We all say that we want to be happy,
But what do we mean by happiness?
Are there different kinds of happiness?
We all need a home where we feel safe,
Finances,
Music,
Laughter,
Going to the movies with our friends.
But despite having all of these,
Can we say that we're truly happy?
I'm sure you've noticed those feelings of pleasure and joy never seem to last.
And there's a simple reason for this.
I like to call it the pain-pleasure cycle.
Think of it like the fuel tank in your car,
Almost like a happiness tank that is starting to go empty.
It starts with a feeling of dissatisfaction.
And that feeling is quite uncomfortable inside of us.
And as soon as we notice that we have that,
We want to fix the feeling.
And the way we do this is we seek out pleasures.
We see it as a way of filling up our happiness tank.
And at this point,
We will settle for any form of entertainment that can fill that tank.
But as we've all noticed,
That fuel doesn't last very long.
And very soon,
The pleasure starts to fade.
And as soon as the thing that is keeping us happy is no longer there,
We go back to feeling empty again.
And we live our whole life like this.
From Monday to Friday,
We experience stress.
And on the weekend,
We chase pleasures to fill that tank again.
And it feels like our whole life,
Happiness is always dependent on something else.
When we look at how spiritual masters,
Gurus,
And saints talk about their life,
These are the words that they use.
They say that they experience a blissful euphoria day and night.
They say life seems sweet,
Playful,
And joyful.
They talk about their life being intoxicated with a divine love,
Like their life is a song.
Now,
Can we really say that our life is like this?
What is it that is so different from our life and theirs?
Do they have a lot more comforts and joys?
Or do they have a different way of thinking about life?
Most of us believe that in order to be happy,
We should be doing the things that we enjoy.
But the masters tell us that we should be enjoying the things we do.
