What is happiness? Happiness is not just pleasure. We confuse happiness with pleasure. Pleasure comes from the gratification of senses, from material possessions, and even from people.
The foundation of eternal bliss is peace. How can we find peace of mind? Peace, we cannot find as it is within us, and we only have to still our minds.
So, what is this state of meditation, contemplation, introspection and reflection? It is a state where we stop the dangerous MK-50, the weapon Mind-Killer 50 that shoots at us 50 toxic thoughts every minute. The mind can bombard us with up to 50000 miserable thoughts every day.
How can we be happy when we are full of thoughts of fear, worry, stress, anxiety, regret, shame and guilt? The aggression of these toxic thoughts can even lead us to depression. If we want happiness, it is not enough to just run after pleasure. Pleasure comes and goes, we need the true treasure of peace and finally, the ultimate peak of happiness — purpose.
If we want only pleasure, which is fleeting, then we do not need meditation, introspection and reflection. We can just have fun till life is done. But then, we will not go beyond pleasure. We will be caught in the cycle of pleasure and pain, sun and rain, loss and gain. For the treasure of eternal bliss and everlasting happiness, we need peace. And where there is a mind, even if it is a small piece of mind, peace we cannot find. Peace is a state of being where we are still, meditative when we are in a state of introspection or self-reflection.
Therefore, we must understand what happiness is. We must also realize that happiness is something that we cannot ‘find’. It is within us.
The problem is that we are trying ‘to become’ happy, but in reality, we have to learn ‘to be’ happy. Sometimes, we can be peaceful and blissful, watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or just staring up at birds flying in the sky. This is peace and this is the foundation of happiness. So, if we are seeking happiness, then the way is to be meditative, introspective, and reflective. These are practices we can apply to reach that state known as consciousness, awareness, mindfulness, and ‘thought-lessness’.
For this, we have to flip over from a toxic state of mind to a state of peace, a state of consciousness, and a state of awareness. This comes with introspection and reflection. And the only way to do this is to still the mind. We don’t have to run to find peace of mind. All we have to do is to be still, to silence the mind.
What does solitude do? Solitude is silence. What does the state of silence create? The state of realization that happiness is within us, we can be happy. We should not say, ‘I want to be happy.’ The moment we ‘want’ to be happy, we cannot be happy. We must choose to be happy, and we can choose to be happy when we are still because when we still have the mind, we kill the mind. Then peace we find, and that subsequent state of happiness becomes our state of being.
Unfortunately, we have been taught that success is happiness and so, we run after success. And because of that, we are unable to be still. How many of us have experienced solitude? Solitude that gives us freedom from the toxic mind? How many of us have reached that state of reflection that empowers us to go beyond pleasure and peace to ultimately find the purpose of our existence? Because when we find purpose, the third peak of happiness, we realize, ‘Who am I? I am not the body, mind and ego that suffers. I am consciousness. I am Divinity.’ This realization can only come with introspection. It can only come with solitude. In the noise of this world, we cannot hear the Divine voice that is within us. We cannot reach that state of eternal bliss, of peace, of love.
Therefore, let us spend time in solitude. Let us spend time in introspection. Let us evolve from the run of achievement to the peace of fulfilment and ultimately, that eternal bliss that comes from enlightenment, a gift that we can attain through the practice of solitude, meditation, introspection and reflection.
