Maximizing happiness

We had an interesting conversation at our weekly devotional meeting today. The topic for the day was "The purpose of life" - and we talked about a bunch of things, but the interesting part really began with a question from W - can everything we do be boiled down to maximizing some kind of happiness? Clearly at the material level we do a lot to be happy. But can even spiritual acts be seen as the result of a desire for a more permanent spiritual happiness? As long as understand the existence of a greater plane of happiness - the spiritual plane - can the desire to attain that happiness in itself lead us to committing spiritual acts, following the spiritual path and evolving spiritually? And if yes, is the real purpose of life just to attain happiness?

Lets unpack this question a little further to really understand what he meant by everything being boiled down to happiness. First, there are some situations where clearly we choose the alternative that will make us happier - as we define happy normally. I choose to do a PhD as that's what makes me happy. I choose to sing instead of dance as that makes me happier. And so on. You get the drift.

Then there's those situations where it seems like we choose the alternative that actually makes us unhappy, because of some other value that matters to us. For example, it might make me very happy to own that Ferrari across the road, and so I might be tempted to steal it. But I value honesty more than that feeling of happiness, and so I choose to be less happy on that front. However, W argues, that's not quite how it is - because in some sense, it makes me happier to stick to that value of honesty; for if I did not stick to it, there would be a great feeling of guilt (which will make me unhappy). And so, he would argue, even our seemingly ethical choices are dictated by what makes us happy. If I could evaluate the situation very sincerely, I would realize that stealing the car would actually make me more unhappy - and so that in itself would prevent me from doing it.

Another example - I want to watch the football game today. But a close friend would rather that I spent some time with him. And so to satisfy him, I sacrifice my happiness (=watching the game), and spend time with him. But am I really sacrificing my happiness? Is it not that I realize that watching the game would give me a temporary happiness, but spending time with my friend would give me a greater happiness?

In other words, therefore, can we, through the sole objective of maximizing our happiness, end up becoming spiritual beings and progressing to the best of our abilities? Can we just follow the "Happiness vector" and hope to realize our spiritual selves?

An interesting proposition, isn't it? Actually, it's not entirely unreasonable, I think. There is a lot of truth in what W argued - but I think there's more to it.

For one, a basic assumption here is that we understand the true nature of happiness, the existence of temporary and permanent forms of happiness, and the ethereal happiness that spiritual actions give us. If we did understand this perfectly, I agree that the result of maximizing happiness would be the same as just doing the right thing. But we don't. And so maximizing happiness is not always an objective, detached process - and so will not always lead to the "right" result.

Secondly (this adds to the earlier point), happiness, to an extent, is subjective. What makes one person happy might not make another happy, if even one does not truly understand the nature of happiness. And so if happiness were the only metric to decide what was "right", we'd see lots of contradictions and conflicts between people. So clearly we need a more objective standard.

But let's assume, even, that everyone ends up truly understanding the nature of happiness, and are in agreement on that. And that people can actually rationally come up with the "right" decision in any situation by maximizing the happiness function. Is there still something non-ideal about such a framework?

In terms of action, I think there will be no difference between the decisions made by a person trying to maximize his happiness (assuming he understood everything about true happiness), and a person just trying to do the right thing according to the right standard, without a thought of his happiness. However, I think there will be a difference in the nature of their personal spiritual growth. For the former has put himself, and his happiness at the center of his decision - while the latter has put the standard/God at the center. Both will attain true happiness - and yet the latter will, I feel, grow more. And the reason this is so, I believe, is because true happiness is a consequence of a spiritual life - but not the sole objective.

Every religion talks about the highest ideal of spirituality being the love of God not for some benefit to oneself, or even to humanity, but purely for the sake of God. Abdu'l Baha says: "In the highest prayer, men pray only for the love of God, not because they fear Him or hell, or hope for bounty or heaven." And so even if the need to be happy impelled us to do all the right things (which, btw, would be in itself a great thing), the attitude of selfishness that motivates the action would somehow, in some subtle way, lessen its impact on oneself.

The attainment of true happiness, however, is definitely a reasonably good way to check, a posteriori, the spiritual nature of an action. Sincerely done, a spiritual act will definitely bring about a deep sense of happiness in the long run. And so the attainment of that happiness and peace can definitely serve as one possible litmus test (though again, not the only one) to measure spiritual growth. But if it is taken as an a priori purpose to the action itself, I believe something is lost.