The Nature of Happiness

Does happiness exist? Stupid question? Well, not at least for those who feel they are unhappy. And of course for those who believe they are happy, it may well not be a stupid question because they can offer a resounding yes to the query.

So if you're still with me, there is a difference, isn't there, between happiness as an object to be experienced and experiencing life from the perspective of happiness, no?

. I believe that I choose happiness but at times peak experiences of 'happiness' seem to just happen and at that moment no matter what I am doing occurs within that mood or mode. My concern was the over-objectification of ...happiness as something we are seeking out kind of like a thing unto itself. Or presuming that there is some one thing or kind of thing that will 'make' us happy while others will not. While it does seem to me that some things stand in the way of happiness, it doesn't seem that there are other things that will necessarily promote happiness.

I don’t know if contentment is an alternative to happiness which is better or not. It seems to raise the same questions I have about “happiness.” Of course in the living and knowing of such things on an ordinary, everyday basis, it’s not an issue. But given the occupational hazard of philosophy professor it raises certain issues. On the other hand, it wouldn’t really be a philosophical issue if it wasn’t a lived concern. I have a certain kind of resoluteness about happiness, contentment, etc. And yet, something does remain unresolved if I’m really honest with myself. It’s not that I’m searching for it, like the right answer. But it is kind of like continuing to breathe. If I don’t breathe, I don’t live. If I don’t think/write/discuss I’m not alive in the fullest most robust sense of that experience.

A friend responded to me with this: " "Seeking "happiness", I believe, is that subconscious part of our Being that longs to re-member itself with Oneness that we came from while we are here experiencing duality. A type of homesickness for our Spirit. The ego, which is the reason we feel separated from Oneness filters "happiness" as something to be gained from material things and attaches an emotional "score" to all things desired." "

So, according to the latter view, 'happiness' isn't a goal but a means or a link to Oneness and presumably something, so to speak, that transcends happiness, something like Bliss, Ananda. Happiness then would be a healthy state pointed in the right direction spiritually. Lastly I would interpret the notion that "the ego filters happiness" as a short-circuiting of happiness by treating it as a goal rather than a means. It quantifies happiness and seeks better happiness in terms of more, even though it doesn't see it as ending up being nothing more than "more" of the same but not better.