Happiness

The Internet is replete with articles about happiness. There is a plethora of information on how to be happy, but I still suppose that the majority of people are not happy and they don’t know why. The issue is a cliché and I was not sure if I should write about happiness until I watched a video by Ajahn Brahm.

Ajahn Brahm is a British-Australian Buddhist monk. He is involved in many undertakings, including spiritual advisory. I am not used to watching those kinds of videos, nevertheless, my very good friend told me that the video is a joy to behold. I trust him and I simply watched it. After watching it, I had an epiphany. I realized that the monk is absolutely right. I have been meditating everyday for two years and I have known I have been on a good path to happiness, but I have felt a lack of a piece of knowledge, I have felt I missed something, something essential. Due to Ajahn Brahm, I believe I know how to achieve real happiness.

Before we go to the main point, we have to find out a little about happiness. What is happiness? How many kinds of happiness do we know?

Firstly, we can find a couple of definitions in a dictionary, namely:

1. “Good luck with projects and life situations.”
2. “A feeling of joy and everything that causes that feeling .“
3. “A situation when a few good pieces of information come at the same moment.”

After reading, it is not clear what happiness is, however, we can conclude some things. According to the first point, we can say that we are happy when we achieve something at work, when we get a mortgage for a dream apartment and when everything runs like clockwork.

The second point tells us about happiness when we feel joy. For example, recently, I felt joy when I bought a good face cream, hand cream and new AirPods PRO. Does it mean I was happy? Yes, I was happy indeed.

The last point suggests that we are happy when we receive good news at the same moment or one after another. That is also true. Last week, my brother told me he was better after the COVID-19, a kindergarten teacher hailed my son, and finally, I was told that I would receive a bonus at work. Was I happy? Yes, I was.

All the mentioned things are true. We are happy when we buy something for ourselves or for someone we care about, when something is achieved by us, when everything moves along. Nevertheless, it is only a short feeling of happiness, a drop in the ocean. After a few days, it disappears. We even can say that this is more like satisfaction which is fleeting.

Have you ever thought about why many poor people are happy? In the nineties, when I was a teenager, all my friends’ families were middle class, including mine. I still remember their smiles, kindness and happiness. In spite of the fact that they didn’t have a lot of money and big houses, they were happy. I just saw it. They appreciated what they had, small common things. Family, children, health and food on the table were enough for them. They were simply grateful for everything that they had. It is obvious that all of them had problems to solve, sometimes they had arguments, but they were able to deal with it.

Sometimes I wonder if times have changed us. Nowadays, we are similar to the American culture. We believe that bigger is better, more is better, things matter. We attend the rat race and I suppose we get lost somewhere. We can’t digest the information we receive everyday, we are busy all the time and we don’t know where we run to. We sacrifice our precious time browsing social media and watching TV. We are somewhere every time. We cannot be present, we cannot be in one place at one time. Only our bodies are present, nevertheless, when it comes to our mind, we are somewhere else.

I mentioned the mind. Being present is crucial for happiness. Only if we are able to experience the present, are we in a good way to happiness. Furthermore, I believe that being present causes us to be more grateful for small things like delicious dinner, talking with a partner, time with a child, reading a book, taking a shower etc. If we know all of these things matter, we will cope with tough times easier.

Gratitude and being present take us to an essential term — peace of mind. It is something which leads us to real, long and strong happiness. Being in peace helps us forgive everyone and let everything go. Isn’t it beautiful to not worry about the past and future? Isn’t it extraordinary if we don’t have an axe to grind with everyone? Isn’t it splendid if we are not envious? Peace of mind is like an enormous relief. Unfortunately, we are only human and it is not easy to achieve. To be in peace with the mind, we have to sacrifice a lot of time. We have to be patient and practice everyday. It will be fruitful, and I promise, it is worth our efforts. May you be happy. Remember that.