Unpopular opinion:
Happiness is mostly an illusion. Ephemeral, at best.
Honesty is the goal. If you're honest, you get to the truth. About yourself and others. And when you have truth, you find beauty and wisdom; and from there, abundance and everything else can spring.
In the end we give too much importance and meaning to single words like "happiness" "love" "joy" instead of just understanding the feeling they come from..
Do you mean "honest with ourselves"? Because I believe also there's not a single truth, but there are as many truth as consciousness, but everyone has just one truth that is true for himself.
I don't believe anyway happiness is an illusion, but for sure is not something static, that you could just achietand hodl without doing anything, happiness needs constant effort.. probably the effort to be honest as you said.. 🍀💜🫂
Yeah, know thyself, first and foremost... but what I mean mostly is that there are many ways of reaching "happiness" and a lot of them are self-destructive in the long term (i.e. alcohol, most pharmaceutical drugs, sugar, relationships that are based on self-interest, etc.)
If one is real with themselves and the world, then real happiness can also arise :)
But in the modern era, "happiness" is often just a cover for avoiding suffering & sacrifice, which leads to self-deception, self-indulgence & narcissism, which is why I think honesty and introspection should be the goals first and foremost. Happiness will come as a byproduct of that journey.
Beautiful though and words.. yes I do agre with everything you said, almost everything comes form introspection and more self awareness.. 🍀💜🫂
