What Is Happiness?

It is not needing anything, being carefree. It is sense of relief, of contentment. Happiness is emptiness awareness without elaborations. It’s associated with bliss, a word that comes from blithe. Blithe: showing a casual and cheerful indifference, considered to be callous or improper: a blithe disregard for the rules.

Happiness is not what you think: it is true being.
The result of happiness is true confidence.
The result of true confidence is compassion.
The result of compassion is happiness.

We can’t lose, as there is nothing to lose.
😀

Every time we sit down, we experience a sense of relief; just for a moment, everything drops away and the mind is empty. There is an instant when we just sit, and there’s nothing to do…and then we get involved in what to do next!

A question may arise here about the aspect of ‘callous’ and ‘improper’. Everything has its opposite. There are five Buddha families, each with their own wisdom quality – and a corresponding neurotic quality (for more detail, search ‘Buddha Families’). One of these families is called “the Buddha Family” and is the experience of spaciousness, having a carefree quality. Its negative side, however, is being spaced-out and careless.

Being ‘callous’ or ‘improper’ could mean that we just don’t care – or it could mean that we are not driven by hope and fear, while remaining mindful of others. The hallmark of a proper approach to being improper is having intelligent compassion towards ourselves and others.

In this state of happiness, if something nice comes along, we acknowledge it and let it go. If something ugly comes along, we acknowledge it and let it go. We can appreciate the experience of both joy, and the lack of joy; in absolute reality, it’s all one taste. In relative reality however, we have to know what is beneficial and what is not.

The outcome of one taste – where there is no judgement – allows clarity to arise, and in that clarity we can then bring forth a quality of judgement that will bring about balance without bias.