Demystifying Enlightenment (religion not required).

It is de rigueur to commence any writing on personal understanding and development with "in the information and technology age we are crowded with blah..." or some other such nonsense, as a call to action. I believe the fundamentals of true happiness are timeless and not affected by environment (except in the most extremely harsh circumstances.)

The other predominant is to address the reader or "most people" as if the writer knows how or why this other, or these others, think and act.

Well here's the thing. Everything I believe about other people and in fact everything that is "other" is really what I believe about myself. The only thing I can say about "others" is that this is also true for them (more on that later).

So this writing is about myself because myself is all I can comment on with any certainty, bearing in mind that I am not all that certain on even this subject.

And all that seems like a very weak proposition. Why would anyone be interested in a self absorbed narrative with no particular urgency on a subject the author confesses he has guarded confidence in at best?

Well here's the other thing. Despite my life being as mistake ridden, chaotic and generally as messed up as everyone else's seems to be, I am ridiculously happy almost all of the time in a way the most others don't seem to be.

And I don't mean that annoying forced happiness maintained by saying to the mirror "every day in every way I'm getting better and better" each morning, blinkered to any ugliness or evil until the lie can no longer be maintained and then the spiral into depression, which of course I have done, since the writing is about me.

I mean the happiness which acts like gravity. No matter how annoyed by the slow driver in the overtaking lane, no matter how devastated by the hurt or the loss of those held dear, there is an irresistible and effortless return to the greater mass of Planet Happiness.

I thought some might find that of at least passing interest, not least myself, because the act of translating experience into the symbols we call words is a means of re-communicating with the self.

And here's the other, other thing. I'm not even sure I can explain how to be this kind of happy. The best I can do is provide a recipe of sorts, but a recipe can not be tasted, and each time you try to follow a recipe the result is a different meal even if ever so slightly, and you have to see and taste the result to know what you've ended up with.

Some readers will note similarities in my posts with various other philosophical, religious and spiritual traditions. Good for them. I don't make any particular effort to make these references because I don't think there is much to gain in sending the reader on a conceptual wild goose chase. My writing, like my experience, is "self" contained.

Ancient knowledge only remains ancient until you fully experience it. Knowledge is always experienced in the present. There may be nothing new in my writing but in my defence I would add that there is no copyright on personal experience!

An I think that will do for an Apéritif. If your interest is piqued, indicate with a vote, and I will serve the next course.