"There are desires that do not grow old. They merely become unfashionable from time to time, or fashionable again from time to time. Happiness is one of these eternal basic desires." (Ludwig Marcuse) During the course of history all philosophical schools have looked at the meaning of happiness. "Happiness is the key to the world" according to Emanuel Kant the great philosopher of the Enlightenment era and has been described by many philosophers as the highest value of human life.

But what does happiness or being happy really mean? How do you become happy? What does happiness depend on? Finding the meaning of life? Or having sufficient material and emotional security?

Or being successful and famous? What is true happiness? Throughout history these questions have been answered in many different ways. The social transformation of the term happiness is also expressed in language. In German the historic term for happiness, "gelücke and gilucki" ("destinée" in French), was originally a term describing "an agreement, achievement, destination". It is interesting to see from the sociological aspect the change in meaning of the word. In antiquity the term is "double fortuna" and thus relates to changes of fortune and misfortune. It is represented by the Goddess Fortuna. The very same concept was also represented by the Roman God Janus, the God for passing through the gateway. He is often depicted having two heads thus symbolizing the entrance and the exit. These symbols of good and bad fortune can still be found represented in works of art up until Baroque times. The turning wheel of fortune thus becomes the central symbol representing changes in life: "luck or mishaps". With industrialization the concept of "happiness/fortune" changed drastically in meaning: it moved away from the fatalistic understanding of being dependent on external factors and coincidences, and it also moved away from the concept that destiny is an expression of inner feelings and can be manufactured by yourself. This way Fortune is no longer the subject of "magical observance" (Novalis) but becomes an issue of relating to something which can be obtained by oneself, by "strategic geniuses" as (Carl v. Clausewitz) puts it.

In modern German the term "happiness" has got two meanings: first, when we talk about certain situations, in the sense of being lucky, thus describing a happy, fortunate but also unpredictable situation or coincidence, and secondly when we ask ourselves about the meaning of life as we do for instance in commemorative speeches or obituaries, when we credit someone with having had a fulfilled life. Philosophers see themselves as guides helping people to find the way to happiness. Some philosophers developed utopian concepts promising rightful emperors or better science or the most far reaching understanding and knowledge. But what these philosophers nearly all have in common is the happiness of the individual, his individualism and freedom.

Happiness is as much part of philosophical theories on life as are the issues of birth and death, love and disappointment, joy and sorrow. Only few philosophers place happiness and well-being of a group, a society or a state above the happiness of the individual. Socialistic and communistic philosophies envisage a better state or a new man who can be happy in this state. However, the term happiness does not appear in marxistic dictionaries. For many of the philosophical researchers, happiness represents a very special value which cannot be reconciled with the conditions of humanity. Siegmund Freud, the father of psychology, thought that to strive for happiness was the aim in the life of all people but he agreed with the majority of philosophers that this objective stands in great contrast to the macrocosm as well as to the microcosm. In their belief all things in the universe are contrary to achieving happiness and the whole concept is not even included in the "plan of creation". Everything opposes happiness: pain, illness, ageing, the imbalance and unfairness of the world, as well as the limitations and inadequacy of each individual.

I will present only some of the more important philosophical theories in Western history on the subject of happiness in a brief summary: Aristotle, Epicurus, Zenon, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, Meister Eckart and Albert Schweitzer. But let me first introduce you briefly to the concept of happiness contained in Chinese philosophy between 600-400 BC In the second half of the 6th century BC the very highly developed Chinese civilisation was in a crisis. During confusing times the need for simple answers always grows together with a need for answers that promise to be able to change your life fast. At the time Confucius was already 50 years old and a police constable. He founded a new moral philosophy in order to prevent the country falling apart. He was preaching moral righteousness and the recollection of old traditional values that honoured emperors of past centuries as saints, and upheld the importance of family values, especially the virtues of goodness and benevolence. Confucius was, however, not able to make his ideas work for him, his environment was "against him". In 479 BC he died aged 72 years very respected but unhappy. A later Chinese philosopher Yang Chu (3rd century BC, at a time when the teachings of Confucius were recorded) tried to prove that righteousness did not necessarily lead to happiness and according to the records on Confucius described the latter as "the most lost person and harassed soul amongst all mankind". Modern history also describes Confucius as resigned and disappointed of life. Worldwide Confucius is acknowledged as the " most influential of all philosophers". Laotse who lived around the same time as Confucius and was born about 45 years before him, taught the total opposite, namely: nothing needs to be done or renewed or changed. He thought the reason for the ills of his time were precisely the deeds of the emperors honoured and respected by Confucius. His concept of healing therefore meant doing exactly nothing. Being active and interfering was the true disease of the times. Very deep inner untruths had infiltrated the balances and any interference would increase these problems (written down in the 5000 words of the Taoteking by Laotse). "The accomplished person will do nothing " and in his view there was only one single freedom which was "to come clean with death". "Tao" is the way and at the same time also the "meaning of the way, a not being and being, death and life, happiness and misfortune, knowledge and acting, succeeding and failing". But he did not teach pure escape from reality and ascetic but instead that man should be part of the world and act accordingly but in such a way that shows that he is not from this world.

History assumes that Laotse was referring to more ancient sources of wisdom of which unfortunately hardly anything is left. The key word of the Taoteking is simplicity. "If we create the highest emptiness, we will create a solid silence." Increasing problems in China made Laotse leave the country. And the man Laotse gets lost in the legends of history. He is described as a happy person by historians. His aim was not to enter Nirvana but as is written in the Taoteking "...to become one with dust. This means to become one at a deep level." He lived and died as he taught: without illusions and without conditions on life.

Pythagoras (562-496) a contemporary of Laotse living in Greece was trying to establish the original laws of the world. He kept searching for unchangeable numeric links between all things. A world structured according to mathematics is understandable and rational of which the immortal soul in its infinite reincarnation is part. The soul is a part of the cosmic divinity, and according to Phytagoras the highest happiness for man is the realization of man through philosophical reflections. "All life is suffering" according to the understanding of the Indian prince Siddharta who lived in the 5th century BC. At 29, in line with traditional Indian brahamian tradition, he gave up his worldly life, his wives, his son, his parents, his future as the king, in order to overcome sorrow, death and loss by living through them so he could experience a happiness of an unbelievable radical liberation. Siddartha like many others became a wandering ascetic. His Enlightenment underneath a fig tree (which gave him the name Buddha, the Enlightened) was a releasing experience of understanding: the miserable chain of causes like birth, age, illness and death are the cause of an intensive need to live, which stems from the "thirst" of desire. His main concern was to transcend the suffering of this world. Neither mystic unity with the divine, nor immortality or freedom from suffering will bring happiness but the stepping out of restlessness, the constant renewing of existence in this world, a gradual conscious progressing into Not existing, into Nirvana, will bring salvation and thus happiness.

Buddha's understanding of the world differs from brahaman tradition which says that all reality is based on an eternal being, which is made up of one or several substances. For Buddha there is nothing constant in this world, the world is constantly changing and transforming. Buddha died about 480 BC. Buddhism too has undergone many changes and experienced some influences over the years. Buddhism has experienced a renaissance in the world of entertainment during the last 20 years; it is played like a new game asking "who am I", forever hoping to find the answers in our pursuit of happiness.

In 300 BC the town of Alexandria in Egypt was a highly developed world capital under the reign of the enlightened and tolerant Ptolemy I. On the surface there was nothing stopping someone from the rich, well-educated upper class from being happy. However, having too much of a good thing in life created a certain boredom and the question asked most often was: why are we living? Hegesias, a philosopher living in the town at the time was the principal of the philosophy school for hedonists. The founder of that school had been Aristipp, a pupil of Socrates. Hedonists believed happiness to be the ultimate aim and motive for human action. To them happiness meant to enjoy life, find pleasure and lust. The greatest happiness for man was simply to enjoy pleasures. But Hegesias himself represented a deep dark pessimism. He was labelled "the person who talks you into dying" as he spoke to people in the streets telling them that there was no sensible reason for staying alive, that suicide was the best solution. At the time Greek people took philosophical debates and reasoning very seriously and indeed the suicide rate increased so much that Ptolemy had to prohibit these sort of debates. The old Greek word for happiness "olgos" means power, wealth, honour, strength and life. In the Greek epochs of Epos, Lyric and of Drama, the fortune of man lies in the hands of the powerful and man is a mere play object of the Gods. But all happiness in life terminates before death. The Epic and the Lyricism of old Greece became the basis of European thinking.

In the 6 and 5 century BC the hereafter was not yet invented for most people. Anything which could be hoped for or feared from the Gods happened in the current life. The new revolutionary awareness that happiness cannot be given as such by the Gods but that happiness will depend on your own thoughts and own soul became accepted in Greece in the 4th century. The old concepts like unity and the oneness of the world disintegrated. The new idea was now that you can create your own happiness, you can be taught to be happy.

The finding of one's own happiness was now constructed theoretically and with it the idea established itself that you could learn happiness, therefore happiness could be taught and ever since, the "enlightened" part of human beings expects salvation not from their Gods but from their teachers. Epicure (341-270 BC) an influential philosopher of ancient times transferred a new utopia in his teachings: the strive for a more comfortable and pleasurable life, in which pleasure is the greatest good. Epicure considered state and politics to be inferior and propagated life in a private circle. The Epicurean way of life was widely spread in ancient Greece and Rome. The statement: "The lower soul is blown up by good fortunes and thrown down by misfortunes" is by Epicure (Gnomologium cod. Paaisini 1168 - Us. 488) He claims that the sole aim for a person's life is to achieve happiness, thereby preventing listlessness.

Plato (427-347 BC) continued the works and theories of his teacher Socrates (executed because of godlessness in 470 BC). To date we do not know the exact dividing lines between Socrates and Plato. Plato managed to transform the "ox-fortune" of security and repletion into a "fortune of philosophy" the happiness of Enlightenment. Justice creates harmony and harmony is the basis for the soul's well-being which is divided into 3 parts: thinking, will and desire. If these three parts of the soul are in harmony with each other and their environment, then happiness for the individual will be achieved. The idea of the highest Good plays an important role with Plato: it is the mother of all ideas, it is the final aim in this world. The body as well as the senses restrict man from achieving this highest good with the help of virtues. Plato names four cardinal virtues: wisdom, bravery, temperance (which means to be balanced between pleasure and asceticism, between severity and kindness etc.) and righteousness.

Human misery stems from a lack of righteousness. The entire concept of a democratic body is based on the concept of justice. True happiness for Plato means to be able to escape to the realm of ideas. This can be achieved by living a virtuous life thus escaping the circle of reincarnation and so reach the "islands of the blissful". Aristotle was considered to be the father of ancient philosophy (382-322 BC) because he created logic - the science of form and the method of true thinking - as a proper science. He was a strong adversary of Plato although some of their ideas are similar. For Aristotle the best thing in the life of a person is for the person to express the very best of his character and behave well and to be moral. A good character is a constituent part of a successful human life. Happiness to Aristotle is the highest good and the final aim for everyone. To him happiness is not a possession but a state of being which will develop from the individual's experiences in life. This constitutes the living of life from his inborn talents which man has to put into practice. The soul represents life and energy for Aristotle which cannot be separated from body so does not have its own energy. For him a life after death is therefore non existent and happiness cannot be transferred to the next world. To him spirit and doing, doing and happiness, belong together. Life is everything, the energy of the spirit is happiness. Happiness is life. The stoics were constantly disputing the epicurians despite having many things in common.

The founder of the philosophical school of stoicism was Elea Zenon. The stoic movement ran parallel to the epicurial movement for over 500 years. Yet for stoics the understanding of happiness also included the family and society. However, both schools were convinced of the understanding capacity of the human ratio and they were also convinced that it was possible to influence thoughts, feelings and emotions with the mind. Thus their concepts were similar to those of the Enlightenment movement 2000 years later.

Like the stoics and the epicurians Aristotle taught that suicide was a realistic means of happiness in this life as it offered a protection against unbearable misery. The stoics wanted to find rules and models of behaviour that would be stabilizing in their confusing times. Therefore they put virtue on the same level as happiness, and happiness became a virtue. Happiness also meant self-control as well as faithfulness to the existing values and it is that which differentiates man from the animals. The stoics saw themselves as practical not theoretical people. The key-word of the stoics is: "living naturally", i.e. that man as a sensible being needs to lead a natural life. A sensible life means to aim for just one virtue namely bliss. In today's language we still recognize the stoical calm and composure of a person.

The philosophical direction of antiquity created yet again a last comprehensive system at its end and with the beginning of the rise of Christianity : neuplatonism which covers the 2nd -6th century AD. Plotin (204-270 BC) is one of its most renowned representatives. He talks about God "the Father of all souls" and about "the return of the individual to the original source in order to lead him to the highest one and only". Thus the development away from many different Gods to a monotheistical understanding established itself firmly in the western world. The sole, the first, the eternal, the highest, the higher good stands in contrast to matter for Plotin. The highest being radiates like the sun all existing things. The whole soul of the world is part of the divine radiation of God and can be found in each single individual soul. The highest aim of a person and his bliss is to reunite his soul with the divine soul from whence he comes. We find this idea again in Christian teachings.

The basic demand of Christianity transcends all other religions by asking : "You shall love your neighbour like yourself". Christ sent all his disciples out to teach all peoples, thus having an international approach right from the beginning. The crusades of the Middle Ages , the missionary activities within of the 2000 years since the birth of Christ all refer back to this understanding. Christ himself did not know any class differences. He approached "ye that labour and are heavy laden". The Church developed this statement into a salvation ideology with her increasing powers and importance. She proclaimed the concept of Christianity as the one and only right belief. And in the name of Christianity she colonized entire nations worldwide with a missionary verve thereby extinguishing the peoples" very own identity. This is the first religion to have expanded worldwide on such a scale.

The cross that Jesus died on became a symbol of redemption: the way of pain became the way to salvation, in fact the way to all encompassing happiness. To experience, that you can "reduce pain by talking about it" yet never avoid it, instead going through it: to experience this process will bring change; a greater fearlessness. Suffering brings you closer to God and so you achieve a greater fulfilment in your life. The main focus of the story of creation does not lie in the description of paradise but in the description of the Fall of Man.

The Gnostics ( about 150 BC - 200 AD) were a movement within Christianity which tried to combine elements of old oriental origin (partly Christian and partly non-Christian) with the philosophical ideas of Plato, Pythagoras and the stoics. This movement was widely spread and dangerous to a newly developing Christianity. A central issue of the gnostic philosophy was the question of the justification of God as well as the origin and importance of good and evil. Why, according to the gnostics, did this God of absolute and complete perfection create a world of evil from which his created man needs to be redeemed? This question gained considerable importance in Christianity as the idea of a world creator was taken over from Judaism where the world was seen as a place of disaster and sin. The highest God sends his son to redeem us and he in turn reminds us of our heavenly home and reveals himself as the messenger sent by God declaring : "I am the way", "I am the truth", "I am the shepherd", "I am life".

In gnosticism the soul of the individual is merely an arena where the eternal dispute between good and evil takes place. With this approach the gnostics stand in contrast to the Christian understanding of a dignity of the individual soul. However, the gnostics too speak about a separation of man from happiness in our world. They talk about the fate of the soul, which came to this world from its divine origin i.e. the world of light (paradise) caused by the tragic Fall of Man. They also speak of the soul being a stranger to this world, and being imprisoned by suffering. For the gnostics happiness lies in the liberation of the soul and the return to its home in the lightworld.

Augustine (354-430) one of the younger fathers in the newly developing Christian church had an enormous influence. Augustine too wrote a book on happiness. He was thought to be a hot blooded man, characterized by an unusual passion and an incredible hunger for life. He is also described as a restless, enigmatic and highly talented rake but also as a very gifted student, propelled through life by the wish to find the truth about happiness and therefore the happiness of truth. Although happiness was not meant for this world it had to exist as it was thinkable. He realized in the midst of his life that the pursuit of human happiness was empty and insufficient and this realization changed his life. He studied the philosophy of antiquity in earnest. He was a gifted rhetorician and became a speaker for the emperor, a profession he did not particularly like as he was forced to hold eulogies against his inner convictions.

Augustine started his philosophical career as a gnostic and changed his philosophical views many times throughout his life. As a searcher for happiness and the truth who wanted everything, he researched the basic movements of ancient philosophy especially the issue of happiness. Happiness according to Augustine is something for every man. Happy are the active, gifted, and zealous, the person who likes doing what he does and is capable of doing. Anything necessary for this can be taught according to him, or can be learned or practised. In this sense he is in line with the "happyologists" of today, the modern researchers of happiness. "Happy is he who has God" Augustine himself was neither a happy nor a content person. To him the circumstances he lived in were not happy and he was not able to change them for himself. The meaning of Christianity: happiness and sorrow, are thus reflected in Augustine's life.

The Gospel means the glad tidings and also means the promise of happiness and grace, relief, and salvation from outer and inner restrictions as well as liberation from all social restrictions. The heart with all its attributes of love became the centre of the ego now instead of the mind. It was to be without prejudice and open, free of evil thoughts. And love from the heart was not just to be given to the immediate family but to all people: "Love thy neighbour as thyself" When before it was the mind that was overused because it was thought that man was able to change his world by means of his mind in order to live happily, now it was the heart that suffered from cruel over-usage. The Gospel promises a truly radiating happiness, the happiness of all Saints, the complete happiness if you accept the Gospel and its demands.

By the end of the 3rd century the Roman empire had become unrulable, the cities uninhabitable, there was a housing shortage, poverty and social misery and you could sense a certain aggressiveness as a result of these issues. Poverty and sadness could not be eliminated but you could handle both situations better by simply transfiguring them. Young Christian men from wealthy backgrounds - the avant-garde of the the time- were trying to escape these unsolvable problems of the cities by adopting this "love of the heart" and "God alone" attitude and they entered the monasteries and became poor by their own choice. They fought the desires of the flesh with hunger and severe asceticism and they also fought everything they thought to be a sin in the eyes of God. This way they found their happiness and as this way was so very different and free, it attracted more and more people in these confusing times. The withdrawn monk became the symbol of its time and families were incredibly proud to have one "Saint" in the family. This way at least some of the happiness could also touch the family.

The middle ages 9th-15th century AD were marked by the scholastics whose members were John Scotus from Ireland (the Charleslemagne of scholastic philosophy) Anselm of Canterbury, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Dante. The historical task of the scholastics was to bring order into and make sense of the system and dogmatisms about the Gospel of Christ, his disciples and the Holy Bible established by the Ptristicers.

Thomas Aquinas ( 1225-1274) a high scholastic man and son of a powerful Norman family of counts, was a very active writer. His entire works published at the end of the 19th century contain a total of 34 volumes. He was no hot blooded Augustine neither was he a hermit. He decided to become a monk much to the horror of his aristocratic family who tried everything to dissuade him from doing so. He was even kidnapped by his brothers and kept prisoner in a tower and a beautiful girl was sent to him to make him change his mind. Thomas was a quiet and friendly young man but quite heavy and was thus nick-named " the mute ox". However, not influenced by anything he entered the order of the Dominicans at the age of 19. The Dominican order is an order of preachers and beggars; here he could live his life according to the gospel and was able to combine the problems of the here and now with his belief and knowledge. This way it was possible for him to experience the two sides of life, complete and incomplete happiness.

The "Suma Theologica" is his biggest work and so great that it already gave him the title of "count of philosophy" during his life time. In the Catholic Church Thomas Aquinas has not been surpassed till today but he was not recognized as a philosopher of the church until 1879 after many theological battles. Much of Thomas's thought is based on the ideas of Aristotle, he was a convinced Aristotelian. The soul has no body, that means it is pure form without matter and pure spirit independent of matter. Thus he explains its indestructibility and immortality.

The longing of man for immortality according to Thomas represents no fallacy as the soul being a pure form is immortal anyway. His whole life was lead under the motto "to structure", meaning to differentiate and to classify life. The teachings of Thomas Aquinas are in total contrast to the teachings of Francis of Assisi. Whilst Franciscan theology stresses the active character of human understanding, the teachings of Thomas are based in line with Aristotelian thinking on the passive and receptive character of understanding. He assumes that there is an imaginative understanding of reality. And you have achieved true understanding if image and reality coincide.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) also a Dominican monk was a mystic. Mystic philosophy has existed almost at all times. The entire Indian philosophy can be called mystic, the Sufis in Islam, Taoism, the Kabbalah of the Jews but even the Greeks had various mystic schools. There are mystic approaches with Pythagoras, the Gnostics and in neoplatonism. With the mystics - originally these were religious secret teachings - the "inner perception" plays an important role. Mystics are inclined to explain the world from a pantheistical view point: man is part of nature and nature is part of man. With this understanding you can overcome the separation of object from subject, and this also makes it possible to become aware of your own unity with the world or with the divine. It is therefore no coincidence in the history of ideas that a mystic like Meister Eckhart became so important after a scholastic movement that had lasted for centuries. His theory did not offer a well structured system as did the scholastics where everything and anything had its proper place. One of the main basic ideas in the writings of Meister Eckhart is the unity of the divine and human soul.

The soul is created according to the image of God and so the soul like God is triune. It is based on the three soul powers that are: knowing, raging and wanting and which are linked to the three main Christian virtues of believing, loving and hoping. If man renounces the sin that separates him from God this will enable him to become one with God and thus be happy.

After his death Meister Eckhart was condemned as a heretic by the church and many of his writings got lost. Until today there is no complete critical publishing of his works. In late scholasticism the importance of the individual gradually developed and became the basic foundation for the European cultural developments: the free debate on antiquity without theological ties; the promotion of individualism; the high value put on the free individual personality; a science that is based purely on reason and experience, a worldly i.e. non spiritual character of thinking. Philosophical thinking does not, however, happen in a vacuum but within the respective social and historical atmosphere. The development of gun powder, the discovery of book printing, the discoveries of Copernicus, Columbus finding of the "new world" on the other side of the Atlantic, Vasco da Gama discovery of the seaway to India, John Kepler's development of a new mathematical law of planet movement, Martin Luther's publication of his thesis of Wittenberg, just to mention a few of the things that totally changed the world.

Along with worldly development came the humanistic movement in the arts: a new development which got its name because it created an ideal that was based on a purely human, not theological education. Humanism stayed mainly with the scholars whereas the renaissance which developed from it passed through all areas in life and was supported by all classes in the population: science, medicine and technology, law and commerce, but specifically by the educating arts. The social development produced a "a brilliant selection of creative geniuses" in the 15th and 16th century who came from all walks of life. The early capitalistic means of production and transport policies gradually replaced the agricultural order of the middle ages. Influence on spiritual life so far in the hands of the clergy now changed into the hands of "lay people". Nations developed a sense of national pride. The first nation states were formed in England and France. Reformation produced a de-secularisation. The movement of the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century was a direct result of the humanistic, renaissance and reformation movements both in the history of ideas as well as in the history of society.

Feudalistic regimes and serfdom were abolished, individual property gained more and more importance. We have now arrived at the beginning of the industrial age. Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) is one of the leading philosophers of the Enlightenment. He was the son of a saddler and was a friendly, open and lively person. His main works "Criticism of pure reason" appeared in 1781. Due to his scientific publishing Kant became famous while he was still alive. He lead a quiet life of "great consistency". He kept his daily routine for decades so that the people of Königsberg could adjust their watches accordingly. For Kant happiness and morality belong together although the two concepts were two separate issues. First there were the reasons and norms for moral behaviour and secondly there were the reasons and rules of the human search for happiness. Morality is constituent of happiness as we all want to be happy so we will behave morally well and impeccably.

In line with the New Times Kant sees freedom as the basic feature of man. "Freedom from the conditions of the drives" and "freedom from the compulsion of animalistic sensuality". Man differs from animals in as much as man is able to follow his aims independently of nature and "morality is the inner law of freedom", which in turn will lead to happiness. New forms of society and the whole industrial development promised every individual freedom, equality, money and happiness. In particular the American Declaration of Independence on 4.7.1776 expressed for the very first time the hopes and aims of many centuries in a constitution by stating that "all men are created equal and are provided by their creator with inalienable rights which are: life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness". Man was now thought to have arrived at the goal of his life, he now had a right to happiness. Happiness and unhappiness were no longer to be looked for or to be found, they no longer came from heaven but from within the own self, the own person. This was supported by social developments, new technology and the modern state.

The insatiable yearning of man to find his personal happiness has lead to the fact that many leaders and saviours are offering help in this quest. And the more predominant and self-assured the presence of the rational is, the wider and deeper the "river" of secret irrationality runs. Rationality and irrationality constitute a unit just like yin and yang, black and white, positive and negative.

The industrial age never met the high expectations and promises in relation to freedom, equality, fraternity and happiness. Fromm, a famous philosopher and sociologist who taught at many universities in Europe, USA and Mexico commented on this: "You just have to imagine the implications of such a great promise and the fantastic material as well as the mental performances of the industrial age, to understand the trauma caused by the gradual realization that the fulfilment of their dreams was not going to happen." Happiness and the highest possible pleasure do not lead to the expected feelings of permanent well-being and harmony. Our dream to be the independent ruler of our own life or destiny died with the realization that we became wheels of bureaucratic machines; our thoughts , feelings and tastes are manipulated by the apparatus of the state as well as by the mass media. Growing economical progress is confined to the affluent nations, whereas the gap to poor nations widens continuously. Technical development produced such enormous ecological changes which can bring an end to any civilization.

In 1954, Albert Schweitzer observes that it now became evident, "for what one does not want to admit is that the Übermensch has become in fact a very sad creature because of the constant increase in might and power...so that we as Super humans turned into monsters."

The protestant theologist Albert Schweitzer, a radical critic of the myth of progress and general happiness of the industrial ages, emphasizes as did Meister Eckhart and Laotse that man should not withdraw from the "business of the world" and flee into an atmosphere of mental selfishness but should see it as his task to lead an active life in order to stay "within vibrant touch with the collective."

The enormous premise of the industrial age to envisage happiness (which means a maximum of pleasure) as the aim of life, coupled with the second premise that enjoying life and individual wishes which might lead to harmony, peace and general affluence did in fact lead to selfishness, egomania and greed. Modern expression of happiness are might, power, money, sensual pleasures and a romantic understanding of love. The longing for happiness was all but enforced by this and in today's ending of the industrial age the number of leaders has increased, especially in the New Age Movement. Today people are promised happiness with new methods; for instance biochemical aids like the happiness pill, or through surgical measures of all kinds in order to change the appearance that makes you so unhappy. There is also a huge variety of literature in the New Age movement promising happiness with all possible and impossible methods.

While doing research for this article we found several hundred texts and books on the internet or in book shops. Scientologists take up a great part of the internet texts, the second biggest part is taken up by people who are looking for a partner via the internet. Big German publishing companies like Hugendubel and Bauer have got a market share of 30% of books aimed at helping the reader to find happiness and achieve harmony in their personal lives.

Research on happiness has also become a major and lucrative branch in the pharmaceutical industry. Currently we know about 2000 chemical substances that effect a happy or unhappy mood in our brains. The number of people who are addicted to tablets in order to control their moods is increasing. That is particularly true for children. Modern happiness researchers i.e. biochemists or psychotherapists see themselves as empiricists.

On top of that, religious people are percentage wise happier than non religious people. They discovered that people who have more money and whose life style is secured are percentage wise only minimally happier than their poorer and poor contemporaries. Those who described themselves as happy were still happy 5 years later according to a follow-up study, despite many changes in their outer circumstances, often disadvantageous. Now the happiness researchers are going to research the life patterns of happy people, their aims in life , their views on society, politics and the world in general. The objective of this wide ranging study is - how could it be anything else - to offer help to those less happy or unhappy so that they too can create a happy world for themselves and can achieve a life filled with satisfaction.

A typical example of how small moments in life decide about good fortune or misfortune are the happenings at the Grand Prix Belgia on Sunday the 24.8.97. Michael Schumacher and Damian Hill, both favourites, saw the same rain clouds. So all drivers had to decide whether to change their tyres due to the approaching weather and what type of tyres they should use. Michael Schumacher decided to go for different tyres than Damian Hill. Michael Schumacher won as he made the "right" decision and Damian Hill lost as he made the "wrong" decision. Michael was the "fortunate" winner; Damian the "unfortunate" looser. In a later interview Damian explained that he had judged the movement of the clouds wrongly and thus chose the wrong type of tyres and therefore lost. At that moment nobody would have been able to foresee the direction of the clouds! It was a "wrong" decision of Damian Hill at a specific point in his life. In former races he had often made the "right" decision and won. In future he will make the "right" decision again and will be again a "fortunate" winner.

We always seem to make our feeling of happiness or unhappiness dependent on outer circumstances, or if we made the "right" or "wrong" decision. That is :we measure our own value on the amount of lucky incidence or right decisions and feel therefore like a failure when misfortunes occur or we took the wrong decision during important moments in our life.

Whereas once man depended on the goodwill of the Gods, or in Christianity depended on salvation by God, the individualists of our time depend on their self esteem that might increase with the growing of outer success or decrease with the decline of that success. Happiness and love are very closely linked in the concept of our Western society. So it should not come as a surprise that the term trilogy : happiness, love and self worth are virtually inseparable. Dr. Caroline Myss, a well known American doctor who is studying the consciousness of humans and whose books have been published worldwide is meeting the contemporary line of thought when she claims in her book "Anatomy of the Spirit" that "nobody was born with the ability to love himself. We have to work on this if we want to achieve this. If we don't take care of ourselves emotionally we not only poison ourselves on an emotional level but we also bring all these toxins into all our relationships, in particular into our marriage."

We have seen now that we have to do something in order to achieve happiness in all life and philosophical concepts; we are not born happy. Either it is given to us (in older cultures by the Gods) or we have to work for it.

Longing and waiting for happiness and good fortune increases immensely in major social transformational processes, which always represent a crisis for the individual person. People are keen to find security in happiness especially in uncertain times whether they be financially or emotionally unstable.

Happiness and un-happines are also inseparably linked in the language nowadays. Happiness is positive and un-happiness is negative, happiness means good fortune and unhappiness means lack of good fortune. In negative times the need of people increases for "positive" happiness.

In our modern times the concept of both happiness and harmony have experienced a romanticizing. This "romantic" concept is believed and lived by a majority of people in modern industrial states. Marcuse talks of a negativity of happiness. Happiness according to Marcuse can be lingualistically described as non unhappiness. Based on the 30 years of experience I have in working with people worldwide regarding their expectations, longings and hopes, I can say that in order to be happy you have to have an inner willingness for this. We are so busy putting our problems, "failures", disappointments at the centre in our lives that very often we miss the moments of happiness. We feed our unhappiness and are therefore searching for our luck/happiness time and time again, meaning that we do not concentrate on the good things in a day and in the evening we don't appreciate the happy moments we had. No instead we let our thoughts go round and round again about the things we did not achieve, or could have achieved better, as well as thinking about all our unmet needs. Energetically speaking we are feeding our un-happiness this way and not our happiness. Statistics in western countries show that there are less suicides in times of great crisis, times of war then during normal times.

Does this mean that people are happier at these times? I don't think so, but they just have less time to worry about being unhappy. Life's energy is concentrated on surviving. People use their life energy differently.

We all can pay attention to how we use life energy in everyday situations and can change our focus of attention and awareness. If we were to concentrate more on the positive small things in every day life and were more consciously aware of the joy and fun of them, we would have more energy available to change the things that make our life so difficult. Life was not meant to suffocate and paralyse us but to support us actively. We all have to define happiness in an individual way. The transcendence of our personal paralysing energies is one possible way to feel happy.

And I am not talking of "positive thinking" here, where everything negative and unhappy is simply replaced by positive thoughts; no I am talking of looking at our own thoughts and wide range of feelings in order to be able to draw an honest insight on our fundamental view of life and the energies needed to cope with every day life. This way we will provide the base from which to change our emotional and thought patterns. These patterns are strongly integrated into our entire system and can't be visualized away. For the unexpressed, negative "shadow" sides of our whole being will always come up one way or another and live in the unconscious.

We will become stronger, clearer, and happier in our life if we become aware of our positive and negative sides as this enables us to make changes consciously.

Christa Muths
B.Sc., M.A., M.Sc.
Principal of espacio , Internat. Centre for Holistic Studies
Editor of Treff-Räume espacio time

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