Happiness

Don’t be in Pursuit of Happiness
"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness."
Chuang Tzu

Everyone wants to be incessantly happy. However, most of us mistake pleasure for happiness. Pleasure is an emotion that you feel when things and events gratify your senses and feed your ‘Ego’. Happiness is a feeling of contentment and tranquility. Whatever boosts your ego gives you pleasure. It could be a small thing like a praise or compliment or getting a new car or a job or staying close to a person. Your ego’s existence is dependent upon constant pampering. After a short time, it gets bored with old things and needs new thing. It makes you run after new ways and things to please it. As long as you pursue things in search of happiness, you get pleasure for a short while followed by sadness. You have to understand that searching or pursuing happiness somewhere or in something makes it elusive. You are bound to experience happiness occasionally if you think happiness is the result of pursuing and accomplishing something.

Learn to be happy with what you have
While you pursue all that, you want.
Happiness is not something you postpone for the future;
It is something you design for the present
Jim Rohn

Happiness is not outside, it is inside you, and it is your nature.
It reminds me of a story about a cat who discovered that happiness was in her tail. She repeatedly tried to get it, but all she could do was run around in circles. Exhausted and frustrated with this endless pursuit, she eventually stopped. Then, she realized that if she'd just go on about her life then it would follow her wherever she went.
Power, fame and money can give you happiness only when you are sure that you are worthy of them. Remember JOY Belong to the family of FAITH. If you don’t have faith in yourself, you may have all the power, money but the insecurity won’t let you enjoy them. You happiness does not depend upon what you are or what you have, it depends on how you perceive yourself and life. As long as you are seeking to find happiness somewhere else, you are overlooking the essential truth that happiness is your true nature.
One day Mullah Nasruddin went out in the street and started searching frantically for something. A man who was observing this came up to him and asked him what was he searching.
Nasruddin replied, “I’ve lost my key”.
He also joined him in searching the key.
Few more onlookers joined them to help Nasruddin find the key. After some time someone asked Mullah where exactly, the key was lost.
“I lost the key in the house,” replied Nasruddin.
The man was taken aback. He asked him “Then why are you searching for it in the street?”
“Because there is more light here.” Replied the Mulla
Everybody is looking for the key to happiness. Most of us are searching for the key outside. The key is sought in power, in success, in relationships, in wealth, in others. You should desire all these, pursue them but at the same time remember that they are not capable of giving you happiness. The key of happiness lies within. If the key was lost within, it has to be searched within.
Why it is futile to pursue happiness?
If your happiness depends on fulfillment of a ‘desire ' then till the
time you get it you will go through a period of unhappiness. Your ego makes a fool of you by desiring one thing after another. It wants to be better than everyone else is. It is responsible for involving you in never ending rat race. It makes you run after things and people making you believe that once you get them you will be happy. What you don’t realize is that it always manages to find someone who is better than you are at something. Therefore, you are forever in the wanting stage, pursuing happiness but never getting it
What stops you from being happy?
Your response to situations and people makes you happy or unhappy. Misfortune in life, criticism, delay, failure cannot make you unhappy if you realize that all such things are transitory and none of them has the power to change your value. You are unhappy only when you decide you are incapable, unworthy or misfit. When you know you deserve the best and give your best to the life nothing can make you unhappy.
You are not happy when you pretend to be somebody else. When you are fake. Therefore, just be yourself. Follow your heart. It will never let you down.
What makes us happy?
You think that the smile on your child’s face makes you happy. If smile is the reason of your joy then you should experience the same happiness when others smile. Actually, it is the love for your child that makes you happy.
You think the beauty of flowers makes you happy. No, it is your ability to appreciate the beauty which makes you happy.
When somebody thanks you for the help you extended, you feel happy. It is not their gratitude but the compassion in you that makes you happy.
You think you are happy when you receive what you desire. It is not what you receive but the feeling of gratitude you experience that makes you happy.
When somebody praises you, it is not the words that make you happy but the knowledge that you deserve it makes you happy.
Always remember that whenever you get a brand new car, or you buy a house, find a soul mate, or get your dream job, it is not the car, house, job or your soul mate that makes you happy it is your love for them. Your happiness is in your hands. Nobody has the power to give or take it from you. If you love whatever you have, you will be always happy.
Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside
When it is inside.
Sri Ramana Maharshi