Genuine Happiness: What Is It? Where Do We Find It?

We all seek to be happy. This is a fact.
But are we searching for happiness in the direction that will actually produce it?

Happiness in Sanskrit is sukha. The term sukha points to a sense of well-being, a state of being, of existing, of living and relating to the world around us.

A deep well-being is not something constructed, temporary, or dependent on external factors, like the pleasure we feel when eating delicious food, receiving a gift, or enjoying the company of good friends.

We will know if we are truly happy when we are alone, with nothing to cling to, with no object of support that activates pleasant sensations. Simply being with ourselves, breathing in and breathing out, enjoying the natural presence of our being beyond any artifice of the ego.

This happiness is not merely a state of mind, because nothing is necessary for it to flourish. There is nothing that blocks it or propels it. It is what it is, free from all our mental constructions and projections. It is called the “Great Well-being” or the “Supreme Bliss” (maha sukha in Sanskrit).

There is no way to obtain it, because it is not a construction of our minds. It is a state of being present behind the scenes of the movie of our lives, the nature of the very luminously reflecting quality that projects images onto the clear and translucent screen of our heart-mind. This happiness arises naturally when we untie the knots created by our mind, our conditioning, our habitual impressions, our ways of perceiving ourselves and the reality around us.

Our being calls for harmony, seeks peace and contentment. Yet we create the opposite causes. Generally speaking, even as we seek true happiness, we nurture the causes for agitation, stress, depression, and sadness in our lives. We live in the fears of the past and the expectations of the future. We forget the present and enter an endless journey filled with illusions and mental creations out of sync with the moment where things are actually happening: now.

We pause for a few moments. We breathe deeply. We relax our body. We calm our energy. We quiet our mind. We notice that our body is grateful. That our energy shows signs of well-being. We recognize that our mind releases its tension and gently opens. We continue breathing and calming, enjoying the present moment, exactly where we are, in the retreat cave that is nothing other than the very environment of our minds. We develop the spiritual practice that is essentially the nurturing of good thoughts and the disinterest in everything that does not produce what we truly seek: balance, tranquility, love, and clarity. Gradually, we cultivate quiet rest, conscious rest, in peace; we become peace-aware. We recognize the nature of this moment, its qualities and extraordinary potential. Constructs of the past and future find no support in this natural enjoyment, this self-arising flourishing. The past has already passed. The future is yet to come. It is in the present that we plant the future. This exact moment is the most important place and time of our lives. Living each instant, aware of the unfolding of our consciousness in the here and now, cultivating the causes of our well-being, transforming how we look at the world and at ourselves, becoming familiar with who we truly are; this is the direction of our genuine happiness.

This is the essence of a healthy life, full of contentment, appreciation at every step, joy at every moment. It is flourishing at each moment, with each glance, with each smile, with each listening, with each exchange. Genuine happiness is very close. It only needs to be nurtured, recognized, and familiarized so that it becomes a continuity of being, existing, living, and flowing in life.