Milton was blind and nearly 300 hundred years ago he wrote these two lines –
“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.”
Just brilliant and probably a great truth. Look around us, everyone reading this blog is certainly privileged – you have access to the internet, you have “a” device that you have the money to pay for, maybe a job or someone is earning and is willing to pay for your expenses – father, mother, spouse, sibling … But right now if I ask you, are you happy ? Chances are that you will be happy “BUT” unhappy about something – your nose, the boss, wife, husband, money, car, heat, cold etc etc.
In the book “The Happiness Hypothesis” the author, Jonathan Haidt has a brilliant insight. He says if only Buddha had asked the old man whether he was happy or unhappy, he might not have started his quest to find a solution – because the old man and the beggar is not necessarily unhappy. Each of us apparently have a happiness threshold and we return to that threshold after either feeling very happy or sad. This once again corroborates Milton’s statement. All in your mind !
Two more perfect illustrations of Milton’s statement. Napoleon Bonaparte had everything men usually crave – glory, power, riches – yet he
said at St. Helena, “I have never known six happy days in my life”; while
Helen Keller – blind, deaf, dumb – declared: “I have found life so
beautiful.”
Power of our mind !! Mull over that.
Nicely written and meaningful. Thank you