Pursuit creates distance between you and the thing you “pursue”
2013/11/17 3 Comments
I think it’s the pursuit that screws up happiness
(James Hillman)
She:
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Pursuit
1. the action of following or pursuing someone or something.
synonyms: striving toward, quest after/for, search for; aim, goal, objective, dream “the pursuit of profit”
More: occupation, trade, vocation, business, work, job, employment “a worthwhile pursuit”
Why make abstruse either the pursuit or happiness? Are you not in pursuit of something when you blog? Is blogging ‘a number of hits game’, like a high school popularity contest?
Me:
Happiness is not abstruse. The pursuit is.
Blogging and happiness…- let´s see:
Even if it appears so, I don´t “blog”. I just feel an intense and urgent need to express certain things which have nothing to do with pastime, recreation, business or trade.
It´s been actually many times more a matter of necessity, than a “pursuit”. The pursuit, if that can be called as such, was to keep alive – no more, no less. Is necessity happiness…or happiness a necessity?…I don´t know exactly.
Maybe the latter – it is necessary to be happy 
Along with it, It is necessary to express ourselves.
Happiness is expression, and wanting to express yourself is no
pursuit – but a spontaneous act.
Related articles
- Unhappy trying to be happy – the pursuit of happiness (julienmatei.com)
About julienmatei
Mirrors of Encounters 
Julien,
Your writing here reminds me of something I posed last year called “Pointless Pursuit.” The opening passage was: “What I pursue always eludes me. What I treasure simply comes to me.”
This is such an important thing. To pursue an objective is to set up a duality that dooms the very effort. We feel a sense of failure when we don’t get our hands on what we seek. And we feel unsatisfied when we do.
Tom
I love the way you build your words – simply, but clearly pervasive, as if you were a musician.
You perhaps secretly are…
I will make a post of that:
“What I pursue always eludes me. What I treasure simply comes to me.”
Duality dooming the very effort – love…
Letting go of both success and failure, dropping “what we seek” – the hardest yet ineffably delightful surrender.
Speaking of music:
I have been thinking that you might like to hear this composition of mine. I don´t write music with this “touch” now, but this short piece has a simple flavor you might enjoy.
Here it is:
https://julienmatei.com/2013/11/01/time-has-come-2/
PS – Hope you are fine and will not withdraw for so long again 🙂
Reblogged this on Mirrors of Encounters.