HAPPINESS is somehow seen as transitory, elusive, mysterious, and yes, mirage like. It remains the goal of most people (for who would work towards being unhappy?) yet, it also carries with it the connotation of frivolity, of selfishness, of neurosis, of being preoccupied with one's self.
Though we all want to be happy is there a way towards it? Can we follow some pattern or path and then achieve this all fleeting of goals? Is happiness and end in itself or is it the by product of other goals in life? Are we living so that in the end everything works out for the better? and the minute things go wrong we panic because we feel happiness sliding away from our reach.
I have been reading many books on 'pursuit of happiness', The happiness project by Gretchen Rubin, the Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama to name just two. I have supplemented these with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor who wrote his keen observations on his life. Then there are the soppy love stories of self-discovery by Richard Bach. All this reading has gotten me thinking on what happiness is and why we are so hung up on getting it within our grasp?
I am not saying that I like to suffer and be sad and unhappy, of course not. What I am trying to say is that is happiness achievable by consciously pursuing it? Isn't it spontaneous? Isn't it just the beauty of the 'flow' of things, isn't the best part about being happy is that we don't have to worry about being happy?
The Dalai Lama says that happiness is absence of suffering and alleviation of pain, and the more we strive to do that, the more we succeed in doing that we can come close to being happy. He believes there is a way to happiness, and what that way is I will only find out on finishing the book.
I, like, every other reasonable person want to be happy, want my close ones to be happy, and if there is a sure way of getting there I want to know and I want to try. Rubin, in her book The Happiness Project says that happiness is surely achievable and it can be reached by making small changes in our lives. We don't necessarily have to drastically change our lives to be happy, we just have to make the right changes as she shows in her book.
Can I find a sure shot way of my own to perpetual and continuous happiness?
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