Why “the Pursuit of Happiness” is Creating Your Unhappiness
Trying to stay happy in Life is as easy as holding onto a greased watermelon while walking across a bed of hot coals…
We search, we find, we attach, we grasp, we fight to maintain and ultimately we suffer when conditions change and we lose what we thought would make us happy. Society tells us that happiness arrives when x,y,z happens. I don’t need to list any details, because we’re all highly aware of what Living the Dream Life means.
The dream is actually a nightmare…
What society fails to Realize is that ALL of Life is impermanent. Nothing stays. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Even the person who believes they are a fixed entity is always breaking down- cells are born and die in each moment. Our identity is constantly changing. We somehow miss the fact that this body that we currently reside in has zero resemblance to the body of the newborn or adolescent that we believe we used to be such a long time ago.
Attachment to identifying as the body-mind and believing “I Am this fixed person” is in direct conflict with the Reality of What Is.
Life is impermanent. Life is Unitive. Life is flow.
Impermanence is unrelenting. Impermanence never slips up. Impermanence never fails to enforce its core principle of deconstructing what Life constructs.
Impermanence…is also Happiness.
No, this is not some sort of joke.
When we come to Realize that “nothing stays” in Life…the idea of the fixed entity “individual” trying to hold Life together also falls away.
So, to find happiness, we simply must Realize that identifying as this small individual person who is fighting against Life- was a mistake. When the idea of “me” is dissolved- the sufferer searching for happiness dissolves as well. There is just What Is as It Is, impermanent Life, flowing ceaselessly as unrelenting change.
In the same way we lose ourselves in gazing at beautiful art, listening to mesmerizing music, hiking through majestic mountains, walking the sandy shore of the expansive ocean- we need to lose ourselves in daily Life.
This is why we start Spiritual practices. We seek Happiness…
The Spiritual search ends- when the Spiritual seeker disappears.
Happiness is not something you gain. Happiness arises when you, as this individual, fade away into the Impermanence of Life.
