How To Access Happiness NOW September 1, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Happiness, Life Balance, Mindfulness, People.trackback
I read an illuminating post on Raptitude (Getting Better At Being Human) this morning:
Good News: Happiness Doesn’t Exist
Using Buddhist teachings, the author (David) explains why we have evolved as we have . . . existing in a state of perpetual dis-ease or dukkha.
Dukkha, self-created suffering or disquietude, is designed to keep us wanting more ~ more safety, more security, and more status.
Unfulfilled desires cause suffering and unhappiness because we are convinced that we cannot be happy until we have attained the object of our desire.
Once we attain IT (whatever IT is), a new desire appears to take IT‘s place, and the cycle begins anew.
The more we look “out there” to find happiness, the more elusive it becomes, because happiness for a reason, any reason, can always be taken away.
If we want lasting happiness, we must look for it in the NOW, by training our minds to let go of disquietude and self-created suffering. When we exist in the NOW, we allow our unfulfilled desires to drift away. In the resulting vacuum, inner peace and happiness surface.
Think of a moment that took your breath away, a moment when you laughed until you cried, or a moment when the world fell away of its own accord.
In those moments, you existed ONLY in the NOW.
The past faded from view. No worries clouded your thoughts or troubled your mind. You floated in the eternal sea of bliss and joy which lies within.
That’s happiness . . . the absence of suffering in the eternal NOW.
Related posts: Where Happiness Resides * Tigger or Eeyore . . . It’s Your Call * How To Be Happy NOW * 5 Steps To A Happier You * 10 Ways to Attract Positive Energy * ABC’s of Happiness * More ABC’s of Happiness
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Not sure I agree that “happiness is the absence of suffering as this moment unfolds.”
I think there can be happiness in suffering and I don’t believe inner peace and happiness are found in a vacuum.
Interesting post though.
“Suffering” is really not an adequate word.
The Buddhists call it dukkha (anguish, unease, dissatisfaction, stress, discomfort, or unsatisfactoriness).
Personally, I have never experienced happiness simultaneously with dissatisfaction.
If I’m dissatisfied, I don’t feel happy. If I’m happy, I don’t feel dissatisfied.
I have certainly had moments of happiness in the middle of a longer period of stress, but in those moments of happiness, I feel no stress, no suffering, no dukkha. The “negative” feelings disappeared long enough for my underlying happiness to surface.
Thank you, for today I choose to be happy.
May you enjoy a day filled with ease and peace, unmarred by suffering and dis-ease.
Namaste
Namaste to you all 🙂
Here’s to peace, love and understanding.
Paul the apostle said it this way:
“for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.I can do everything through him who gives me strength. “Phil 4:11-13
When we let go of fear, and accept the moment at hand (as it is), inner peace flows freely . . . filling us with the contentment described by Paul.
The Great Freedom teaching can be summed up in one sentence:
“Short Moments of Clear Awareness repeated many times become continuous.”
In ‘Basic Awareness Part 1 commentary 9_16_09:
“What is a short moment of awareness? To know the answer to that question, stop thinking just for a moment. Anyone can do that just for a moment: to stop thinking, without even the thought “I’m not thinking.” This is where you can point out to someone their own clarity. If you then ask them what it was like, some people might say, “nothing” or “the void” or who knows what they’d say — “scary.” But at that moment, what remains when you stop thinking? A sense of alertness and clarity, that’s what remains — alertness and clarity,
the power to know.
“That’s what awareness is, clarity and alertness that is open like a cloudless sky. If we just look at the sky, it’s pure and it’s vast and our own clarity is just like that, shining from within everything. The sky metaphor, combined with pointing out what is present — alertness and clarity — are very, very powerful together.”
http://www.greatfreedom.org/thebasics.html
When we choose to Be Here Now, we embrace our freedom, clarity, alertness, and the power to know.
Thanks for your comment.