Happiness and Unhappiness: Mind Games

Tilt Your Head Back
and Laugh at the Sky

Mmmmm…. Buddha. Buddha quotes and their subtleties.

Some might believe from this quote that being a happy person is a matter of thinking happy thoughts, of believing in being happy. However, Buddha also said happiness of the mind is nice for the moment, but such happiness is impermanent… it’s still Dukkha — Suffering. As quickly as I can convince my mind that I’m happy, something else can come along and convince it I’m not.

To put it more bluntly, thinking I’m happy is unhappiness. Thinking I’m happy is a tabulation of objects and conditions that make me happy. But happiness isn’t a set of conditions or a state of mind. In Buddha’s teachings, complete happiness, Nibhanna, is experienced only by the enlightened. Everyone else suffers, at least a little.

Enlightenment is a way of being. A Daoist might say it is a way of being which is at one with the Dao, The Way, or Oneness. The quiet mind is a mind at rest, at peace. Peace, being at peace, is the simplest way to understand happiness, the most durable kind of happiness I can understand. Peace is not achieved. It’s not won, nor is it earned. To have peace, be peaceful. Simply let all that is not peace fall away. Do not attempt to acquire peace; relinquish disease … dis ease. Chief among my dis eases is the desire for conditions that will make me happy, or at least a state in which I can be happy.

The master has nothing, desires nothing and loves everything; the master sees how perfect everything is, tilts her head back and laughs at the sky. The master does not think she is happy. Happiness is a state of mind and so, is ephemeral, impermanent, Dukkha. The master is manifest happiness. Buddha demonstrated this another way when a man said to him: “I want Happiness.”