Happiness in a boundless Cosmos

General Philosophy
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Many people look up at the stars and say, “Isn’t that wonderful?”

They are right, of course. Creation is awesome and there is much to be said for taking the time to contemplate its majesty.

But the stars offer us neither comfort in despair nor moderation in joy. When we are suffering, we are often told that, in the grand scheme of things, our failures do not matter—that our troubles are small against the immensity of the universe. And when we are at the height of triumph, we are reminded that our victories, too, will eventually fade beneath the ceaseless march of time.

But this way of thinking is ultimately self defeating

Time may be infinite and space endless, but neither fact has any bearing on your worth or on your estimation of yourself. The immensity of the universe does not make your suffering insignificant, nor does it make your happiness less real.

Moderation comes from self-knowledge.

It comes from knowing that despair will not last forever, just as our sense of triumph will not last forever. It comes from understanding our own capacities, our limitations, our emotions, and the temporary nature of both suffering and success.

Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow, we reset.

This is where practical wisdom begins: not in contemplating the stars, but in learning to govern ourselves. To exercise our capacities without excess. To endure failure without being destroyed by it, and to enjoy success without becoming intoxicated by it.

Happiness is found in the moderate and deliberate exercise of our capacities.

Moderation is self-management. It is self-knowledge. It is practical wisdom.

It does not come from the stars.

What helps you maintain perspective when life swings between its greatest disappointments and its greatest successes?

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Rudyard Kipling hit the nail on the head when he wrote if “if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those impostors just the same”

If anything helps it’s a sense of self belief in whatever endeavours we partake in. Success shouldn’t give us joy but rather affirmation of our ability.

Joy comes from our relationships with others and seeing our friends flourish.

emotions should be tempered by degrees of self control especially negative ones such as hatred and anger. If you want legacy, leave the world in a better place than you found it. If you want to be rich invest your time wisely but do not succumb to materialism those things are fleeting.

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Perhaps the reason why religions describe the earth to be a center is because we like it. Christianity, for better or worse, has been the brand ambassador for religions. It vehemently opposed Copernicus’ heliocentrism; it vehemently opposed Darwin’s evolution; it vehemently opposed Nietzsche’s atheistic nihilism (?). We’re special - God loves us, “Come let us make man in our own image” even when Xenophanes declared, “if horses had gods they would look like horses” - but the more we learn about the world the less true it becomes.

Our happiness is important for sure. We’re sentient, moral patients. We’re learning new things about ourselves and our habitat and also forgetting the dark chapters in our history. Where will we be in the slowly approaching 22nd century (2200)? Pax mundi or Bellum mundi?

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You are right. It requires practice. Self control is like a muscle - with steady training its grows stronger.

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That’s a lovely OP, and all those perspectives are often gained with experience, so there is something to be said for “getting old” - with it comes the ability to put things in perspective, and hopefully find an internal peace.

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What a scurrilous suggestion - I doubt very much horses have gods. Although, I do wonder, if we have gods, whether they are descended from monkey gods.

However, let us keep on topic - the subject is moderation.

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Yes, age brings us insights just when we need it. Mind you, I will try to.enjoy some foolishness just a little bit longer

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Xenophanes was a respectable thinker in ancient Greece.

Moderation has been found to affect well-being but the alternatives aren’t that bad. For example to have more food than guests is good and to have fewer needs than money to pay for them is good.

Those who are moderate are a problem in religion. They’re a cover for fundamentalism.

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For disappointments, by accepting one’s current predicament. Try not to be in denial, instead be humble. Adopt a stoic tenacity.

For success, first things first. Don’t forget to eat. Again, humility.

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I’m not sure I totally relate to everything in the OP. For example, I don’t find nature awesome or numinous in the way that some people seem to. What I do relate to is the idea of moderation. I suppose that aligns, to some extent, with the Epicurean tradition.

I worked out fairly early on that my happiness depends on a certain form of minimalism. I deliberately don’t own many things, and I have few expectations of the world. I have no religious beliefs, nor do I currently believe that humans can make contact with a reality beyond our experience. That leaves relationships, friendships, meaningful work, and the small pleasures of everyday life. For me, that has always seemed enough to be happy. I would class myself as an existential nihilist, inasmuch as I don’t think there’s a capital “M” meaning built into experience. Meaning seems to be something we create or find by doing, rather than something that exists independently of us. Of course, that is often much easier to pull off if you haven’t experienced significant trauma or hardship.

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Thread title: Happiness in a boundless Cosmos

People look at the stars or the sky for different reasons. It’s not always about cosmic meaning. It is a kind of wonder that lifts one out of self. A quick zoom out to get a bit of distance and perspective.

It can give comfort but, of course, it can do the opposite. It can make you feel small or insignificant.

Perspective matters when we’re judging self and how we cope with so-called ‘success’ and ‘failure’. Especially, when the judgement comes from others, according to their criteria and beliefs. You can make yourself unhappy by trying to meet impossible or complex demands. Expectations not chosen by you.

I get the point that the stars don’t offer moderation. Why or how would they?

However, I don’t think that a ‘zoom out’ is self-defeating. Quite the opposite.

Marcus Aurelius uses this way of thinking all the time. He zooms between his personal thoughts and nature’s vastness. He considers the importance of paying attention — this does not deny human significance.

He also shows practical wisdom in describing kinds of self-government, using reason.

I dipped into Meditations, Book 5 and followed his thoughts. What he is made up of — the causal and the material, reason and the art of reasoning.

The understanding of what many take as goods compared to what the ‘true’ goods are. I laugh at the ending of 5:12. Even as he self-moderates, he maintains a sense of dry humour. He asks us how we should consider fame and wealth. The man who is ‘…so rich, he has no room to shit’.

Finally, one way to maintain perspective, is to try to appreciate beauty, even in ordinary life.

According to Aurelius, your mind takes on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed with thoughts…(Book 5:16).

If you want to be happy, know what makes you happy. What helps support your well-being.

Sometimes, that’s imagining dancing with the stars. Sometimes, it’s a warm piece of home-made bread…
In ordinary life, choose and attend to things that matter to you.

Read the Meditations! :wink:

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Simply because genuine emotions are never an objective approach, but rather a subjective one.

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I have done, many times. But thanks.

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Yes, I thought so from your previous quotes and comments. My writing is not only addressed to you but interested readers of the thread.

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The breakthrough in learning to handle the inevitable ups and downs in life is looking at it as a chronological time sequence. Now I’m not delving into the doom-and-gloom “we don’t matter in the grand scheme of things” mentality that you prefaced about in your writing, but zooming out of even just yourself sometimes and realizing the blessing you have to even be able to experience such problems, to have a purpose in life, and to be able to feel and experience things that a good amount of people now and throughout all of time have never felt. Failed a job interview at a consulting company even though your resume and skills were strong? There are people out there who don’t even have a chance at a degree, and people in the past who could look forward to nothing but taking over their dad’s farm due to the context of the technological advancement of that era. So the solution is a mix of that healthy perspective-based comparison along with the fact that you are going to live around 60 years in your life, therefore the 3-4 or more months that you spend on either the up or the down moment of an event you’ve gone through(that means nothing but character growth) will long be forgotten in due time. Because as I said, life is a chronological time sequence of 60ish years so any positive or negative events will just be converted into data points of a much bigger personal journey. Just make a mental note to look forward to the things life has planned for you no matter what you’re going through.

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