Am I Happy?

 (this is only relevant if you are asking the question yourself)

 Happiness means different things to different people.

 Happiness: Well adapted, well being, contentment, pleasure, contentedness, satisfaction, cheerfulness, cheeriness, merriment, merriness, gaiety, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, joviality, jollity, jolliness, glee, blitheness, carefreeness, gladness, delight, good spirits, high spirits, light-heartedness, good cheer, well-being, enjoyment, felicity; exuberance, exhilaration, elation, ecstasy, delirium, jubilation, rapture, bliss, blissfulness, euphoria, beatitude, transports of delight; heaven, paradise, seventh heaven, cloud nine; humorousdelectation; rarejouissance.

 Like everything else, if we look closely and simplify, we can arrived at a startling conclusion.

 To start with: is there a cause for this happiness? If there is, then that cause is a condition (everything is created by causes and conditions). If there is a cause for happiness, then it is conditional happiness – a happiness that relies on conditions. If we take those conditions away, then the happiness must also go, and therefore, conditional happiness is the cause of suffering!

 The good news is that, if there is conditional happiness, there must be unconditional happiness – a happiness that does not rely on conditions. This happiness is not subject to likes and dislikes as is conditional happiness. It is beyond judgements, because we step back into empty essence, aware nature and unconditional, unconfined compassion.

 So yes, you (essential nature) are happy!
Your conventional mind (clinging to concepts and belongings) isn’t!

 Can both happen at the same time?
Yes!

 We are absolute truth. The concepts we hold are relative truth. We always know that whatever we hold onto won’t last because it is impermanent: it is based on temporary causes and conditions. This causes us suffering. The moment we recognise, we can let go…more or less 😉 We hold on to nothing – it is fleeting and we let go. Like enjoying a sunset, we see as through a child’s mind, and not a scholar’s.

 There is nothing to let go of: knowing one thing, we can know everything. In trying to know everything, we may miss the one thing. When we understand our true nature (empty essence), anything is allowed to arise in it, dwell for a time and dissolve. If we hold on to these arisings, this will fill empty essence, which will be thus forgotten.

 Once we recognise our true nature of empty essence, cognisant nature and unconfined capacity, there is a realisation that there is nothing more. In Sanskrit, it is known at the three kayas, which describe our enlightened nature. Because of this recognition of there being nothing more, there is a sense of relief that we have arrived at a conclusion. This brings about a sense of tremendous joy, bliss, contentment…in other words, happiness! We realise it is our true nature.

 However, this unconditional happiness still has to work through its karmic debt, and that’s why this realisation needs a firm foundation to accept everything as one taste, and thereby create no more karma (arising from likes and dislikes).

 But we can still enjoy the expression – and display it for the benefit of others.

 The more we experience unconditional happiness,
the more we experience unconditional love,
the more happy we are.

 Then we can just happily be…well adapted, have well being, contentment, pleasure, satisfaction, cheerfulness, cheeriness, merriment, merriness, gaiety, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, joviality, jollity, jolliness, glee, blitheness, carefreeness, gladness, delight, good spirits, high spirits, light-heartedness, good cheer, well-being, enjoyment, felicity; exuberance, exhilaration, elation, ecstasy, delirium, jubilation, rapture, bliss, blissfulness, euphoria, beatitude, transports of delight; heaven, paradise, seventh heaven, cloud nine; humorous delectation; rare jouissance!

 Once we understand the theory of this, when we look around and see that everything in this physical world is work in progress – things are unfinished and there is always something to do – now we can accept this ongoing process, and be content within it.

Happy within. Happy without.