Kabbalah on Happiness: “…they Lived Happily Ever After!”

Just close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine what kind of feeling this phrase elicits. Allow yourself to float away on a dream of it, to explore your hopes and wishes that come with this open-ended phrase.

Perhaps right now you feel very happy or sad or somewhere in between, but when it comes to tomorrow and beyond, it is very hard to grasp this notion of a promising future, and yet it is something we all desire without really knowing what it is and if it is actually something we can achieve.

No one wants to live an unhappy life forever after, nor do we like to see or read stories of such unhappiness. The goal of achieving happiness is something that makes life worthwhile, that motivates us to move forward, and gives us a sense of purpose.

Like in many stories, we know that happiness is something that can only be obtained after we have gone through some initial struggles, and along with these struggles, many times we will have to make some sacrifices.  This is a commonly accepted fact of life: happiness needs to be earned; it has a price, and this price is different for each and every one of us. Only when we have overcome these struggles and paid our price, will we enter this promising second part of our lives, the “ever after.”

So what is happiness? And what is forever after?

If you have your own definition of happiness, and you feel content with it, just search a little on the Internet and you will find out that it is a disputable concept and that it also depends heavily on who defines it. A philosopher would tell us something completely different than a psychologist, a scientist, a religious person, a biologist, or a politician.

Going from an individual level to a global level, we have rated our world according to certain happiness indexes, such as the Happy Planet Index, which show us that there are indeed countries that seem to be happy while others feel “less” happy to even unhappy. The index also shows us that happiness will stagnate at a certain level, meaning that people can only derive so much happiness from their physical environment and that there is something more that humans need in order to obtain lasting happiness. 

The quest for happiness keeps us occupied; we all want it, we know that it will fulfill us, and we know that we need to do something in order to get it.  However, we will have a hard time finding a structured approach to reach this happiness for “…ever after,” which is a very carefully chosen expression and gives us a sensation of eternity, as opposed to something that stops at the end of our physical lives.

So, how do we rise above our situation that is limited by our genetics, the society we live in, and the esoteric pleasures that are offered to us?  We may reach a certain level of happiness for a limited time, but is there a way to reach the “ever after” of happiness?

The ancient wisdom of Kabbalah can give us an interesting perspective on this classic phrase. The fact is that on an individual level we will not find an answer on how to reach this everlasting feeling of happiness since our happiness depends on that of others, as stated so beautifully in writings by Baal HaSulam, the great 20th Century Kabbalist. 

 “Unity of the society is the source of happiness and well being, whereas separation between people is the source of all miseries. All fortunes and well being depend only on the drawing together and unification of the global community.”

Global events, such as the financial crisis of the last few months have shown us how the world is interconnected and that people all over the world must join together in unity to survive, by understanding and living the concept of “love thy neighbour as thyself.”  It is through the interconnection with others that we will find the happiness which all humans seek. We have learned that we will need to put effort into making the words of Baal HaSulam a reality and a goal in order to reach this unity, but then, once we have accomplished this goal ...we will live a happy life in unity for ever after.