Happiness Privilege?

This evening I’m struggling with the question:
can I/should I feel happy while others are suffering?

I feel guilt for my privilege.

It’s been a weird train of thought.

I saw a video about how “New age spirituality is hype bullshit; it’s a trend for the privileged.” and “We wouldn’t be talking about manifesting what we desire and reality being a game we can manipulate if we were homeless, starving, or lacking our basic needs.”

How “It’s easy to say these things as we sit in our warm homes, scrolling our smart phones.”

I guess you could say I was a bit triggered… and when I’m triggered anymore, I look at it as an opportunity to learn something about myself. Though I think this comment was very much giving umbrella stereotypes (as being spiritual is not universally synonymous with thinking life is a game)… Triggers are there for a reason. They expose something within us, reflected, in need of contemplation.

/
/

It’s been a few hours now. I’ve taken a shower, I’ve pulled a few cards, I’ve tried to think myself through this, and I’ll continue to do so here to see what grows.

(Would I feel this way if I wouldn’t have gone to college and gotten a degree that pays me well enough to live comfortably? Would my path still have brought me to this place I am right now mentally? Does it EVEN matter if things were different? BECAUSE THEY AREN’T? So why am I stressing myself with the thoughts of (would) and (if)?

I tell myself, Suffering is rooted in desire.

But once again, a pretty easy statement for me to say as I sit here in my comfy slippers, with a full belly, and no significant current outside threats?

Envision approaching this conundrum with these two thoughts:

“The only thing I can truly focus on is what I am presented with in this current moment.“

“I am on the path I am on, I was born into this experience. Therefore the only ‘right choice’ is to try to be my highest self and create light ripples into the collective. “
(When I say ‘right’ I am using it the way it is used in Buddhism’s Eight Fold Path. In using it this way, I associate right with mindful. Right = Mindful is a pulpable approach to right vs. wrong (for me personally)).

Instead of using awakening and spirituality as a way to “manifest our desires”, like money, and property, we can utilize the tools we gain to be the highest versions of ourselves, wherever we are planted. We must remove the mindset of personal gain, and completely surrender our trust to the unknown.

If all we do is try to be self-aware, mindful, accepting, and coming from a place of love, then we are doing enough IN THIS MOMENT. Sitting around in guilt will get us nowhere. When we sit in guilt, we are still caught in a mind loop of “could be” and “should be” rather than just accepting and moving forward. We are of no use to others if we are stuck in a dark place. We shouldn’t feel guilty for feeling happy, because if we were shrouded in darkness, we would be too blind to help someone else who might need it. How can we plant seeds if we don’t allow cultivation?

Anyways, EVERY. FEELING. IS. VALID.

Pull

I pulled a few cards to read while contemplating this.

The Knight of Wands

The Knight of wands is about action, choices, and impulsivity.

The Hierophant

The Hierophant is about spiritual wisdom, religion, and the system/machine. It also represents the notion of not clinging too tightly to any one “tradition” and remembering nature’s changeability.

What I’m taking

is life is a massive balance of action and flow. We inherently create structures, names, and systems for everything we do. It’s part of being human. We exist because we interact with the energy around us…
Within these systems, things are not always ‘right’ and ‘mindful. The choice we have, as individual beings, part of a collective consciousness, is to be mindfully changeable.

What do you think? If you feel called, please continue this dialogue in the comments.