they are and whatever the circumstances of their lives, tend to approach life in the ways described in this eBook.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAltiora Publications
    Release dateApr 9, 2011
    ISBN9781458072634
    Being Happy: Part 1
    Author

    David Tuffley

    David Tuffley (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & Socio-Technical Studies at Griffith University in Australia.David writes on a broad range of interests; from Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

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      Book preview

      Being Happy - David Tuffley

      Being Happy: Part 1

      David Tuffley

      Pleasure is spread through the earth

      In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.

      ~William Wordsworth

      Published by Altiora Publications

      Copyright 2011, 2013 David Tuffley

      Smashwords Edition

      Acknowledgement to Nicola Tuffley

      License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      This eBook forms part of the Being Happy series:

      Being Happy: Part 2 | Part 3

      Other books by this Author

      Table of Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      MASLOW

      EXPERIENCE THINGS

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