Her voice
is the most beautiful
music
in the world.

Beautiful-music
which makes me feel
I would enjoy
and be happy
being in harmony
with her.

I just watched a news report
that infections of ebola virus
are spreading out from
the Democratic Republic of Congo;
1700 people have died
in the last year of infections;

I saw a man lying sickly
in a quarantined hospital bed
suffering from vomiting and diarrhea
mourning his dead wife, sister, brother,
all lost to ebola in recent days.

I wonder
how does the world protect us all
from ebola?
Fortunately, there is a vaccine
which makes people immune to ebola,
but there is only enough vaccine
to vaccinate thousands of people
when hundreds of millions are in danger.
I wonder
when and how will the world produce enough vaccine
to vaccinate all the millions in danger
from ebola?

An uncompassionate crowd of 20,000
are tensely sitting in a stadium
bloodthirstily waiting for a cruel spectacle
they call a ‘bulllfight’
which is actually a ‘bull-harass-and-****’.
This brutal bloodsport
is celebrated as a national artform
in Spain
so the matadors (bullfighters) strut around proudly
in their suits of golden thread
to loud cheers and excited applause.

The bull, frightened suffering,
is harassed and killed in three stages:

The first stage is called ‘tercio de varas’
‘the lancing third’
when armoured-horse mounted lancers
use a long sharp lance
to spear the bull behind his shoulder muscles
to weaken the bull’s neck muscles
and begin the bull’s loss of blood;

The second stage is called ‘tercio de banderillas’
‘the third of banderillas’
when the matador attacks the bleeding-weakening bull
with banderillas (sharp barbed sticks)
stabbing the banderillas above the shoulder blades of the bull
to anger and agitate
the frightened bull fighting for his life.

The third stage is called ‘tercio de muerte’
‘the third of death’
when the matador baits the bull
with a red cape
then stabs the bull with a steel sword
aiming for his heart
but often missing
leaving the bull suffering multiple stab-wounds
bleeding, slowly miserably dying.

I wonder
when will this barbaric bull-harass-and-****
be banned in all nations?

I need
to continuously practice
responding to situations
according to my best principles of wisdom
because continuous practice
improves my skill
at striving for joy and happiness
in a wise way.

Do we need to forbear (abstain)
from doing particular activities
to optimise our joy and happiness?
For example:
Do we need to forbear
from overeating
to prevent obesity and diabetes
and optimise our health, joy and happiness?
Do we need to forbear
from overindulging in alcohol
to prevent brain-damage and liver-damage
and optimise our health, joy and happiness?

What other activities
should we forbear from
to optimise our joy and happiness?

I like to enjoy washing dishes
so it doesn’t become a chore,
as living is for enjoying
and I seek to enjoy every moment
of being alive,
even washing dishes!

But how to enjoy washing dishes?
I focus
on enjoying the experience
of the present-moment,
like meditation.
I enjoy cleaning my dishes
to protect me from disease
and keep me healthy.
I enjoy the feeling
of warm water on my hands
as I rinse the dishes before washing.
I enjoy the rhythm and sound of squeaking
the sponge makes as it scrubs the dishes.
I enjoy feeling
the smooth texture
of the ceramic dishes.
I enjoy exploring the shape
of every dish with my hands as I wash.
I enjoy
seeing my reflection
in the stainless-steel spoons
as I wash
enjoying the experience.

I accept that my emotions are happening
because my emotions are happening
and I cannot escape my emotions;
if I try to deny my emotions
they will fester and boil
and make me mad;
so I accept that my emotions are happening,
and I accept the content of my emotions;
then I evaluate the content of my emotions
and by philosophy improve my emotions
until I have achieved wisdom and virtue,
joy and happiness.

Joy-and-happiness-people
are people
who live striving to
optimise their own joy and happiness
and facilitate optimal joy and happiness
for others.

Interacting with
joy-and-happiness-people
increases
my joy and happiness.

I seek
joy-and-happiness-people
to be friends with,
to work with,
to romance,
to do everything with
in joyful-and-happy society.

I need
to frequently revise
my principles
for living
a joyful and happy life
so that when challenges come
I’m ready to respond
in a wise way.

In my youth
I pretended to be
what I thought others’ thought
was prideworthy and praiseworthy,
and I was unjoyful and unhappy
self-annihilating my authentic self.

Now I am older
and I realise
only by being my authentic self
and striving for joy and happiness
using my authentic self
can I be joyful and happy.

People called him
short, stout, comical-looking,
but I felt compassion for him
and I wondered
what experiences
would give him
joy and happiness?

When I was a youth
I was busy, busy, busy,
rushing from one activity to another
ambitious for success,
but I was unhappy
because I was too busy
to care for my mind,
my mind was suffering and confused
with many bottled-up emotions and thoughts;

Now that I’m wiser
I realise
what I need
is to take time-out
to care for my mind:
to introspect into my emotions and thoughts
to express to myself my emotions and thoughts
to become aware of my emotions and thoughts
to evaluate my emotions and thoughts
to improve my emotions and thoughts
until I have achieved wisdom
about what I can do
to achieve my joy and happiness.

Love
feels good;
Loving others
feels good;
Being loved by others
feels good.

Love
optimises my experience of being alive.

Love
makes me happy.

I seek Love-Happiness.

When we ask questions
about how to be
optimally joyful and happy,
we have a chance
of discovering
some answers.

I am
strolling
gently and easily
across a riverside park,
my sports-shoe clad feet
pressing down and rebounding on soft lush green grass
with each gentle easy step;

I see
the wide blue river
alongside the park and
I gaze at
white yachts anchored and
I smell
the refreshing pungent scent of salt-water and
I look up at
the mid-blue sky with white fluffy clouds floating across and
I feel
walking-through-a-park-Happy.

I accept
the past has happened
and cannot be changed,
but the future
has not yet happened,
so I strive
in the present-moment
to achieve a better future.

I notice you,
You are conspicuous to me
as I think you are wonderful
like a rainbow in a clear blue summer sky.

The challenge of enjoying
tasty and nutritious
food and drink
is not to overeat.

My hot steaming coffee
is wafting a beautiful flavour
into my nose
and I feel energised
as I breathe in.
Sipping my coffee
is a delectable experience:
Nutty, fruity, sweet with milk.

My coffee
tastes beautiful,
energises me
and is good milky nutrition.

I asked a vegetarian
“why are you a vegetarian?”
and he said:
In an ideal
joy-and-happiness society
would we foster
empathy, caring and compassion
between all people?
If people are unempathetic, uncaring and uncompassionate
to animals
would people also be
unempathetic, uncaring and uncompassionate
to the human-animal?
Thereby destroying
joy-and-happiness society?
And if so,
should we be
empathetic, caring and compassionate
to all animals?

If farm animals
feel pain and suffering,
should we be empathetic, caring and compassionate
to them too?
And stop slaughtering them!

Do I need wisdom
to understand
how to achieve
my joy and happiness?
Yes I do.

Is my wisdom
my truth
based on the evidence of my experience?
Yes it is.

Therefore,
do I need to discover truth
to achieve wisdom
and joy and happiness?
Yes I do.

Does fake-news
lead me
away from truth,
away from wisdom,
and away from my joy and happiness?
Yes it does!

Optimistically
striving to achieve
my joy and happiness
makes me cheerful.

When people are saying cruel words to me
it helps me when I say “They are being cruel to me”
as I name and blame their behaviour
then what they say loses moral-credibility
then I don’t have to listen to them anymore
then I don’t have to be affected;
When people are saying cruel words to me
I do my best to ignore them,
and I re-focus my mind on striving for my joy and happiness.

Takes me places I haven't been.
Shows me vistas I haven't seen.
Shows me sounds I haven't heard.
Gives me experiences beyond the words.

When I was a youth
I expected the world to be good to me,
I expected people to treat me fairly, kindly and justly,
and I was disappointed, hurt and angry
when I was treated unfairly, unkindly and unjustly.

Now that I am wiser
I realise
that people are broken and suffering
and struggling to cope with life,
and they care more about their own survival and pleasure
than they care about being kind, fair and just to me,
so I no longer expect the world to be good to me
and I no longer feel disappointed, hurt and angry;
Now I feel compassion for people
And I take responsibility
to treat people fairly, kindly and justly,
and I make my best attempt
to lead people to treat me fairly, kindly and justly.

Should I sell my subservience
of my mind, body and soul
to boss at work?

How much freedom
should my self retain
from my boss?

As I gaze at a cherished photographs
of my youthful travels,
I review the experiences
I enjoyed while they were happening
and now reviewing and savouring
the details of the experiences
I enjoy the experiences again.

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society,
would work
be designed and organised
to be a joyful and happy activity?

When I seek to be normal
I feel ashamed
of what I am actually being;
But when I seek my joy and happiness
and allow myself to be my unique authentic self
I feel joyful and happy
just being me
even if I am different than the norm.

When I feel
too small and unimportant
to be worth other’s consideration,
I remind myself
it is my responsibility
to strive to achieve
my joy and happiness
and others’ joy and happiness,
and by taking on this challenge
I make myself significant
to my joy and happiness
and others’ joy and happiness.

When I was at university
the standard used to judge
my essay
was “is it knowledgeable and sophisticated
in its use of concepts”,
and so I did my best
writing essays
to display my knowledge
of what authorities said
in a sophisticated way
like a DJ samples famous songs;

Now that I’m wiser
I realise
knowledgeable-sophistication
is not the wisdom
I need to achieve my joy and happiness,
and reading authoritative texts
and writing knowledgably-sophisticated essays
is a waste of my time,
and my time would be better spent
doing philosophy on my own experiences
to achieve the wisdom
I need to achieve my joy and happiness.

I aspire
to be calm
and reasonable
in every situation
to be most effective
at optimising my joy and happiness.

When Destiny
brings danger and difficulty
I aspire to be steadfast
in optimistically
striving to achieve
my joy and happiness.

I search for happy people
and when I recognise
a joyful and happy person
I take clues
from how they are feeling, thinking and acting
to discover
how I can feel, think and act
to be optimally joyful and happy.

Is Justice
the principles
of how a society should function
to facilitate the joy and happiness
of every citizen?
In contrast,
has modern law
become the powerful and wealthy
imposing their
demands and expectations
on the rest of us?
Is law
not
the principles of Justice?
Is law
not
principles which guide the behaviour of every citizen
to facilitate the joy and happiness
of every citizen?

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person in society
including women
fulfil their potential
to experience optimal joy and happiness?
Would women be given
the freedom and encouragement
to express their unique authentic self
in an optimally joyful and happy way?
Would women be given
the freedom, encouragement, support and resources
to develop and exercise to the full
their talents
to experience optimal joy and happiness?

When I feel
unimportant
because I am not known
for some great achievement,
I remind myself
the purpose of living
is not to achieve greatness
but to strive for my joy and happiness.
The question
I ask myself
in the present-moment
is not “Am I important?”
and not “Am I great?”
but I ask
“Am I joyful and happy?”.

When my emotions
are out of my control
and are controlling me,
I seek awareness of my emotions
by expressing my emotions
into a voice diary
using the microphone on my computer:
upon expression
the intense-energy of my emotions
dissipates
and my mind is clearer;
then it is easier
to self-regulate my emotions
or at least
discipline my emotions;
then I am ready
to strive
for joy and happiness.

Words, words galore!
Words: I want more.
Words: I like how they sound.
Words: I like when I've found
the perfect word to express.

Does each of us
see the universe
from our own perspective?
If so,
does each of us
live in our own perspective-universe?
If so,
is objectivity impossible
and only subjectivity happening?
If so,
to achieve a cooperative society
does each of us
have to empathise
with each other's
unique perspective-universe?

When we dialogue
I pose questions
which interest your mind
and evoke in your mind
answers
which are clues to my mind
about what my answers could be
to how to achieve my joy and happiness
and the joy and happiness of all people.

I appreciate you
and our dialogues,
Philosophy-Friend.

I never blame myself:
I accept
what has happened
in the past
as Destiny,
over which I have no control.
I focus
on improving my self
in the present-moment
to achieve
the wisdom and virtue
to improve my situation
to increase my joy and happiness.

Save your self
from your suffering
by seeking liberation and relief
through philosophy.

In what ways
do I make others
joyful and happy?

How much
do I make others
joyful and happy?

Is there a basic joy
in experiencing
every experience
which I experience?
Is there joy in sights:
colour, shape, size, patterns?
Is there joy in sounds:
loud, soft, tone, pitch?
Is there joy in touch:
hard, soft, rough, smooth?
Is there joy in smell and taste:
salty, sweet, pungent, tangy?

Is there joy
in noticing the details of experience?
For example:
When I encounter a flowering tree
I enjoy noticing
all the colours, shapes, sizes and textures
of every flower,
every leaf,
every fruit,
every branch,
and the bark of the trunk too;
Then I have enjoyed
experiencing the flowering tree!

Is violence
the intention
and action
to harm other people?

Is the target of violence
joyful and happy?
Ask someone who's been robbed at knifepoint?
Ask a wife who’s being bashed by her husband?
Ask a child who’s being beaten-up by a bully?

Is the doer of violence
joyful and happy?
Ask a person barking toxic speech?
Ask a mother who’s beating her child?
Ask a robber confined in prison for many years?

I am laying in bed
looking out my window
experiencing
the black sky
change
to lighter blue
and I hope
this new day
brings joys and happiness.

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person in the world
be joyful and happy?
If so,
in an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person in the world
have to cooperate with everyone else
to facilitate the joy and happiness
of every person in the world?
If so,
would a world-government
be useful
to organise
cooperation
between every person in the world
to facilitate the joy and happiness
of every person in the world?

When I excuse
my faults
I lose the opportunity
to improve myself.

When I accept
my faults
and evaluate my self
I can then
improve my self
towards the wisdom and virtue
I need
to achieve optimal joy and happiness.