“In the manifold activities of life.”

“It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self. As a matter of experience, we find that true happiness comes in seeking other things, in the manifold activities of life, in the healthful outgoing of all human powers.”

– Hugh Black

Some thought provoking insights from a Scottish-American theologian, author dating back to the turn of the century.

Mr. Black implies that by seeking pleasure or happiness, a choice and action initiated from within, one will inevitably fail to obtain it. However, by .”..aiming at something outside of self”, he seems to posit that purpose acts to aggregate the collective opportunities to experience true happiness.

It isn’t so much some “thing” that appears, carrying with it a modicum of happiness. But rather that the cumulative effects of all of your outgoing human powers collaborate to gather it in, in all forms, enveloping you within a greater sense of life.

Being that it is not an entity to be taken in unto itself, but rather allowing its presence surround you, permeating all you are.

“In the manifold activities of life.”