Happiness- It’s Not What You Think

Recently, I had a conversation with my instructor (Professor Austin), and we were discussing how the meaning of things can change over time.  As a specific example, he brought up the Declaration of Independence (and then sent me documentation via e-mail to support what it was we were discussing).  I found it timely, and also inspirational, and wanted to share a part of this conversation with you.

We often hear the famous words from the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What is truly inspiring to me is that I have misunderstood what is meant by this powerful opening message for my entire life.  Our founders had a completely different definition for happiness than we do today. Their definition sheds light on how they lived and how they hoped we would live within the freedom they hoped to help secure for the future generations.  As defined, “pursuing happiness meant a lifelong quest for being good, not feeling good – the pursuit of lifelong virtue, not short-term pleasure.” (Rosen- The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America).

Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, we have lost sight (as a nation and as individuals) of what it means to “pursue happiness.”  It seems like most everybody these days is pursuing a pleasurable life, not a life of deeper morality.  As an example, how do you define “being good?”  What does that mean to you?  What is your foundation- your moral compass?  These are important questions to ask, and it’s difficult to answer these questions with a sliding scale.  It’s incredibly dangerous to define “good” within societal norms.  Those are subjective; they change.  And, as history as shown, societal norms that may have once been considered “good” can actually be very bad.  What was the societal norm in 1940’s Germany?  (The point- just because something is considered “good” these days- does not make it so.)

We have inherent values that, no matter how hard one may try to deny them, we know right from wrong.  We know that people’s lives have value.  We are often taught these days the we should put value over ourselves as greater than the value we put over others.  The mentality of, “Look out for number one” in our society is pervasive.  Is that, good?  Does that make our society a better place?  Is that what our Founders did?

I could go on for quite some time thinking through this while writing about it, but I’ll end with this.  How does this all tie into the martial arts?  In a society where we are constantly wanting people to “be good to others” we don’t spend a lot of time teaching people how to be moral.  In fact, in my opinion, we’ve removed a great deal of our moral foundation from standardized education.  (When I talk with our teenage students, they often tell me they have never had “Civics” as I had when I was in school.  They don’t know the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and they definitely don’t know The Bill of Rights.)  We don’t teach morality in school.  We make right and wrong very subjective, and we’ve turned right and wrong into political diatribes.

Within the martial arts, we have always understood that we need to teach people how to ethically walk through life.  We teach people a physical skillset rooted with a mentality of self-defense.  Teaching them a moral foundation for how those skills can be utilized is imperative.  Otherwise, you create bullies.  Instead, we help form people who are responsible with their skills and able to defend themselves and others.  With the youth students, we focus on a character word each month.  Through the mat chats and character huddles we teach on topics such as, responsibility, respect, honor, integrity, focus, and self-discipline.  The classes often end with the students reciting a student creed.  I did not make up this creed.  It’s been handed down to me, and we continue to hand it down to the next generation.

I will develop myself in a positive manner and use what I learn in class constructively and defensively.  I will show modesty, courtesy, integrity, self-control, perseverance, and indomitable spirit.

This month’s word that we have been working on with the kids is “intent.”  Teaching the next generation to make sure that their actions have meaning and to understand that they need to walk and talk with a purpose is something that will hopefully help them as they progress through their lives and, as I now understand it even more deeply… pursue happiness.