Happiness—Genuine and Spurious

Working Christian Scientists are happy people. Through the study and application of their religion they have discovered deep within their own thought a stable sense of buoyancy unknown to the materialist. This is possible because an innate gladness is always present in the real man. It emanates from his divine Principle, infinite Love, which supplies man's every thought and constitutes his real being.

Throughout history relatively few people have discerned the basis of true happiness. In general mankind have looked outward instead of inward for satisfaction. They have been bemused by the belief that material pleasure is the chief end of life.

A student of Christian Science would rightly agree that happiness is important. But he would say that it is not an end in itself. Rather is it a by-product of spiritual growth, a subjective state of spiritual awareness arrived at through unselfish service to others and purity of thought and act culminating in a conscious communion with God, the one Mind. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can." ^{Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 17 ;}

At present there is a special need to take a clear-eyed look at what constitutes real happiness. A certain element of society seems to be rejecting genuine good in favor of materialism, and one needs to be doubly alert if he is not to fall into the trap of false values. Both in the entertainment field, and to some extent in the communications media, standards of decency and self-discipline are being debased. Many plays and movies pander to the lowest instincts of mankind, glorifying violence and lust—all in the guise of bringing joy and freedom.

Of course, instead of imparting happiness this sort of entertainment binds one to the dissonance and drabness of material sense. It clouds the vision of man's true identity and the genuine joy this brings. It excites the lower propensities and gives one the difficult task of clearing his thought of the false impressions that he has willingly let into consciousness. One tends to enter into and become part of what he is looking at, and afterward he must pay the piper.

A goal of the earnest Christian Scientist is complete mastery of a material sense of body and achievement of his true identity as the spiritual expression of God. This goal is reached only by degrees, by overcoming step by step the animal propensities of the carnal, or mortal, mind. As this process of self-purification goes on, the natural buoyancy of man's true nature becomes more and more evident. Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy makes it abundantly clear that this is the only route to unchanging harmony. We read, "The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won." ^{Science and Health, p. 61 ;}

Most Christian Scientists enjoy wholesome human activities, and rightly so. They like to travel, watch and engage in sports, go to the theater, and have a happy, normal family life. At this period of human growth this is all good. But it never should he allowed to get out of hand and so absorb our attention that the real source of happiness becomes obscured.

As we advance in the things of Spirit, our interests and sense of values alter radically. What at an earlier period seemed essential to our well-being becomes tasteless and insipid. Selfish pleasures begin to pall, and we reach out for the deeper satisfaction of living for others—for the unselfish love that tunes one in to the divine source of joy and completeness. Mrs. Eddy tells us: "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." ^{p. 57;}

Christ Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." ^{Matt. 5:6 ;} The Greek word makarios translated "blessed" really means "happy," so in this beatitude, as in all the others, the Master has given us the perfect recipe for happiness. He has pointed the way to the kingdom within, the natural gladness and completeness that inhere in the one real Mind, or Soul, which man reflects in limitless degree. Jesus has shown us that Godlike thinking and living unite thought with the divine source of health and harmony and bring to human experience something of the boundless good that fills immensity.

All, then, that can cloud our happiness is a distorted sense of values. When we learn to look at life as did Jesus and his follower Mrs. Eddy, and progressively lift our sights above material interests and goals, we find the unchanging good we are looking for. Centuries before the Christian era the prophet Isaiah must have seen something of this when he wrote, "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." ^{Isa. 35:10 .}