What is the greatest illusion that prevents people from attaining true happiness?
The greatest illusion, is to think that you can attain happiness by changing anything else than your own disposition.
In other words, the greatest illusion is to think that happiness depends on outer things or experiences.
We have probably heard this before and we might have said it ourselves and all the same we are just as stuck on the treadmill as everyone else, wishing for more material wealth and prosperity.
It is true that it can be nice to have a lot of money and things, to have social status, popularity and power. But we all know that there are a lot of rich people that live miserable lives. There are so many celebrities that fight drug addiction and have personal problems to the extent that some of them try to commit suicide.
Jim Carrey formulated it perfectly when he said; “I’ve often said that I wished people could realize all their dreams of wealth and fame so that they could see that it’s not where you’ll find you’re going to find your sense of completion.”
Carrey like so many before him, tell us that fame and possessions are no guarantee for happiness, thus it must depend on something else. But what?
This is the question that has occupied humankind from the beginning of time, what is the key to happiness? And there have come all kinds of answers to this question.
Samuel Johnson, the great English writer said: “He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove”
He hints at an inner transformation that needs to take place in order for permanent happiness to set in. And how do we bring about such an inner transformation?
Through systems of personal development.
We are not the first person in the history of mankind to ask this question and many solutions have been provided, but the most documented, meticulous and precise path of development has to be Yoga and Tantra. This path has developed through thousands of years and is based on some of the most profound writings of mankind; the Vedas.
Most people know Yoga as a set of gymnastics, but in reality it is a vast system of techniques and methods aimed at transforming the consciousness of the human being, bringing about happiness. In other words, it is a tool to change our inner disposition so that it results in happiness.