authored by 蔡莉姵师兄
Image by Tim Hill from Pixabay
What is Happiness?
To be honest, if someone asks me whether I am happy at the moment, my reply would be “I’m not sure”. Happiness is something I have sought since young. The search began unconsciously from the days i was born, and later vaguely, as I started to toddle around. Then onward until today, the quest for happiness has been a conscious one, with and without much efforts put in.
What is happiness? This state we seek to acquire could have been moments of satisfaction and comfort, or it could have been when both the joy and elation present together, or maybe even the rare peace, calm we felt when things seem to go according to plan. Everyone defines it differently in precision.
If we are to contemplate the happiness we want, can we be certain that those situations and stuffs will really bring us happiness? Will we want more when the so-called joyful situation is present? Will we not worry whether the lovely moment will be gone anytime? Will we not be crushed after we lost what we think made us happy before? Worst, even the idea of happiness itself seems to have many origins. Some are our ideals, such as the lifestyle we wish to have; others are either our parents’ expectations of us or the peer pressure felt within our social circles. Even the norms within our society dictate our very notion of happiness.
The Old Dark Days…
Truth to be told, the dark days of unhappiness are more vivid in my mind than my happy memories. I still remembered distinctly how a quarrel with a friend led me to suffer in six years. Thus, I entered university in such a state, willingly finding clues on how to move on. Until today, I appreciate what I have found and am still learning a lot from the simple yet wiser truth shared by the Buddha, the law of dependent origination. The lessons that we are what we are because of ourselves and that changes are always possible within ourselves and within others are often relevant to what we are experiencing, both happiness and sufferings. Looking back then, no one was at fault in that incident. It is our own choices which had led to the broken friendship.
Image by Marisa04 from Pixabay
Accepting Happiness
Indeed, it is a choice of the conscious mind to be happy, the consequences being the conscious actions to create the state of happiness itself. Each day, it is a lesson to accept oneself, who is imperfect, as well as to accept people around us as they are, who seek happiness like us, yet are no less of a human being than us. Though not there yet, I find myself less agitated, less frustrated, less irritated, and somehow a bit calmer in the process. If this is the way of happiness, then I would gladly embrace the lessons every moment, accepting happiness with my own hands here and now.
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