We are all concerned about happiness. It is only if we can learn to transcend and control the ego that we can really experience happiness in any profound way. Continuous happiness in the ordinary sense of the word ‘happy’ – getting what we want, being safe, basically feeling that everything’s working well in my life – continuous happiness of that kind is impossible. No one can be continuously happy. But beatitude is different. The Greek word in the gospel when Jesus speaks about ‘happy are the poor in spirit’, ‘happy are the pure of heart’, happy are the merciful’, the Greek word is makarios. We translate it as ‘happy’, but we could also translate it as ‘blessed’, ‘benedictus’, and that’s why we call this system of Jesus’ thinking and teaching ‘the Beatitudes’. This is a different kind of happiness from the one we are used to, of course. The fruits of meditation lead us into this kind of happiness, this beatitude, beatitudinous happiness, we could say.
( The Brick Wall of the Ego 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
