Between True Happiness and Momentary Pleasure
Happy and happy life is everyone's dream. Ask anyone, "Do you want to live a happy and happy life?" We will definitely get a positive answer. And ask anyone, "Do you want to live a life of suffering and misery?" We will definitely get a negative answer.
For most people, pleasure and happiness are two different things, even though they are not the same thing. Happiness can be felt by animals as well as humans, but special happiness is felt by humans.
Pleasure is more physical, whereas happiness is physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Pleasure is short-lived and fleeting, but happiness can last much longer. Pleasure arises as a neural reaction to external factors, such as the nerves of the eye when seeing a beautiful sight, the digestive organs when it comes to food, the sense of smell when smelling fragrances, and the sense of taste when touching a man and a woman. Happiness comes from within, namely when the intellectual self and spiritual self are actualized.
Pleasure is relative, while happiness is intrinsic. Everything is relative and some is essential. Something is said to be relative if it has properties that are associated with something else; and something is called intrinsic if it has properties that occur without being preceded by other properties.
Something that is relative may be judged differently from one person to another, but what is essential is valued the same for everyone. For some people, eating durian is something fun, but not for others. But everyone will feel happy if they are treated fairly. So, eating durian is a relative pleasure, while being treated fairly is true happiness.
Interest in the opposite sex, in children, in possessions and wealth is not an incidental effect of specific causes such as education or habit, but it is something that is natural and instinctive. With attraction, humans are driven to pursue all things that can bring pleasure. It is the fundamental dynamic by which humans are motivated to act and behave.
Satisfying all desires of attraction is practically impossible. No matter how rich a person is, he must still have unfulfilled desires. You may have the desire to buy a new motorcycle, but you don't have enough money yet. Your friend who already owns it may want to buy a car, but he doesn't have enough savings. Likewise, billionaires, they must have desires that have not been reached. They too, like us, do not have enough money. We are all poor, only God is Rich. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth.
The world with all its pleasures is only temporary, there is no permanent reality in it. Unfortunately, many people fall in love with temporary things. Whoever loves something will become his slave. Likewise one who loves the pleasures of the world, he will become his slave; slaves of wealth, slaves of position, slaves of lust, and slaves of other outward desires.
However, attraction is not something that should be rejected because it is a completeness that God has given to human beings. If there is no interest in such things, then the foundation of human life will collapse. But it is also not to be followed without control. To refuse it means to allow yourself to be very passive, very isolated, and lose your passion for life. Obeying it without control can cause people to become selfish, greedy, shameless, savage, and inhumane.
The more unrestrained a person is in outward pleasures, the further away he is from true happiness. For that, something higher is needed that serves as a source of consideration for the harmony and balance of the two extreme sides (rejecting and obeying the attraction). That something is common sense. With his mind, humans can take the wisdom hidden behind attraction.
The difference between humans and animals is that humans have reason, but animals do not. Intellect is a combination of ratio and heart. The first is intellectual intelligence and the second is spiritual intelligence.
With this ratio, humans have the potential to be able to understand and develop science and technology; and with the human heart has the potential to believe and live a religious life. So, a new person is said to be human in the true sense when he is knowledgeable and has faith. Having only one of them, knowledge alone without faith or faith without knowledge, then he is only half human. And if he does not have both, then he descends to the rank of an animal; even he can be worse than an animal. For, in the pursuit of external pleasures, animals may be content, but humans never. Squirrels at most steal a coconut, but bastards steal billions of rupiah, steal forests, steal sand, steal asphalt. Yes, bastards can steal anything; they are slaves to worldly pleasures.
Interest in worldly pleasures is not an end, but it is a means by which the self leads to perfection. By interacting with the world, the self can develop its intellectual and spiritual faculties. And the self will only reach its perfection if the intellectual self and spiritual self are actualized. In other words, humans will reach perfection if there is knowledge and faith in them that make them rational and moral human beings and this is true happiness.
The more perfect his knowledge and faith, the more perfect his happiness. Blessed are those who can fill their lives with knowledge, faith, and good deeds.
