I was reading the final chapter of The Courage to Be Happy by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, when my son, who was watching True Detective on Netflix, paused the serial and said, "Listen to this dialogue. Rust Cohle, a character in the series, says, “I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution.”
He continued, "The problem with people is that they are too self-aware.”
We know we will die.
We worry about the future.
We regret the past.
We compare ourselves with others.
“That's why human beings suffer."
I smiled, and he looked at me curiously. I read aloud from the book I was reading: "The world is simple, and life is too. Keeping it simple is difficult." I said, "Isn't life simple? It's the meaning we attach to it that makes it complicated.
Take this example. Someone criticizes me. The criticism is the event.
Then my mind starts creating stories:
'They hate me.' Everyone thinks I am incompetent.' 'I am not good enough.' The event was simple. The interpretation became complicated."
"That's not simple," he interrupted. "People get hurt."
"Yes," I replied, "people do get hurt. Pain is real." I continued, "A dog gets wet in the rain and moves on. A human gets wet in the rain and thinks: 'Why does this always happen to me?' 'My day is ruined.' 'Nothing ever works out.' The rain is the same. The experience becomes different because of the meaning we give to it."
He immediately replied, "That's exactly what the dialogue means when it says consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution.
“Animals don't think like that. Humans do. Consciousness causes suffering." After saying that, he returned to watching his serial.
As I returned to my book, I realised that perhaps the philosopher and the character in the serial were asking the same question but arriving at different answers.
The character in the serial sees consciousness as the source of suffering. The philosopher in the book sees consciousness as the source of freedom. A few minutes later, I withdrew to my book, and he withdrew to his serial.
Yet, in our own ways, both of us were thinking about the same thing—human consciousness. So, who is right?
Perhaps both are. Consciousness gives us the ability to suffer, but it also gives us the ability to rise above suffering. It can trap us in fear, but it can also help us choose courage. It can make us anxious about life, but it can also help us find meaning in it. Perhaps happiness begins when we find the courage to use our consciousness not to dwell on fear, but to choose love, and to choose life.
The world is simple. Life is too. Keeping it simple is difficult.
As we wrapped up The Courage to Be Happy in our Masterclass, I realised that the most meaningful learning often happens outside the pages of a book—in conversations, in questions, and sometimes in an unexpected dialogue between a mother reading a book and a son watching a serial. The book may have ended, but the reflection continues.
- Gurdeep Kaur
