I do get pissed off with my workshop sometimes when it's untidy, maybe happiness means not using it, just thinking about it.

Oh, and a pillar drill and compressor, sigh.

A warm well ordered workshop, with a lathe.

Happiness just - happens.

Ken Dodd reckoned it was a one man band.

Maybe we do know but have forgotten, temporarily.

I reckon after we die we choose our existence, we can create whatever, (for ourself, not for others) But I suspect we eventually get the urge for the feeling of the unknown.

It's starting to set in now! Contentment, I used to dread that when I was young, now I embrace it.

I had to Google him (ooer' missus) I would have to spend time digesting that. I do believe we use our brains to project the appearance of the objective world, if that will do as an answer!

Yeah - most of the time. Mind you I do enjoy a spot of ennui now and then.

I don't think you can, it's the transition from one state to another that makes you happy. After that boredom sets in.

But then how can happiness be experienced if it's not preceded by a period of unhappiness.

I always think of Elvis Presley's definition of happiness

"Someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to"

Sounds simple, and though I agree with that definition its not that easy to acheive on a regular basis.

I created a dream last night, it was absolutely real, complete with actions.

But of course it wasn't.

As I believe that we are all one, God, the only thing that exists, then I conclude that the so called 'Universe' isn't ultimately real but was created by God for its own benefit to enable it to grow. This involves God experiencing the illusion of being 'Jeff Bozos' or all the children with bone cancer etc etc, therefore the Universe was created for the self/God. So making peace with God is actually making peace with the real self, i.e. God.

If we are to believe the Bible which states that eventually God will wipe away our tears I can only relate this to wiping away a child's tears who has had a nightmare by revealing that their traumatic experience never really happened.

Edited to add: Rather than 'us' experiencing God's grace it's 'us', as God, experiencing being 'us', an imagined group of individual beings.

I think they can develop over a lifetime of experience and reflection. Or remain static if we are too lazy to accept change, a stubborn refusal to acknowledge we were wrong and move on.

If God created the world to experience life in various creatures the human being would surely be the most fascinating with its complex kaleidoscope of conflicting emotions.

Time I suppose, time to gradually emerge into an optimistic way of life?

My take:
Insecurity breeds insincerity, the thought of being sincere means being open and that could lead to being taken advantage of. Keep the defences up by keeping people guessing. But for most it fades away with time, having the security of loving folk around you makes you realise it's safe to be open with everyone.

I see a lot of anger in people, I'm referring to unjustified anger as opposed to the hot temporary type, been there myself. Unjustified and simmering below the surface, anger with the world in general. How can reason predominate with anger clouding our judgement?

Optimism.

Most of my contemporaries used to dread marrying and settling down, looking upon it as a prison sentence, I on the other hand wasn't too happy with singledom and meeting my soul mate and settling down to married bliss felt like getting out of prison, end of insecurity and sharing the rest of my life with a like minded girl felt very good, still does 47 years later.

Quoted from Alan Watts:
"... the central Self, let's call it God, it’s All of Us. It’s playing all the parts of All Beings whatsoever everywhere and anywhere. And it’s playing the game of hide and seek with itself. It gets lost, it gets involved in the farthest-out adventures, but in the end it always wakes up and comes back to itself"

Let's differentiate between faith and blind faith, the former I think we are discussing here, the latter really is head in the sand stuff.

Throughout history we have misinterpreted what we see, our eyes saw the Sun and the Moon and the stars moving across the sky and logically deduced they were circling us and therefore we were at the centre of the Universe and unique. Oops, wrong! let's try again. And so it's gone on until now when we believe that this time, based on more observation, that we have it right. The Universe was created. The Universe evolved. Could it be that we still have it all wrong.

I don't believe I being informed by fact, rather, I believe I'm being informed by beliefs and opinions. I take it all all so called'knowledge' with a pinch of salt.

Yes I can go along with that rather than saying 'right' or 'wrong'. This accords with my belief that we are all God who wants to experience everything so that it can see itself from a perspective away from itself, represented by all of us wondering how we are perceived by others.

Not sure about that though somewhere in the bible we are described as gods, not God though, but maybe it's a sideways reference to all of us, the one God.

I don't, I believe.

If good is white and evil is black which shade of grey is the dividing line? If that line can't be ascertained then surely good and evil are one.

You don't perceive God directly because as God you have decided to experience being a human being, i.e. so called 'you'. To make that experience seem as real as poss the real you (God) has to forget your real identity and believe that you are that person. Therefore the real you must remain hidden until at some point you 'wake up' and realise who you really are. Then, I suppose, you may perceive yourself. God that is.

Not joking, it's what I believe, that what we call 'God' is the only thing that exists. So if you/I/we exist then you/I/we are God, quite simple really. Everything we investigate appears more complex the more we look, I believe ultimate reality must be simple.

There is no rock, it's just God imagining itself to be a rock, by the same token there is no universe, it just appears to be.

Advaita Vedanta holds that Brahman, the creator, and Atman, the human soul, are one and the same, (Advaita means 'not two') this means, in effect, that all of us are Brahman/God. So is all of the mind God? I think some is and some isn't, personality belonging to the body, this would include appetite for food, sex etc. I also believe we carry personality traits with us after death as a sort of comforter until we 'wake up' and accept that our so called identity/ego is false and remember who we really are. (The familiar despite its shortcomings is more attractive than the thought of oblivion) So losing your identity is losing a temporary false self image, being afraid of facing the creator is fear of facing yourself, the real you.

My opinion of course.

Neither exist.

There may be someone capable of proving existence of God but chooses not to for reason(s) unknown to me.

'The greatest show on earth' don't spoil it by moving the scenery or looking backstage otherwise it will involve a reboot.

"If we were to admit that the self, one's identity, personality, etc., were not dependent on the existential determinants of the world then we would readily admit that we have absolutely no real knowledge of what constitutes someone's identity or personality. If we were ready to seriously consider something of ourselves, something maintaining ourselves in its extraordinary complexity, existing after death then we would consequently be admitting that a non-material soul contains the character of a person...

This is absurd and we cannot accept these conclusions lest we omit pschology"

Unless character is a product of brain/body, just as the handling characteristics of a car are the result of the cars inbuilt design. If so then the non-material soul would be our real and eternal identity, psychology would then just concern itself with the material brain and character, as it already does.

Oh right, I think I'm getting mixed up, if so I apologise. I'm a bit slow on the uptake, maybe I should just read and not spread confusion by posting!

No I didn't, it was you who said my post was theology and not philosophy.