Understanding the heart - Happiness

There is no happiness that falls from the sky, nor any paradise that is all happiness. Because the idea of happiness is only when people know how to feel suffering.

Happiness is always the greatest desire of human beings. Depending on the understanding of each person through each society and each era, happiness is conceived differently. People have constant bad luck, so they insist that there is no happiness in this world. Young people who dream of happiness must be wonderful and believe that it is only at the end of the path they are taking. And so many classes of people have gone most of their lives and still chase happiness like a game of catch: sometimes when they catch it, it disappears, sometimes they think they are empty-handed, they see it suddenly appear. Although everyone wants to be happy, when asked what happiness is, most people are very confused. They define in a very vague way, or just smile in guilt.

Didn't I, like any young person, ever feel so happy when I picked up my diploma after years of struggling with that book lamp? However, then we complain that we have to get a job with a lot of money, make everyone admire to be really happy. Then that feeling of happiness does not stay long, we think if we cannot marry the person we love, what is called happiness. And in a short time, I stood by and looked like I had one child, and then another for the pleasure of the house, pleasing the two of them. Those happy days come and go in a hurry, now we wish to move out separately, to own an expensive apartment, to call complete happiness. Then when we see that everyone's friends drive new cars, their children go to prestigious schools, their positions are admired by many people, so we are afraid that if we do not keep up with them, the happiness we have is only mediocre, not worth it.

Let's just drop the catch, stand here and look at that mountain. After all, we don't know what happiness is. Although we feel happiness is the feeling of pleasure, pleasure, comfort when we achieve what we want, we cannot explain why these feelings come and go in such a hurry. Then I ignored it, not bothering to find out more. We live our old habits, pouring all our energy into grasping things that we firmly believe we can't be happy without them. Strangely, we don't know what in the present can make us happy, so how can we be sure what in the future can make us happy? Is happiness a matter of time or space? Does happiness need to meet the optimal conditions for it? Can't those who don't have these conditions be happy?

In fact, the conditions of happiness are always present, only it no longer appeals to us. Not because it has lost its usefulness, but because our need for enjoyment has changed, we quickly become bored. Partly because our instincts for enjoyment are so great, partly because we are deeply influenced by social consciousness. Sometimes, we struggle for decades to acquire a precious item because we fear that without it our lives will not be safe, or just because we want to prove to others who we are, but how much we can enjoy it. All our struggles are all about having a lot of material comforts and spiritual comforts (honor), to satisfy our emotions, to serve our unstoppable appetite for enjoyment.

If we think that happiness is the emotion that is satisfied when enjoyed, then even in this present moment we have a multitude of conditions through which we can survive steadily, then why do we assume that we do not have happiness yet? A pair of bright eyes to see scenery and loved ones, a pair of strong legs that can go anywhere, a stable job that both brings economic income and helps us express our talents, a loving family gives us a solid fulcrum, a knowledge sufficient for us to broaden our horizons to the vast world, a generous heart so that we can be close and accept so many people What is that not a condition of happiness? Just look a little deeper, we will see that we own a lot of things, more than we realize. Therefore, do not because of some unfulfilled things that we rush to lament heaven and earth that we are the unhappiest person in the world.

A wise person does not need to run to the future in search of things that bring only momentary emotions. They will spend a lot of time and energy to arouse and preserve the values of happiness they have. We don't need too many comforts, just live peacefully and happily, and we are happy. Even when life is not very stable, we can still be happy because we are lucky enough to keep this life. Look at someone dying in a hospital, someone trying to emerge from an earthquake, someone who narrowly lost a loved one, and you know what happiness looks like. Their happiness is normal: sometimes it's just a breath, a handful of rice or one last glance. Therefore, there is no special happiness in the future, let's not look for it. Maybe it's just different emotional states. And emotions are only addictions, never enough!

When we hear that our loved ones are trapped in a snowstorm, although we are lying in a warm mattress, we cannot be happy. Now, we don't need that feeling of pleasure anymore. As long as we are there in time to help our loved ones, even if we have to experience the bitter cold feeling in a snowstorm, we are satisfied. As well as parents who work hard all day to earn money to support their children's successful education. Although they have to accept physical fatigue, they still feel very happy that they have fulfilled their wishes. As well as political activists who accept sacrifices to contribute to the cause of national liberation. Although they were tortured very painfully, they still felt proud to have fulfilled their ideals. So happiness is not just pleasant emotions, sometimes we have to sacrifice those feelings in exchange for deeper happiness: the satisfaction of willpower.

Although the satisfaction of the will still stands on the basis of self-serving—doing what we want to do—it is a very subtle enjoyment that takes a lot of deep attention for us to realize. It transcends the trivial demands of habit, pours out its survival instincts to endure, and uses all its knowledge and training skills to handle it. Therefore, its qualities will certainly be more sustainable than the kind of happiness simply created by emotional bouts. Because the nature of emotions is constantly changing according to the mind and the dominance of surrounding objects. That is, happiness is more emotionally satisfied than happiness when willpower is satisfied.

So when we encounter difficult circumstances, confronting unpleasant feelings, we do not rush to fight back. Be aware that you are accomplishing a great purpose, so you cannot ask for trivial comforts. If the difficulty of the situation reaches a climax, causing discomfort to turn into suffering, we should not rush to run away. It is this suffering that helps us realize the value of happiness. Just as we have been hungry, we know the preciousness of food; Having endured the cold of winter, we expect the sunshine to return; Having been separated by loss, I cherish every moment of reunion; Having experienced a fatal accident, I love this life so much. So let us not be afraid of suffering, nor do we divide between happiness and suffering, because without suffering we would not know what happiness is.

Remember, jade is only in rocks and lotus is only in mud. Jade is crystallized from gravel and stone, lotus is crystallized from dirty mud. It is impossible to search for jade outside the rock or for lotus in the mud. In the same way, there is no happiness that falls from the sky, nor any paradise that is full of happiness. Because the idea of happiness is only when people know how to feel suffering. Happiness cannot be without suffering and is also inseparable from suffering. What better place is there in this world than this, for it has both happiness and suffering!

The happiness of living with someone you love is often not intact after two or three years. The happiness of buying the desired house usually does not last more than two or three months. The happiness of being promoted is often forgotten as soon as two or three weeks. Praised happiness usually goes up in smoke after only two or three hours. Then we have a thirst to find and permissively believe that someone in the future will bring us lasting happiness. My happiness is short-lived. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and energy to build, but then it just cruelly leaves us alone. Because we've borrowed external conditions, molded them into things for our enjoyment, we can't control it. We know very well the reason but we can't help it, because we can't overcome the darkness of our own greed.

In fact, emotionally satisfying happiness or will-satisfying happiness also comes from the human mind, not external conditions. But those are shallow psychological parts that haven't seen our deep inner value. The psychological state of not wanting to look for anything more and not needing to eliminate anything is true happiness. It is content and accepts it all. It is true because it is created from the peace of one's own heart, not depending on external circumstances. That's why the ancients used to say that peanuts must be associated with peace – peace – to be sustainable. A person who has no money, no power, no admiration, but can always smile and be deeply in touch with the mysterious values of reality, isn't that the happy type? Living like that is really worth living!

The desire and the opposition, everyone has. Many people experience some great upheaval in their lives when those energies suddenly decline. But most of them have to practice diligently day by day to transform those long-standing habits. In fact, our desires or oppositions are just reactions that serve our foolish egos. We just need to recognize our true nature, stay awake to know what we're doing and with what attitude, and learn to let go of unnecessary attachments and opposition. As a result, this little ego will melt into the universe, it will work in tune with people and things. The happiness within us will be infinitely open.

It can be said that whatever our mind is, we will feel happiness like that. Because happiness is always in our minds – here and now.

Smiling at the flower
Broken doubt
Happiness here and
eternal foolishness.

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