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Why we look for fun and happiness (a Tao perspective)
Fun is part of human nature, and is the enjoyment of pleasure, particularly in leisure activities.
Others consider money and power as the ultimate source of happiness, since in their view anything can be bought with that.
According to Johan Huizinga (Prof of Physiology), fun is "an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level."
We all know the power of fun in creating relations with other people, and for children, fun is strongly related to play, as they have great capacity to extract the fun from it in a spontaneous way. [2]
That probably explain why we're attracted by fun and happiness as two inseparable ways to create satisfaction.
The common point is a desire for happiness, no matter the motivation and the ways we adopt to secure it.
According to the nature of the mind in the oriental culture, life is a river that flows between the two opposite banks of desire and fear. This flow creates a continuous oscillation in our mind between these 2 banks, or in other words, our mind is compelled to act upon its own desires to escape fear, and vice versa in an endless loop.
Tao, which can be considered as the way the Universe works in the chain of action-reactions, describe this oscillation with its powerful symbol which resemble a spinning wheel.
The basic consideration that I'd like to point out, is that neither fear nor desires are permanent, since the balance is reached by moving from one to another endlessly. Mind therefore cannot be static, but it must be dynamic in order to reach this balance.
Moreover, I'd like to speculate further about what we usually consider happiness.
Since the balance is dynamic, according to the Indian culture what we imagine to be happiness is in reality just the interval between 2 sorrows. In fact, assuming we could achieve happiness, why we should move out from it?
Clearly that state must be unstable, prompting us to move on continuously, and search for it again and again.
Most of us also regard a pleasure or a pleasant thing as desirable, although we define "pleasant" in a totally subjective way, and that will vary from one individual to another. In contrast we reject pain as non-desirable, but according to Tao, both are inseparable and if we look for one, ultimately we'll end up to get the other too.
Eventually the oriental culture suggest to give up the desire for fun and pleasure, since inevitably they'll bring us pain and sorrow. In the West the approach is usually going the other way round, since we're prompted to seek wealth and power to secure happiness.
For example if you look at a recent ad, you'll see that the message is to get that object (a car, or a watch), because by doing so you'll feel stronger, more satisfied and more powerful. You'll standout from the crowd.
In my view being happy should be the natural state of a being (not just humans). Animals for instance, are naturally happy, unless we harm them of course. Take your dog for instance, last year you thrown at him that bone, and since then he's around with the desire to stay closer to you. He's not asking anything special, mostly he just have essential needs like food and a shelter. Animals can teach us a lot in this context.
My point is that although removing all desires is not possible for a human being, we could at least try to reduce them by being happy with what we have and what we are, rather than desiring what we don't have, or becoming what we are not.
Eventually we'll find that all we need is already with us, as a happy man (or woman) doesn't look for happiness. [3]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/01/katherine-jenkins-mezzo-soprano-everything-want-home
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/01/katherine-jenkins-mezzo-soprano-everything-want-home
