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Jorge Leite de Oliveira |
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Total
happiness
does not
exist in
this
Earth…
not yet
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What is
happiness?
According
to the
Houaiss
Dictionary
of the
Portuguese
Language,
happiness
is a
state of
a fully
satisfied
consciousness;
satisfaction,
contentment,
wellbeing
"[...]
f.
eternal
bliss,
eternal
salvation".
According
to Yuval
Noah
Harari
(2015),
we are
never
satisfied
with
human
progress.
The
Homo
sapiens,
our
current
genus
and
human
species,
is on
this
Earth
for
200,000
years.
However,
only in
the last
70,000
years
did it
predominate
over the
last
species
of the
genus
Homo,
the
neanderthal,
which
became
extinct
30,000
years
ago
after
the
current
humanity
appeared.
There
was
still
another
species,
Homo
floresiensis,
extinct
13,000
years
ago,
when
only the
Homo
sapiens
was
left.
In the
last
five
hundred
years,
however,
there
have
been
changes
of such
magnitude
in our
planet,
caused
by man,
now also
mentioned
by
myself,
as
sapiens,
which
completely
changed
the
habits
of these
primates,
so
named
for
their
kinship
with
chimpanzees,
with
something
that
differentiated
them
from
these
primates
six
million
years
ago.
Seventy
thousand
years
ago, the
sapiens
made the
first
great
revolution,
which
would
differentiate
him from
all
other
primates:
the
cognitive
revolution.
But
12,000
years
ago, we
stopped
being
"hunter-gatherers",
and
created
agriculture,
our
second
great
revolution.
With the
agricultural
revolution,
we
ceased
being
“wanderers”,
we began
the
permanent
settlements
and
domesticated
plants
and
animals.
What the
learned
author
above
ignores,
voluntarily
or not,
is the
existence
of three
universal
principles:
God,
the
first
cause of
all that
exists,
since
always,
because
"the
nothingness
does not
exist",
the
spirit
and
the
matter.
This is
the
"universal
trinity"
as
stated
in the
Questions
23 a)
and 27
of
The Book
of
Spirits,
by
Kardec
(2013),
and
Harari
seems to
ignore
this
"Trinity"
in his
work,
indeed
very
good, if
we
consider
his
studies
only
referring
to the
biological
evolution
of the
human
being.
"But are
we
happier?"
According
to
Harari
(2015),
the
first
kingdoms
arose
about
5,000
years
ago, and
together
came the
writing
and
money as
a way to
replace
the
barter
or
exchange.
Then the
empires
arose,
and the
"universal"
currency
too.
Then
follows
Polytheism,
which is
the
belief
in many
gods,
and in
India
some
2,500
years
ago,
Buddhism
appears,
the
"universal
truth"
to get
rid of
the
"suffering".
Judaism
gives
rise to
Christianity
and
Islamism,
as a
belief
in one
God.
In the
last
five
hundred
years,
the
"Scientific
Revolution"
occurs
with the
conquering
of
America
and
other
continents,
and
capitalism
begins
to
influence
all
mankind.
A little
over two
hundred
years
ago,
Britain
promotes
the
"Industrial
Revolution"
and
since
then,
the
state
and the
market
replace
the
family
and the
community,
according
to
Harari
(2015).
However,
this
Doctor
in
History,
a world
history
expert
and
professor
at the
Hebrew
University
of
Jerusalem
asks:
But are
we
happier?
Does the
wealth
accumulated
by
Humanity
for over
the past
five
centuries
mean
contentment?
Does the
discovery
of
inexhaustible
energy
sources
open
before
us
inexhaustible
deposits
of
happiness?
Going
back
further
in time,
has the
approximately
70
millennia
since
the
Cognitive
Revolution
made the
world a
better
place to
live in?
The late
Neil
Armstrong,
whose
footprint
remains
intact
on the
moon
where
there is
no wind,
was he
happier
than the
anonymous
hunter-gatherers
30,000
years
ago that
left
their
handprints
on a
wall in
the cave
of
Chauvet?
If not,
what is
the
meaning
of
developing
agriculture,
cities,
writing,
currency,
empires
science
and
industry?
(HARARI,
2015,
page
386).
Purpose
of
incarnation
The
creation
of
living
beings,
and in
particular
of man,
was due
to the
necessity
of
universal
evolution.
Its laws
require
that all
that
exists
has to
evolve,
in a
chain
from the
atom to
the
angel,
according
to an
answer
given to
Kardec
by a
Spirit
(2013,
Question
540).
The
Higher
Spirits
clarified
Kardec
(2013,
Questions
85 and
86) that
the
primitive
normal
world is
the
Spiritist
World,
pre-existent,
eternal
and it
outlives
everything.
The
physical
world is
secondary
and may
even
cease to
exist,
or never
have
existed
without
this
altering
the
presence
of the
Spiritist
World.
The
purpose
of the
incarnation
of the
Spirit
is to
attain
perfection
(Ibid,
Question
132),
but what
is
eternal
in us is
the soul
(the
Spirit
embodied).
The body
has a
short
life.
The
Spirit
Emmanuel
tells us
that
every
life is
like "a
book" we
are
writing,
and
every
day is
like a
page of
this
book.
Our way
of being
is shown
at all
times
through
the
contact
with
people,
and
situations,
that
approach
us.
(XAVIER,
2008,
page
16).
While we
do not
achieve
perfection,
we have
no
complete
happiness,
regarding
our
physical
body,
even if
we meet
the five
most
desirable
conditions
for
everyone:
youth,
beauty,
health,
money
and
power.
However,
when we
practice
the Law
of God,
we are
enjoying
"a
happiness
so big
as to
fill
[our]
gross
existence”,
so say
the
Higher
Spirits
(Kardec,
2013,
Question
921).
What it
takes to
be happy
Regarding
the
happiness
in the
Spiritual
World,
the
Spirits
teach us
that it
is
achieved
when the
good
Spirits
[...]
know all
things;
do not
feel
hatred,
or
jealousy,
or envy
or
ambition,
or are
taken by
any of
the
passions
that
cause
men to
fall in
disgrace.
The love
that
unites
them is
a source
of
supreme
happiness.
They do
not
experience
the
needs or
suffering,
or the
anxieties
of
material
life.
They are
happy
for the
good
they do.
However,
the
happiness
of the
Spirits
is
proportional
to their
individual
enlightenment.
Only the
pure
Spirits
enjoy
the
supreme
happiness,
but not
all of
the
remaining
is
unhappy.
Among
the evil
and
perfect
there
are
plenty
levels
in which
the
enjoyments
are
related
to their
moral
state.
Those,
who are
already
advanced,
quite
understand
the
happiness
of those
who
preceded
them and
wish to
reach
it, but
this
wish is
in a
sense of
emulation,
and not
of
jealousy.
They are
aware
that it
only
depends
of them
to reach
it, and
to get
it they
work,
however,
they do
it with
the
calmness
of a
serene
conscious
and are
fortunate
because
they do
not have
to
suffer
as those
who were
evil.
(Kardec,
2013
Question
967).
Based on
the
foregoing,
we
conclude
that,
for now,
there is
still no
complete
happiness
on
Earth,
but we
can be
happy as
much as
possible,
when we
break
free
from our
pride
and
selfishness,
the two
wounds
of
Humanity,
according
to the
answer
given by
the
Higher
Spirits
to Allan
Kardec.
(Ibid,
Question
785).
Therefore,
I
conclude
these
modest
notes
with the
following
poem,
dictated
to the
psychic
Chico
Xavier
by
the
Spirit
Cruz e
Sousa.
(XAVIER,
2002,
page
251):
Happy
are
those,
who have
God
Between
this
decayed
world
And a
life
with a
free
soul, a
pure
soul,
One can
still
see the
dark
immensity
Of the
boundaries
of gray
and
forgetfulness.
Only the
thinker,
who
suffers,
and is
looking
For the
truth
and
light
within
his
feelings,
Can save
that
dazzle
Of Faith
– the
source
of
mystical
bliss.
Blessed
is he
who has
God in
this
battle
Of
earthly
misery,
which
shatters
All the
longing
of love
or
peace!
Fortunate
is the
one, who
goes
through
pain,
Crossing
the
ocean of
bitterness,
In the
sacred
sailing
ship of
Hope.
References:
HARARI,
Yuval
Noah.
Sapiens:
a brief
history
Humanity.
8th
edition.
Porto
Alegre,
RS:
L&PM,
2015.
KARDEC,
Allan.
The
Book of
Spirits.
Translation
of
Guillon
Ribeiro.
93rd
historical
edition.
Brasilia:
FEB,
2013.
XAVIER,
Francisco
Candido.
Words
of
Emmanuel.
10th
edition.
Rio de
Janeiro:
FEB,
2008.
______.
Parnassus
from
beyond
the
grave:
psychic
poetry.
Commemorative
edition.
C16th
edition.
Rio de
Janeiro:
FEB,
2002.
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