Happiness or Truth

Which is better? A happy but ignorant life or an acutely aware but miserable one?

Perhaps happiness is our greatest enemy. Happiness is a mirage that clouds our senses and limits our thoughts. It damages our understanding of the reality--the truth--of the world. Yet we are in irrevocable love with this enemy. We take her to bed every night as we let our dreams soar toward that lofty place where happiness is real and ours. We pursue her irresistibly our entire lives. And some are, maybe, even fortunate enough to get betrothed to her. But a happy man is like a pig wallowing away in its squalid sty--almost disgustingly content in its being and blissfully ignorant of the deeper truths of the nature.

 

What then is more important--happiness or truth? Would you be ready to trade one for another?  There is no easy way out of this quandary. True, happiness is our innate desire; its pursuit is the sole purpose of our existence. What else is there to live for if there is no prospect of happiness to be attained someday? But once having attained the vantage point of truth we can never bring ourselves to abdicate it. Yes, we still seek happiness, though not at the cost of sacrificing the truth.

 

But then, maybe it is better to be a pig in a sty.