A Moment of happiness

First, let me tell you the story of Faust.

The story starts in heaven, where the devil Mephistopheles makes a bet with God to win over the soul of his favorite human being, Faust.Faust is an aged philosopher, who has grown weary of his life in vain efforts in searching for a knowledge of real essences of things. In despair he seizes a cup of poison to put an end to his existence as he sees the light of a new day . He curses science and faith and asks for infernal guidance. Méphistophélès appears and offered him the chance to find a perfect moment of true happiness on earth in the cost of his soul. The devil’s role is to serve Faust on earth, and the roles are to be reversed below. If during the time while Mephistopheles is serving Faust, Faust is so pleased with anything the devil gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, he will die in that instant. Faust is pleased with the deal, as he believed that the moment will never come.

The rest of the story is very complicated and you should read it by yourself sometime.

In the end, through many many steps in between, Faust eventually realizes his highest moment of happiness - when he does good on behalf of humankind to tame the forces of war and nature. He wishes to stop in the moment forever, and the devil declare for his soul instantly. When the devil tries to grab his soul, God intervenes and he was accepted into Heaven.

The story ends. Okay, sounds not bad. But, if you are offered this deal, I will caution you that it may not always turned out that way.

This story always fascinates me, as I admire people’s vigilant attempts for searching for happiness. On the other side, I do not quite understand why it is so hard to search for it in the first place. I will certainly never make this bet with the devil, as I frequently find myself guilty in term of feeling happy. I am not talking about moments of graduation, moments of success, moments of union of love ones, and many many highly emotional moments in life here. I agree they are worthy for celebration… but I am not talking about those moments.The moments I talk about here are much simpler.

There are small hours in life shows me the true joy and clarity, maybe by standing in front of ocean, or by feeling early summer breeze, or by gazing into eyes of someone special in life. I really wish that my life can pause in that very moment. Or, I am expecting that the devil may jump out in front of me and I die.

Then, I wonder, maybe I shall keep my mind in that state of happiness, while the life passing me by, instead of trying to pause time. Because if one can achieve the happiness in the mind unconditionally, nothing from outside matters. Although still need to live a daily life and go through routines, the mind is captivated into a state which has no concept of time. In that sense, one will never age in life because the time is paused at heart.

A moment of happiness is a lifetime.

Filed under Story Telling |