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Happiness
by
Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose
All men, without exception, wish to have a happy life, and they work hard to attain it. To gain freedom and equality means, in the end, to live a happy life. Many wars have been fought for this prize. It seems as if all human history is the history of the struggle for the attainment of happiness. All our plans are directed to this end, and all our energies are spent to attain it. It seems happiness is the ultimate goal of life. Let us examine what this happiness is, that all of us seek, and the way to happiness everyone is looking for.
What is happiness? We must know clearly what the objective is when we seek. If we do not know, our effort may be in vain. The ancient Greeks thought that good is happiness. But in the middle and modern ages, Aristotle’s formal meaning that good is happiness has been altered to a more material meaning that happiness is pleasure or absence of pain. John Stuart Mill says in his Utilitarianism: “By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain in the absence of pleasure.” He gives qualitative differences in pleasure. John Dewey distinguishes between happiness and pleasure by saying that happiness is permanent and universal and is a feeling of the whole self, while pleasure is transitory and relative and is a feeling of some aspect of self. Aristotle says the good of man, the happiness, is an activity of the soul in accordance with excellence; or, if there are more excellences than one, in accordance with the best and the most perfect excellence. Spinoza says happiness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.
In Sanskrit happiness is called sukha. Sukha includes both the relativity static state that we name happiness or felicity, and the conscious moments of such a state to which our psychology refers as pleasurable or pleasant feeling. Sukha is applied alike to physical health, material well-being and spiritual beatitude. In Buddhism feeling is divided into three: sukha, happiness; dukkha, pain; and adukhamasukha, neutral feeling. The neutral feeling is identical with happiness, namely, happiness of the loftier kind. The pleasures and happiness arriving from the five senses we call the happiness of worldly desires. The loftier kind of joy arises in connections with the practice of dhyana, meditation. In the last stage of dhyana, all positive feeling, joy or melancholy, is merged in neutral feeling or indifference; perfect clarity of mind is attained and ignorance is banished, so that consciousness is in complete equanimity and clarity of mind. Sedgwick says that Buddhist happiness is universalistic hedonism because it is neither egoistic nor altruistic. Buddha’s mission was not only to overcome ill but to attain the good and happiness of all beings: happiness-bringing for self and others. In Buddhism the stride toward the goal is happiness, as compared with the Indian ascetics who sacrifice everything for a goal.
Now, to bring the subject closer to our daily life. We attain happiness in various ways in our daily life. However, we can divide it into three – physical, material, and spiritual. By physical I mean that one is happy because he is healthy, handsome or beautiful. Materially, one is happy because he/she is rich, lives in a nice home, owns a beautiful car, has many clothes, jewels, and plenty of good food. Mental and spiritual happiness is in friendship and love. Happiness is created when one is honored, praised, sympathized with, comforted, etc.
These conditions of happiness depend on external causes. Happiness is attained by possessing something or being given something by someone. Therefore, when the cause of the happiness is gone or destroyed, the happiness also disappears. It is beyond our control. Let us take some examples. Your physical happiness: you are young and beautiful, and handsome, and you are healthy and strong. Indeed, you’re happy and thankful. But suppose you have an accident and become crippled or you become sick. Your happiness cannot depend on your health. Of course, your beauty and strength will fade away with the passing of time. Therefore, health, beauty and strength are not to be depended upon for real eternal happiness, though they are important factors in our happiness. We have to attain a way of happiness other than the physical, so that we can enjoy life, and be happy and appreciative even though we are sick, or age, or crippled.
Kenko, a famous Buddhist priest and author of “Tsurezuregusa,” once said, “It is not worthwhile having a friend who has never had the experience of illness.” A person so healthy that he has never been sick does not understand the real meaning of sympathy and kindness. One was so healthy tends to become stubborn and to create friction and trouble. In this case, health is not the source of happiness but of trouble. Also, it is evident that the material happiness is uncertain and undependable. In this age of mammonisn, money is everything. People believe that the almighty dollar can buy anything and everything. True, money is very important in this pecuniary- conscious world. But happiness that is bought with money vanishes when the money is gone. Money brings happiness, but at the same time money brings misery. So money is not the way of happiness. A beautiful car, a fine home, good food, fine clothing and other belongings are in the same category. They are important and will bring happiness, but they are undependable and uncertain; and many times they bring suffering through destruction, theft or envy. Even the happiness brought by love, friendship, sympathy and the kindness of friends cannot be dependent on, for love often becomes hate, and friends become enemies, because they are all relative. Happiness that is brought by physical, material and mental means is attained through external causes. That is the very reason they are undependable. Therefore, we should look for internal rather than external causes of happiness.
Buddhism teaches us to look into the core of things, instead of looking around. We have to look within ourselves to see what creates happiness. For instance, “to be loved” is happiness, but “to love” also is happiness. It is happy to receive something; but also to give and share is happiness. The happiness of the giver is more permanent and rich than that of the recipient.
In the spirit of real giving and sharing, and loving, there is no limit. The happiness is the loving or sharing itself and not necessarily the result. The real enjoyment of work is in the working itself rather than the result of the work. Real happiness is not the happiness that is received from without but that which is created within. Modern people in general are result seekers. Their attitude is that if they will get some benefit they will do something; but if there is no profit, what is the use? The result seekers are profit seekers. In other words, modern people think the end is more important than the means. Someone has said that two modern ideologies are represented by Stalin and Gandhi: Gandhi’s way is that the means are as important as the end, while for Stalin the end is so important that the end justifies the means.
Buddhists are taught that every step and every means are very important. Every means itself is an end. For artists, musicians, and sculptors the work itself is pleasure and happiness, but for moneymakers work is only the means to make money. Work is pain and suffering, and the suffering is to be compensated by the spending of money; this is modern life. I feel very sorry for people who live this type of life. The most happy and fortunate person is he who enjoys his work besides earning money.
The real way of happiness is the realization of one’s life itself. It is the unfolding of the whole self. The real way of happiness is in the way of giving, rather than happiness in receiving. We must find a way of love rather than that of being loved. It is a life of always giving, loving, sharing, and the enjoyment of work that is always creative and has no end, while the other ways of happiness turn into failures or disappointment. True happiness is not given to us - we create it.
If you are unhappy, do not blame others or your environment. It is your mind, your attitude, that makes you miserable. Changing place, or work, may help, but that is not the complete cure for your trouble and unhappiness. The right attitude and a clear and right mind are the way to happiness.
Excerpt in gratitude from: Everyday Suchness, Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose. Dharma House Publications, Coarsegold - 2008
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