Enlightenment for the common person/Heaven for the ego

[The White Belt]

People often talk about this concept;

They can't wait so much that they can't down the years. 

It's their time to unwind, to slow down, to finally be happy, to finally take time for themselves, to enjoy the life they've worked so hard for.

I'm talking of course about: Retirement.

Hehehehehe. 

But they haven't realised yet, that no matter where you are, the habits of the mind persist.

Whether you are working, retired, on holiday, taking a time. The old habits go on and on and on, and they can't stop it. 

They might even die just as they retire! 

Many people after retirement miss their jobs and go back part-time, because they can't do nothing. They have to keep going on and on in circles of neurosis and 

deep suffering. 

Deep unconsciousness is convincing yourself time after time that you are happy until you finally die. 

 

[Ether]

@The White Belt Really liked the way you put it.

[The White Belt]

@Ether Thanks man. 

[Dodo]

@The White Belt If they convinced themselves they are happy, then this has no qualitative difference than really being happy.

Delusional happiness is still happiness.

The question is what happens after death. If what happens after death voids the entire experience, then it didn't even matter if they were happy or not in the first place.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Dodo

[The White Belt]

@Dodo I disagree. Telling yourself you are happy is profoundly different from actually being happy. 

[Dodo]

3 minutes ago, The White Belt said:

@Dodo I disagree. Telling yourself you are happy is profoundly different from actually being happy. 

It is different. 

What about the other part. 'Until they finally die'

Perhaps the true happiness follows from there, so they wont miss out anyway.

Have to aks you if you have experienced what you're projecting onto retirement to know it to be the case. There are no happy elderly?

Nobody who is not in the spiritual path can be happy oh dear

 

[Dodo]

What I also want to say is that if they convinced themselves they are happy, at least it worked for them. They were able to live a long life and not suicide due to unhappiness, because they thought they were happy.

From the standpoint of death, does it matter whether they were trully happy or not? Only in the present moment it matters whether you are happy.

Death makes everything irrelevant. 

Sometimes i just think - lets just blow up the entire planet and get it over with. There is no point in it anyway. Unless there is.

It's not like if they were actually happy they wouldn't die? 

Edited December 7, 2017 by Dodo

[The White Belt]

54 minutes ago, Dodo said:

There are no happy elderly?

I wasn't making such a one-size-fits-all statement.

 

49 minutes ago, Dodo said:

What I also want to say is that if they convinced themselves they are happy, at least it worked for them.

Convincing yourself that you are happy doesn't make it so. The key word is convinced. You wouldn't need to do such a thing if it's genuine. 

Think of a couple that are always getting into fights and folly. You ask them if they are happy and watch them get all defensive as they try to tell you they are happy. 

The belief 'I am happy' just keeps people afloat. If a sudden change came that meant you couldn't like. All the authentically happy people would remain and the rest of them would kill themselves and that would prove that convincing yourself you are happy vs being happy is so so qualitatively different. 

[The White Belt]

Also I should add aswell that the purpose of my OP was to say that if you put happiness over THERE, once you get over there you are gonna' put it over THERE again. 

Yeah there are probably happy retired people, but if they don't have any practices of present moment awareness, then it's doubtful that they are. 

[ADD]

I understood the meaning behind your post. I've had many conversations with older people, and for an example; one old lady in a wheel chair told me she wish she wouldn't have worried so much when she was young, and that life in the old days isn't that great with your body slowly breaking apart.

Basicly what she was saying is that she wasn't accepting life as it is then and she still isn't accepting what is now. I found this same basic story behind the words of many elder people i took contact with in my previous job.

It makes me so sad to see this happening to almost everyone around me.