Another way to describe the relationship between well-being and ontology is to observe how the Old and New Testaments portray "the grain of the universe."
By "grain" I mean the image of going "with" or "against" a grain of wood. Going with the grain is easy and smooth. Going against the grain is effortful and rough. Using this metaphor, we experience well-being when we live with the grain of the universe. Conversely, we suffer when we live against the grain of the universe.
In the Old Testament, the grain of the universe is Wisdom or Sophia. In Proverbs 8, Sophia describes herself and the impact of living in harmony or disharmony with her:
“Now then, my children, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not disregard it.
Blessed are those who listen to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.
For those who find me find life
and receive favor from the Lord.
But those who fail to find me harm themselves;
all who hate me love death.”
In short, there is a sophiological grain to existence. Those who live in harmony with Sophia find life. Those who live against the grain of Sophia harm themselves. More, those who hate Sophia tend toward self-destruction. Flourishing is sophiological.
In the New Testament the grain of the universe is the Logos. Everything that exists was created "through" and "by" the Logos (John 1). And everything that exists is "held together" by the Logos (Colossians 1). The Logos becomes visible in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. As "the Human One" Jesus makes the grain of the universe visible. To walk as Jesus walked is to live in attunement with our ontological ground.
Maximus the Confessor describes this as the logos of the individual person coming into harmony with the Logos who is our Origin and End. That is to say, existing in the Logos each person is a small (finite) logos expressing a portion of the larger (Infinite) Logos. Well-being, therefore, happens when my logos comes to fully rest in the Logos. If I fail to live in harmony with the Logos I move toward non-being and experience the consequences of that self-destructive path. This the same warning sounded by Sophia about the harm we cause ourselves by loving death. Here's Maximus describing all this:
[A person] is a "portion of God," then, insofar as he exists, for he owes his existence to the logos of being that is in God; and he is a "portion of God" insofar as he is good, for he owes his goodness to the logos of well-being that is in God; and he is a "portion of God" insofar as he is God, owning to the logos of his eternal well-being that is in God. In honoring these logoi and acting in accordance with them, he places himself wholly in God alone throughout his entire being....
But anyone who is a "portion of God," on account of the logos of virtue that exists in God, and who abandons his own origin, is irrationally swept away toward nonbeing, and thus is rightly said to have "flowed down from above," since he did not move toward his own origin and cause..."Flowing down from above" in this manner, he enters a condition of unstable deviations, suffering fearful disorders of soul and body, failing to reach his inerrant and unchanging end by freely choosing to turn in the direction of what is inferior.
Finally, since I've recently been exploring connections between Christianity and Taoism, the relationship between well-being and ontology can also be described as living in harmony or disharmony with the Tao. As described in the Tao Te Ching the Tao is the ontological ground of reality, the "root of Heaven and Earth." Like Sophia and the Logos, the Tao is the grain of the universe. I described this recently as "the Way of Water":
The greatest good is like water.Water's virtue is that it benefits all creatures,
but contends with none;
It resides in places most men hate.
Thus, it takes after the Way.
The Way of Water traces the ontological ground of reality, takes after the Way, and thereby leads to flourishing and well-being. Conversely, if we lose contact with our ontological ground, if take our eyes off of the sophiological coordinates of the Way, we stumble around in the dark:
Understanding the Unchanging is
called the bright and clear.
If you do not understand the Unchanging,
You will be doing things in the dark,
and this is ill-omened.
In summary, when I describe the relationship between well-being and ontology, I'm suggesting that flourishing is Sophiological, Logotic, and Taotic.
We live either with or against the grain of the universe. Well-being is premised upon ontology.
