Less than a year. But the authors have been studying and preparing for this book for over 40 years, and the concepts that we are writing about have been around for 2,500 years (since the time of Plato and Aristotle).
Many people, at some point in their lives, struggle with deep feelings of unhappiness and discontent about life in general. Unfortunately, most people do not spend much time deeply reflecting on what happiness really means, and what life is all about. If you don't spend time examining the most important questions about the meaning and purpose of human life, you are likely to accept popular definitions that tend to focus on materialism and ego-gratification. This will color the way you define every other important term, like what you think success means, what quality of life is, what love is, whether suffering has any meaning, what makes you free and what makes you unfree, what's good, what's evil, what's just, what's unjust, etc. We think you are mature enough to handle these questions now; and we think you deserve time to study what other people have thought, and make decisions that will affect how you live the rest of your life.
We think you can truly know happiness. But like the answer to the question above, you will have to verify this for yourself. Happiness is a personal journey for each of us. We think we have provided you with a very useful tool for finding happiness in your own life, but it's up to you to decide whether you want to use it, and whether it rings true in your soul.
You will have a deep and abiding peace, and will sense that your life has an ultimate purpose.
Here are four great resources you can check out:
(1) Book: Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues by Robert J. Spitzer. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press), 2011.
(2) Book: Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues, by Robert J. Spitzer. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press), 2000.
(3) Website: www.healingtheculture.com
(4) Facebook page: principles & choices
The person typing the answers to this question responds: "Ice cream makes me happy. So does prayer and doing community service. I am happiest when I am eating ice cream at church during a community service project."
Yes. People in heaven are. And people on earth can be, but it takes time, work, patience, practice, and forgiving yourself when you have setbacks.
Yes, you can "feel happiness" for no particular reason - like you might just be sitting around not doing anything, and you just feel content. But we're not using the word "happiness" this way in this course. We are defining happiness as "meaning and purpose in life." So you wouldn't really believe you have meaning and purpose in life for no reason.
Sadness can be defined as the lack of fulfillment of a certain level of happiness. For example, you can be sad because you have lost a friendship with someone you loved (a lack of fulfillment on Level 3), but you might at the same time be happy on Level 4 because you turn to God and seek His help in this situation, and you feel His peaceful presence.
People have observed that there are different kinds of happiness for thousands of years. Plato and Aristotle wrote about different types of happiness 2,500 years ago. So did other historical great thinkers like Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Saint Augustine, Martin Buber, Viktor Frankl, Abraham Maslow, Thomas Aquinas and Lawrence Kohlberg. Some philosophers call them levels of happiness, others call them four ways to define purpose in life, or four powers of a human being. Some psychologists have called them fulcrums of identity, dimensions of self-actualization, or markers of growth. Some theologians call them phases in the journey of the soul, or levels of spiritual life. Sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and writers have likewise classified them under still different names. You can see these four levels of happiness in the scriptures of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Throughout the last 3,500 years you can see them again and again in the cultures of North and South, East and West. For your class, we have summarized thousands of years of observation, study, and reflection from hundreds of great minds, into four basic categories, and called them "Levels of Happiness" because fulfilling each level leads to a kind of happiness.
For many people, these levels of happiness make sense. They are based on the observations of hundreds of great minds over thousands of years, and are reflected in every form of art, music, drama, and literature. They are also seen in the teachings of the world's greatest religions. But ultimately, nobody can prove to you that these levels are correct. We can only present you with a model. To verify that they are correct, you will have to test them yourself. If you find that physical pleasure and ego-gratification do not really leave you feeling ultimately fulfilled, we encourage you to try Levels 3 and 4 and see if you might find greater meaning and purpose though those higher ideals.
First, it shows that you at least gave it some thought and reflection, and that is more than a lot of people do. Second, you certainly do not have to agree with these levels. We offer them as a model for how we think you can attain the most happiness in your life. If you do not agree, you should follow what your heart tells you. But if you reach the age of, say, 35 years old, and you have been seeking happiness only through physical pleasure and ego-gratification, and you find that you are profoundly unhappy, we hope that you will remember this course and give the higher levels a chance.
Take a look at your underlying motives. What is motivating your most important actions, decisions, behaviors, and attitudes? If it is to try to make a positive difference to others, you are probably at Level 3. If it is to have as much fun and pleasure as possible, you are probably at Level 1. If it is to be better than everyone else, it is probably Level 2. And if it is to live by standards of ultimate Truth, Justice, Love, Beauty, and Unity, or to grow closer and closer to God, it is probably Level 4. What is most important to you, deep down inside? That should give you a hint as to what Level you are operating out of right now.
Grouping happiness into four different levels gives us an easy way to talk about human experience, and compare different kinds of happiness. You can subdivide them into more levels if you like, but for the purpose of this course, grouping all of human happiness into four categories seemed like a useful tool. Every form of human happiness seems to fit into one of these four categories. If you can think of a form of human happiness that does not fit into one of these categories, or if you think you have a better way to try to understand human happiness, please share it with us.
All of the levels are important and good. It is your job to decide which Level you want to make most important in your life. Everyone will choose one of the Levels as their most important. They may even do this without thinking. We think that Level 4 is the most important, because accepting God's unconditional love and sharing it with others is the greatest and most healthy thing we can do with our lives. If we don't make Level 4 the most important, we will fall into one of the lower crises. If we keep God's love at the center of our lives, the other levels of happiness are more enjoyable, because we won't abuse them, and we won't hurt ourselves or others. But again, it's up to you to decide how you will choose to live your life.
Sure! If you are experiencing a moment of being embraced by God's love (Level 4) while sharing your favorite lunch (Level 1 and 3) with a friend who makes you feel special (Level 2), that would be having all four levels at once. We think that heaven will be very much about experiencing all four levels at once, with none of the crises.
Well, the levels themselves are distinct, but as the example in the question above shows, you can have one experience that fits all four levels at the same time, or maybe fits two of them, or three.
There can be an event or a thing that doesn't cause us any happiness. Like when you pass by a rock, and it doesn't cause any of the levels of happiness for you. It's just a rock, and you don't really care. But we think that all experiences of happiness can be categorized into one of the four levels.
Yep. People do this all the time. Life is a journey, and it's not always in one direction.
Each level brings a kind of fulfillment. They are all important, and they are all good.
We think so. What do you think?
Live by them and practice them yourself. Teach them to others. Share your booklets with other people. You can go to the website www.principlesandchoices.com to learn more. Stay connected on our Facebook page, "like us," and share it with others. Pass it on!
We find that most people really want to find happiness in Levels 3 and 4, but our culture is so saturated with Level 1 and 2 messages, that people tend to operate out of those lower levels more frequently.
Yes. A crisis is experienced if we are living for one of the lower levels of happiness as if that were our fullest meaning and purpose in life. It can also be experienced if you choose Level 4, but do not accept God's unconditional love or forgiveness. Since human beings were made for God's unconditional love, if we settle for anything less, it will eventually leave us empty and unsatisfied. But you can avoid or overcome the crises by keeping the higher levels as the main focus of the lower levels. This is explained throughout Chapter 9.1 as you read the end of each level, and the beginning of the next one.
In the sense that every crisis leaves us feeling unfulfilled and unsatisfied, yes, they are equal. But they act in different ways, and they feel different. They are also equal in that each crisis points to the higher level of happiness as the solution.
Yes. Level 4 does not have a crisis if we are living it fully, allowing God to come to us in love, and surrendering to His love. But the moment we begin to believe that God does not love us, or cannot forgive us, or does not want to be with us forever, we can end up in despair (which is a crisis of faith). Living fully in Level 4 takes a lot of work, practice, and patience with yourself. Many of us do not fully reach Level 4 until we are in heaven. But the point is to keep trying, and keep asking God to help you.
That depends on what is motivating you. If you want a girlfriend so that you can use her for your own physical pleasure, you are stuck on Level 1. If you want a girlfriend so that you can look cool and have someone who makes you feel good about yourself, you are stuck on Level 2. If you want a girlfriend because you are looking for someone to share love with in a mutually respectful and exclusive relationship, that's Level 3. And if you want a girlfriend because your love for God is leading you to desire a mutually respectful and lifelong marriage with someone who can help you get to heaven and whom you can help to get to heaven, that's Level 4.
It's the same answer as the one above about getting a girlfriend. It depends on your motives for getting married. People have Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 motives for getting married. A Level 4 motive is because you want to glorify God by making a lifelong and exclusive commitment of love to someone, because you are willing to accept His possible work of creation in your marriage (babies), and because you desire to share the journey of getting to heaven with that person.
You can experience love on all four levels. The entire Chapter 9.3 is all about this.
In this course, we're using the word "happiness" in a different way than the use of the word as in "humor" or "laughter." We are defining happiness as "meaning and purpose in life." You can enjoy humor and laughter regardless of the level of happiness you are operating out of.
If you lick a lollipop instead of chewing it, it will last longer.
These things are not unimportant. God takes them very seriously. In the Old Testament, God sends manna from heaven so that the ancient Israelites who are wandering in the desert will have something to eat. Compassion and care for the poor, the homeless, and the hungry are extremely important ministries in the Church. Many saints became saints because of their attention to the Level 1 needs of others (tending to the sick, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, etc.). But what we hope you will see is that satisfying your Level 1 needs is only the first step to happiness. Levels 2, 3, and 4 each bring a kind of happiness that affects more people beyond yourself, lasts longer, and is deeper than the level before it. Because of that, we believe that the higher levels should be more important to us than the lower levels, but it's up to you to decide whether you agree with this or not.
Not necessarily. If you are obsessing on your weight or your clothing, or judging your value by comparing yourself to others, that would be unhealthy because that kind of thinking leads you away from what is really important in life. But there's nothing wrong with wanting to be healthier, or wanting more clothing if that is truly a need. Remember that God does care about your Level 1 needs. He just doesn't want you to obsess on it so much that it becomes the center of your life, and you forget about love and compassion.
Because it's easier to get and it satisfies our physical desires very quickly. Level 1 is very attractive in that way. Level 4 takes work and time. You sometimes have to give up your own Level 1 to get Level 4 (like spending a few minutes talking to God before going to bed, even though you are really tired; or giving twenty dollars to the church's fund for the poor instead of spending it on something you really want for yourself). Those things are not easy to do. They require sacrifice. Human beings have a fallen nature because of original sin, and it is not easy for us to sacrifice ourselves or our possessions for others. We have to be willing to work at it despite the Level 1 and Level 2 costs - and a lot of people are not willing to do that, even though the rewards are more pervasive, enduring, and deep.
Oh, yes! God is the creator of all of your physical desires, and He is the creator of everything that satisfies them. God often intervenes to assist us with our Level 1 needs. In the Old Testament, God made manna fall from heaven so that the ancient Israelites would have something to eat during their journey in the desert. You can ask God in prayer to give you a Level 1 happiness that you may be seeking. God cares about your physical needs very much. Jesus teaches us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread…" That means, "Take care of my Level 1 needs." If God sees that answering your prayer would be good for you, He will do it. But God sometimes answers our prayers in ways that we do not expect, or He does not give us what we ask for because He sees that it will not lead to the greatest good for us. You have to trust Him with the answer.
This depends on what they are doing. There are a lot of ways someone can fall into Crisis 1. It could be a sexual addiction, a drug addiction, or an addiction to money. It could be an obsession with food, alcohol, "toys," computer games, or some other form of materialism or physical pleasure that is consuming their lives. You can pray for that person, and try to talk to him about how you are worried about him because he seems to be under-living his life. If the situation is really serious, and the person is posing a danger to himself or to others, you should talk to a trusted adult who may need to intervene.
Chapter 9.2 explains this under the section called "Crisis 2."
We think that people who don't get past Level 2 are missing out on two more kinds of happiness that are much deeper, longer lasting, and affect more people outside of yourself. In our opinion, they are under-living their lives.
The word "ego" simply means "I" in Greek. So the word itself is not a negative word, and valuing your own ego is important. But the common use of the word "ego" in everyday talk does tend to be negative. That's just the way that the word has evolved in our culture. When average people on the street say you have an ego, they usually mean you have a big, overblown self-image, and you don't care about anyone else.
Read Chapter 9.1 on "Crisis 2," and read all of Chapter 9.2. These sections answer this question at length.
They are both about myself. They are not necessarily unhealthy, but if we only focus on these two levels, they both become selfish. Another similarity is that they do not last very long, and the kind of happiness that comes from Level 1 and Level 2 is not very deep.
Well, you can put any level at the top that you want. You can decide that achievement is most important, and you can put it at the top of your list of goals in life, if you want.
In our model of the four levels of happiness, the answer to your question depends on what kind of achievement you mean. We believe that achieving relationship with God and His love is Level 4 and should be at the top of the list. Achieving a healthy marriage and good relations with your friends and family is Level 3, which we also put near the top. We put Levels 3 and 4 at the top, because they cause a kind of happiness which is longer lasting, deeper, and affects more people beyond yourself. We think that will make you happier, and should be at the top.
Because there is a part of us that desires perfect Love, perfect Truth, perfect Justice, perfect Beauty, and perfect Unity. When we try to be perfect, we are trying to fulfill this desire. The problem, of course, is that we cannot be perfect because human beings are finite. But philosophers sometimes point to the fact that humans always try to be perfect as proof that God must exist. If we desire perfection, but cannot ever be perfect, then what is motivating the desire?
Level 4 is defined as the happiness that comes from perfect, infinite, absolute, ultimate, and eternal Truth, Love, Goodness, Beauty, and Unity. (Another word for that is God.) Something that could fulfill us perfectly, infinitely, absolutely, ultimately, and eternally, would, by necessity, have to be the highest level. But again, it's up to you to verify this for yourself. No one can force you to believe that Level 4 is the highest. We think we laid out a pretty good case for it, but happiness is a personal journey, and you must decide what you believe life is truly all about.
Here is our advice: God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us how to get to Level 4. And since Jesus knew that we would need the touch of other human beings on earth to help us, He founded a Church with disciples to guide and instruct us. If you follow Jesus' teachings and seek wisdom and guidance from His Church, He will help you to believe in and know His unconditional forgiveness and love for you. Meditation on the Scriptures or on other holy and inspirational writings is a good way to grow closer to God's love. You also must practice agape love. It is not possible to experience Level 4 without putting action behind your faith. Asking God to work through your acts of love, generosity, charity, compassion, and forgiveness are ways to get to Level 4. You can talk to your campus pastor about other ways to grow deeper into Level 4.
It is different for everyone. Some people experience and embrace God's love when they are very young. For others, it takes their entire lives. We believe that it is important to seek God's friendship and love as soon as possible, because that's the meaning of your life, and you will be happier. But the good news is that God is infinitely patient. If it takes you your entire life to embrace Him, He will receive your embrace with as much love and forgiveness as He has given to people who came to Him when they were much younger.
Read Matthew 20:1-16. This is a parable about laborers in a vineyard, where Jesus teaches that people who come to God late in their life will receive the same reward as those who came early. That reward is His unconditional and eternal love.
Sometimes people ask, "Well then, what's the point of coming to God early? Why not have fun now, and wait until the very end of my life to come to God?" The problem with that is:
(1) You don't know when the very end of your life will be, so that's quite a risk.
(2) If you spend your youth making habits on Levels 1 and 2, you may find it very, very difficult to break those habits later on. The more we choose ourselves over God, the less attractive God seems to us, until one day, we may find it nearly impossible to accept His love.
(3) If God truly is the perfect fulfillment of your desire for unconditional love, why would you wait until the end of your life to get this kind of happiness?
God's love is eternal. It will last forever. God will never stop loving you. Which means that you will always exist - and as long as you accept His love and respond to it in love, you will have Happiness 4 forever.
There are several reasons for this. One is that when we are very young, we tend to first find happiness through material things like yummy foods and interesting toys. Psychologically, we build habits on Level 1 (physical pleasure) that are hard to break when we get older. It seems a lot more fun to play video games and relax on the couch than it is to talk to God, meditate on His love, attend church, or engage in His ministry of serving others. But if you work on it and give it time, it will become easier and easier to relate to God and embrace His love, until it eventually replaces materialism and ego and becomes a habit of its own.
Another reason why Level 4 is hard to reach is because you cannot see, touch, and hear God in the way that we are used to doing with human beings. But you can know God's real presence in a much deeper way if you spend time with Him in prayer, in community with others (church), in service to others (ministry), and in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a special exception to the rule that we cannot see or touch God. The Eucharist is Jesus Christ, really present in the form of bread and wine. It is a very real way that we can make a physical communion with God.
It depends on what their needs are, but you can start with prayer and being a good witness in your own life. Be patient, gentle, kind, compassionate, generous, and humble toward that person. If the opportunity comes up, talk about your faith, but do not push it. You should also talk to your campus pastor about this.
Most people do it that way, just because it's natural. But it's not necessary. Some people seem to connect to God very early in their lives, without going through the crises of Levels 1, 2, and 3.
That's pretty good insight! A saint is a person who has died and is now in heaven with God. In heaven, they experience Happiness Level 4 totally, eternally, and without any crisis. They also experience all the other levels, but in a healthy way that doesn't lead to crisis.
Crisis 4 is when we believe that God exists and that perfect happiness is His love, but we run away from Him and don't let Him in. This might be because we have done something that we think cannot be forgiven, or because we think that God is so high and mighty that He wouldn't want to be with us, or because of some other reason. One way to solve this crisis is to think about the following: If God cannot or will not forgive us, or if He does not want to be with us because He thinks we're too puny, then He is not unconditionally forgiving and He is not unconditionally loving. If that's true, then He is not perfect. He is limited by His own big ego. But if God is imperfect and limited, then He can't really be God. He would just be another imperfect creature like us. So if you have belief that God exists, then you really have to consider that God can and will forgive anything, and that He can and does want to be with you forever. Accepting this truth is only possible if you are willing to talk to God through prayer, listen to Him in your heart, and respond to Him with trust.
No. The other things that bring you happiness are covered in the other three levels of happiness. Level 4 is about God. God gets His own level, because the kind of happiness he offers is so different from Levels 1, 2, and 3. It's unconditional, perfect, infinite, absolute, and eternal. The only thing that is unconditional, perfect, infinite, absolute, and eternal, is God. But it's up to you to verify whether Level 4 happiness really exists. You have to take the leap to faith and experience it for yourself.
Sure! Atheists can be happy on Levels 1, 2, and 3, just like a theist can. But atheists don't believe in God, and so they would not experience Level 4, which is about finding happiness through accepting God's unconditional love and forgiveness. An atheist would have to switch from atheism to belief in a loving God in order to experience Level 4.
Then the point of this lesson would be meaningless, and the point of human life would seem to be meaningless, and the authors of your book would give up writing this curriculum and spend the rest of our lives eating lots of junk food and trying to get rich. But we are so convinced that God exists that we challenge you to study the abundant evidence. Go to www.magisreasonfaith.org and click on "encyclopedias" to explore evidence for God's existence.
We're not sure what you mean by "religious," here, but if God exists, and if He created you to find love through Him and through others forever in heaven, then it would be impossible to be ultimately happy without God. If you do not believe this is true, then you can certainly pursue other forms of happiness as if they were the "ultimate." But if you find that those other forms do not really satisfy you in the end, you might want to give Level 4 a chance. What have you got to lose?
The very essence of God is Love - and that's what love does. Love cares. Another reason why God cares is because you are beautiful. He made you in His own image. He created you to be able to love and forgive, just as He loves and forgives. So when He sees you, He sees a huge potential for love and goodness. Yes, God sees your sins, but He sees them in the context of who you really are - a creature capable of great love and goodness. Why would He not care about you?
Well, it depends on what you mean by that. If you mean trying to keep God all to yourself so that no one else can have Him, that would be silly (and a little weird). It would also be impossible, because God loves everyone. Still, if you tried to do that, you wouldn't be on Level 4. You would be on Level 1 or 2 - trying to exclude everyone else from happiness.
If you mean accepting God because we want Him to make us happy - that's not selfish. That's the purpose of your life. God's entire goal is to make you happy through His everlasting love. He wants you to accept Him in that way. It only becomes negative if we try to exclude other people from God's love.
Because in order to do that, God would have had to make all human beings into robots who are programmed to never do anything evil and to always feel happy. But then we wouldn't be free. God did not want to create a whole bunch of happy but unfree robots. He created you to be free to choose love or to reject love. Your freedom is very important to God. When human beings use their freedom to reject love, they are unhappy and they cause unhappiness in the world for others. But if you use your freedom to choose love, you will find greater happiness than a robot could ever have.
You can't really "use" God. God is not a tool for us to use. God is our final and perfect fulfillment. We believe that the way to find happiness is to believe in God's eternal love for you, accept it, and do works of goodness and love toward others.
Since "holiness" refers to the degree to which we have given ourselves to God, accepted His grace and love, and live according to His will in our lives, you would have to be a person who prioritizes Level 4 in your life to achieve any degree of holiness. But there are different levels of holiness that are unrelated to the four levels of happiness. Talk to your teacher or your campus pastor about reading you can do to learn more about this.
God has great sadness when one of His children does not believe in Him, because that person will not know perfect happiness until she does. But God's love is not conditioned on whether or not you believe in Him. God loves all of His children equally, whether or not they believe in Him.
For many reasons. There is abundant evidence for the existence of God in science, mathematics, physics, astrophysics, biology, philosophy, and other disciplines. We highly encourage you to go to: www.magisreasonfaith.org and click on "encyclopedias" to explore evidence for God's existence. Many people also believe in God because God's presence is very real to them in human experience. They have sensed God's presence in prayer, at church, in nature, in their own accomplishments, in human relationships, or in other situations or experiences.
Healing the Culture is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching the four levels of happiness, and applying them to the life issues (like abortion). We are located in the Seattle area, and we create materials and programs for people all over the world of all ages. The authors of this course founded the organization. You can check us out at www.healingtheculture.com, or www.facebook.com/healingtheculture.