The people who study this tend to talk about it as if it were an aspect of health. It requires daily maintenance. It isn’t like if you get x, y, and z then you will be happy and happy until death.
To your point it’s not a video game objective. Happiness is being mostly happy and an inside job. It’s not external. However happy people create other happy people.
It isn’t very fun being around miserable ones. Especially when they decide that you are the reason why their life is terrible.
Plenty of people will make you pay for the sin of being in their general area.
Knowing that family is safe sound and happy and wants to see me as much as I want to see them is a pretty big boost, as is working towards a thing that I value and respect. It’s not very exciting but it is happy.
As buddhists say; you can’t become happy you can only be happy
I think it can be achieved but it may not be what most people think. I believie happines is not a goal you reach but rather a state that is realized. It’s when you’re satisfied with what you have and stop putting conditions on you happiness. Life is unsatisfactory - that’s what most are dealing with rather than unhappiness.
That’s common philosophy. Only the most materialistic philosophy like consumerism will promote the never-ending pursuit of acquisition or achievement to happyness.
That’s the problem of our western societies in fact: they promote the never-ending pursuit of success, wealth, or fame. To actually be happy, you “merely” need to get out of this culture.
Still, and although some people can be happy with almost nothing, most people will still need basic needs fulfilled to be happy : food, home, and socialisation (and safety).
Having seen both cultures I know which I will always choose. I like hot water when I shower, I like not seeing sewage in the streets, I like building creating and innovating, I like not being torn between mindless repetitive work on one hand and lazy do everything slow on the other. It is pretty easy for people in the privileged West to be romantic about the grinding poverty that are Buddhist nations.
But hey it isn’t like I matter. Let’s look at where the net migration patterns say.
This sounds like playing with words for me.
If you are not happy right now, then moving from your current state “not happy” to state “happy” is a goal. And during this transformation you become happy.
So, even if the happy is just a mental state, you still can become happy and can set target to reach this.
Buddhism is based on experience. When people just read books that try to convey the un-conveyable, it looks like word games. Then they repeat those word games thinking they’re spreading the wisdom.
I like how you put that. The answer isn’t in the lesson, it’s in the practice.
It’s nothing otherworldly; it’s just beyond words. Like the flavor of garlic. You literally can’t understand it except by putting garlic on your tongue. “Well it’s uh kinda like cheese and also like onion. Like a cheesy onion”
“Oh yeah garlic is a cheesy onion! I get it now!”
No. Just eat the garlic. It’s the only way to know.
Yeah and he also told people to talk on their level of understanding.
It connects back to that proverb “money can’t buy happiness”. Having sufficient money can certainly remove many issues preventing happiness, but if you make money your goal or even removing a particular issue your goal, you may have bettered your life by removing those obstacles but aren’t necessarily “happy”
Fully agree that money or other similar goals do not buy happines. But there are goals as well. Like stop being unhappy and become happy. And there are steps one can follow to reach this goal.
You got it exactly right. Lower your expectations and they will be lowered. You don’t need mystical insight to grasp this.
There probably is some worth to the idea. If you can’t get something fixating on it isn’t going to do you much good also it is unwise to keep following every shiny thing in hopes that this new one will fix everything.
So yeah don’t buy that cryptocurrency promoted by a DJ, don’t blame your partner for your bad day at work, and if you can’t fix part of your past it is best not to dwell on it.
Look at me. I am Guru now.
Long time ago I heard/read somewhere that true happiness/happy life/being in general happy at all times is not possible and people who are not in a great place get frustrated by never achieving this and seeing that it feels like everyone else has something they don’t.
What true happiness often seems to be (for most happy people) is actually being content
Happiness comes from being content with your life, not constant feeling of joy. When you are content with your life and situation, you’ll enjoy your life more. You’ll be “happy” with your life. And if you are content with your life you suddenly enjoy small things that add up to it.
I’m probably not explaining this very well, but hope you get something out of this comment!
We aren’t built to be satisfied. Our survival in a prehistorical context depended on our constant vigilance in the face of the ever-present risk of death from myriad dangers. That has required of us to evolve into fearful, violent creatures. Nothing forces us to act that way in a safer, less existentially precarious context, but there’s a lot of hard-wiring for us to fight against. I think so long as you’re willing to face that skittish, aggressive, hoarding nature and try to calm it down and perpetually remind it that it’s going to be ok, you’re on your way to some pretty solid contentment.
Of course that first requires that you’ve somehow magicked your way to a reliably full belly and roof over your head, which… well good luck
I’m convinced happiness is genetic.
Some people are some people aren’t.
I’ve lived my life in pretty much the exact way I have wanted and done more than most. If I could erase myself from existence I would instantly.
I think the people that are most ambitious and adventurous are the least happy. If you are happy then you are content and don’t go searching for stuff. So the most successful people tend to be the most unhappy. Thought some people do love the competition they can be happy.
Mu
