Happiness needs Goodness

The thief can feel excitement and even joy when he brings home his stolen goods, but he lacks the tranquility needed for the All. If he was tranquil, he would notice that he was robbed and that he was now poorer for it. Most intuitively agree: we must be good to be happy.

The problem is that we cannot all get a medal for goodness. Those few who are identified for their goodness get all the honors. We praise the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Buddha, Jesus, Moses, saints, celebrities, rich philanthropists, famous freedom fighters; their graves or birthplaces we pilgrimage to. And we know about their contributions without which we would not like to live. We are grateful to them, as much, at least, as envy and other forms of blindness let us.

The rest of us, the vast majority, is asked to be good without honors. We are even asked to be good while being maltreated and despised. Billions of mothers are supposed to give without acknowledgement. Soldiers die in the dirt, forgotten and trampled upon. The good man is punished for his honesty and overlooked when it's time for a promotion. The good kid is often called a nerd, a weirdo, a little mouse.

So, we need the big good guys to come in and change big unfair circumstances. "Life is unfair" will not do to better the world. We need action.

After making this demand and holding the big guys responsible, what are we left with? What is our reward? I could not say it better than George Eliot in his novel "Middlemarch". In it he describes Dorothea, having started out with youthful enthusiasm about doing good, but ending up with little to show for.

"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

And having a deep understanding about our incalculably diffusive effect, about our good karma, helps make us feel our part in the All to which we belong.