About happiness and conscious life: what should we learn from the ancient Aztec

Aztec Life presentation differed from the traditional Western approach us. We looked at the principles, which held the Aztecs to keep standing, meaningful life.

Sebastian Purcell (Sebastian Purcell) teaches philosophy at the College of SUNY Cortland (New York), which conducts research in the fields of history, sociology and philosophy in Latin America. One of the courses taught them, was course "Happiness", which has become quite popular among students.

In one of the lectures Purcell asked his students if they want to be happy - and everyone raised their hands. Next, he asked how many of them are planning to have children in the future, and again almost all raised their hands. Then Sebastian led them to scientific evidence that children make people unhappy, and that feeling of well-being comes back to people only after all the children have left the parental home. He again asked his students, one of them still want children, but was still the same answer: almost all of the students raised their hands.

Thus, his students brought further evidence that the Aztecs already knew well. You need to stop looking for happiness, because it is not what we really want. We do not plan to build their lives around emotions. We want to make our lives worthwhile, and if for this we have something to sacrifice, so much the worse for "happiness".

Sebastian explains that the Aztec civilization is often overlooked. Little we know about them, and because they had a rich culture and his own philosophy. Like us, the Aztecs would like to live a good life, and for that they paid attention to ourselves and to the outside world. They had a saying: "The land is unreliable, slippery." It means that here on earth, people make mistakes, plans are not put into practice, and friendship often betrayed. Something desirable only comes along with something unwanted.

What really want to know the Aztec philosophers, so this is how to live, if the pain and transience - is an essential attribute of existence. The answer is that they made: we must try to maintain a deep, meaningful life. life depth achieved on four different levels.

The first level involves character. Meaningfulness begins with the human body. It is often overlooked in Western culture, preoccupied with thinking and intelligence. The Aztecs developed their body everyday exercises - something like yoga.

The second level - the mind. At this level, their objective was to achieve a balance between the "heart", full of desire, and the "face" - the seat of intelligence. That is the virtue of making such a balance possible.

In the third stage people conceptualize themselves in society, fulfilling their social role. Social responsibility connects people and makes society work. Most of the human obligations - is a consequence of such roles.

Finally, a person should look for its roots in God. The Aztecs believed that God - it is the nature, the essence of both sexes, whose presence was manifested in various forms. man rooting in divine achieved indirectly through the first three levels.

This way of life, according to the Aztecs, leading to harmony of mind, body, society and nature.

This life is like a neat dance in which the world of danger and cost conscious happiness becomes more possible.

Aztec philosophy compels us to rethink the conventional approach Fortunately and seriously take to the idea of ​​what to do in life something good is more important than to enjoy it.