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Acceptance is basically the one and only key to happiness - it's simple to say and hard to practice. But by practicing it even the most miserably ill and destit

Acceptance is basically the one and only key to happiness - it's simple to say and hard to practice. But by practicing it even the most miserably ill and destitute people can be happy. It's also not a particularly new idea, going back at least as far as Buddhism. It's also why I'm not inclined to agree with things like perceived inequality as being the root of all misery.

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exolymph 4y ago
This is also a huge theme of the Bible — possibly all religions?
- mgkimsal 4y ago
  Is it? Acceptance for acceptance's sake, I don't get that from the Bible (or most major religious texts?). The 'accept things' is asterisked with a 'because $deity', which just opens up many more cans of worms.
  - prewett 4y ago
    Did you get "accept things because God" from reading the Bible or from conservative American Christians? In my experience conservative Americans Christians have a tendency to be threatened by questions, I think owing to a fairly shallow understanding of God that boils down to "do this because I said so; you can't, trust Jesus to take away your failure", which while not incorrect is incomplete. But the Old Testament only has three books of laws (Numbers and Deuteronomy, with a few in Exodus), out of 39. Genesis and Exodus give the origin story of how Israel got to be God's people. Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy give the expectations that go along with being privilege of being the people God chose to glorify his name in the earth. There are blessings for obedience, and punishments for disobedience. The rest of the Old Testament is struggling with those laws, namely that God keeps his promises when Israel obeys, but Israel has a strong pattern of disobeying, and God keeps his promises of punishments, too, ultimately kicking them out of the land he gave them. You have some wisdom literature on what a wise, godly life looks like, where is God when you're suffering. A number of the characters get pretty upset with God at points: Elijah says "I thought this amazing miracle would turn Israel back to You, but they're just trying to kill me, wtf?"; Jeremiah says "God you set me up the bomb: if I prophesy people hate me and if I don't prophesy the word burns inside of me until I do"; Job says "I was punished for being innocent, surely if I could bring my case to God he would judge me innocent". And God responds. Then there are people like David, who realize that God doesn't want the sacrifices that the law demands, God really wants a contrite heart. Likewise, Micah says God doesn't want sacrifices, he wants people to act justly. The Old Testament clearly showed that Israel (and by extension, the rest of us) are incapable of keeping the law, which the teachers of Israel in the New Testament summarized as basically "love God, love others". The New Testament shows God fulfilling his promise from the prophets to solve the problem of people not obeying the law by changing our hearts. This he does through Jesus dying to pay for our failure to obey, and then giving us God's spirit, to change us into people who think the way he does and value the way he does. In the process, we are freed from all the rules and regulations, so Paul says that the follower of Christ is enabled by God's spirit to keep just one law, which is both simpler and harder: "love God, love others". All that is to say, I don't think the Bible says "accept things because God said so", except arguably in 3 out of the 66 total books. American Christians (maybe others, too, don't know) say that all the time, but not the Bible.
chii 4y ago
> Acceptance is basically the one and only key to happiness is it really happiness if you just "tricked" yourself to it? If you just changed your goals to something else when you realize you cannot achieve your originally planned goals, is it really "winning"? And if you give up on your dreams, and accept your current circumstances, is that just called despair rather than acceptance?
- mahogany 4y ago
  What is the point of "winning"? Are you sure that your goals and desire to win are not things that society "tricked" you into believing are worthwhile or important?
- thegrimmest 4y ago
  How can you tell that you've "tricked" yourself into being happy, rather than just "started" being happy?

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exolymph 4y ago

This is also a huge theme of the Bible — possibly all religions?

mgkimsal 4y ago
Is it? Acceptance for acceptance's sake, I don't get that from the Bible (or most major religious texts?). The 'accept things' is asterisked with a 'because $deity', which just opens up many more cans of worms.
- prewett 4y ago
  Did you get "accept things because God" from reading the Bible or from conservative American Christians? In my experience conservative Americans Christians have a tendency to be threatened by questions, I think owing to a fairly shallow understanding of God that boils down to "do this because I said so; you can't, trust Jesus to take away your failure", which while not incorrect is incomplete. But the Old Testament only has three books of laws (Numbers and Deuteronomy, with a few in Exodus), out of 39. Genesis and Exodus give the origin story of how Israel got to be God's people. Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy give the expectations that go along with being privilege of being the people God chose to glorify his name in the earth. There are blessings for obedience, and punishments for disobedience. The rest of the Old Testament is struggling with those laws, namely that God keeps his promises when Israel obeys, but Israel has a strong pattern of disobeying, and God keeps his promises of punishments, too, ultimately kicking them out of the land he gave them. You have some wisdom literature on what a wise, godly life looks like, where is God when you're suffering. A number of the characters get pretty upset with God at points: Elijah says "I thought this amazing miracle would turn Israel back to You, but they're just trying to kill me, wtf?"; Jeremiah says "God you set me up the bomb: if I prophesy people hate me and if I don't prophesy the word burns inside of me until I do"; Job says "I was punished for being innocent, surely if I could bring my case to God he would judge me innocent". And God responds. Then there are people like David, who realize that God doesn't want the sacrifices that the law demands, God really wants a contrite heart. Likewise, Micah says God doesn't want sacrifices, he wants people to act justly. The Old Testament clearly showed that Israel (and by extension, the rest of us) are incapable of keeping the law, which the teachers of Israel in the New Testament summarized as basically "love God, love others". The New Testament shows God fulfilling his promise from the prophets to solve the problem of people not obeying the law by changing our hearts. This he does through Jesus dying to pay for our failure to obey, and then giving us God's spirit, to change us into people who think the way he does and value the way he does. In the process, we are freed from all the rules and regulations, so Paul says that the follower of Christ is enabled by God's spirit to keep just one law, which is both simpler and harder: "love God, love others". All that is to say, I don't think the Bible says "accept things because God said so", except arguably in 3 out of the 66 total books. American Christians (maybe others, too, don't know) say that all the time, but not the Bible.

chii 4y ago

> Acceptance is basically the one and only key to happiness is it really happiness if you just "tricked" yourself to it? If you just changed your goals to something else when you realize you cannot achieve your originally planned goals, is it really "winning"? And if you give up on your dreams, and accept your current circumstances, is that just called despair rather than acceptance?

mahogany 4y ago
What is the point of "winning"? Are you sure that your goals and desire to win are not things that society "tricked" you into believing are worthwhile or important?
thegrimmest 4y ago
How can you tell that you've "tricked" yourself into being happy, rather than just "started" being happy?