What is happiness? (Buddhism, Buddhism, taoism)

[Francine]

Originally Posted by Somkid

I'm a Chan Buddhist which is mixed with Tao most people don't get it including many other Buddhists, I like to refer to it as Buddhism light.

I think elements of my Taoism is mixed with Zen Buddhism, because I have a profound disrespect toward words, and like to play with them as though they were a child's straw dog.

[Saint Tigeress]

Originally Posted by Master Vigil

When we think of happiness, what do we think about? What is the true nature of happiness, and is it something we want, have, need, don't need, etc...

Can we really ask ourselves... "Am I happy?"

When I think of happy I'm running butt-naked through the rain in the middle of the night with my friends!! That's happy!! It turns to fun when you gotta sneak.

I don't think it is healthy to "need," happiness. Happiness comes all on its own. We want it, but it is not a constant no matter how much you try to make it that way. What is the most important is how one handles the unhappy times.

[Francine]

Originally Posted by Saint Tigeress

Happiness comes all on its own. We want it, but it is not a constant no matter how much you try to make it that way. What is the most important is how one handles the unhappy times.

I'm a melancholy person. I run cool most of the time. Moments of happiness are like those rare instances of beauty that stand out in your mind, a rainbow against a dark thundercloud, a setting sun turning all the clouds and trees pink. To seek happiness all the time is like eating nothing but cotton candy, and watching nothing but the circus 24/7.

[Saint Tigeress]

Originally Posted by Francine

To seek happiness all the time is like eating nothing but cotton candy, and watching nothing but the circus 24/7.

I knew a girl in high school like that. It was really sad actually. The people close to her knew that deep down she was faking it most of the time. I don't know why she did that. But she did all through High School and I think finally laid off once she got into college.

[zenzero]

Friends,
Here find that Melissa G talks about HAPPINESS? But am sure the Op meant was about a permanent Happiness. As had discussed one way is do not be attached with either THIS or THAT, Happiness/Sadness etc. The other is whatever you face take everything as happiness even its a period of crisis take that happily and slowly happiness will settle in you.
Real happiness has nothing to do with the happenings OUTSIDE of the self. If the self is happy, at all times it becomes a force/wave and spreads and comes back to us with greater force.
Happiness here is bliss but then that is what one is born with and those who live in the garden of Eden cannot be anything else but Happy.
Love & rgds

[Francine]

Originally Posted by zenzero

Real happiness has nothing to do with the happenings OUTSIDE of the self. If the self is happy, at all times it becomes a force/wave and spreads and comes back to us with greater force.

The vulgar are clever, self-assured;
I alone, depressed.
Patient as the sea,
Adrift, seemingly aimless.

The people of the world all have a purpose;
I alone appear stubborn and uncouth.
I alone differ from the other people,
And value drawing sustenance from the Mother. (TTC 20)

[idea]

Do you mind if I barge in? It is peaceful here...
I think happiness is letting go of everything, not wanting anything, or needing anything, just being content with what is around you and not feeling the need to change any of it... if that makes sense... happy is being content? Sometimes I think I am supposed to be progressing, learning more, getting better at things, pushing myself.. but happy is just being content with what is. Part of it also is how we see others, if you can be with another, not controlling, or putting on a show in front of them, or trying to get anything out of them, just being there with them...

closest descript I could find of this way of being...
sorry to cut-n-paste, I read this - it sounded happy to me. link

One summer our family drove to our friend Bob Amott's cabin on the Snake River in Idaho for our vacation. On the way we sang together for what seemed like hours: "Barges" and "Mrs. O'Leary" and the Jell-O commercial and a couple of dozen other rounds, faster and louder and more creatively with every mile that passed. Nobody got tired. What stopped our singing was someone's saying, "Anybody remember the time when . . . ?" Invariably Matthew's recollections were the funniest because he could remember every detail of everything that had ever happened to him and could mimic all the people in the story. The windows were down because the station wagon wasn't air-conditioned, and all the children had their feet out to feel the breeze around their ankles and through their toes. I could tell that Susan had freed her mind of the lists of doings that preoccupied her at home, and I thought, "This is exactly how it's supposed to be."

What does it take to achieve such emotional intimacy? The fundamental ingredient is an awakening of each individual to the others and a willing effort to respond without any personal agenda in exactly the way that seems most right, considerate, and helpful. Susan had opened herself to a lively gratitude for the closeness we were all feeling for one another—even though, to her embarrassment, we had left the flowerbed by our front stairs still unplanted. I had tossed overboard my worries about the work deadline I would not meet, as if they were baggage too heavy for the trip. Andrea was not thinking about Cassie's having broken her water-color box that very morning; diffident and cautious though she was, she accepted and appreciated her rambunctious little sister without any reservation. And when Tim leaned his head on Emily's shoulder and later draped his legs across her lap—invasions of her space that had thrown her into a tizzy on other occasions—she did not find him the least bit annoying, but instead became his older and wiser sponsor and read him stories when the others slept. No one expressed appreciation out loud—indeed, I may have been the only one thinking how happy and perfect was this day—but for each of us the others mattered more than defending our individual rights and ensuring our personal comfort. The profound sense of connection we felt one to another that summer's day would not have been possible except for the capacity in each of us to sense one another's inward yearnings, fears, and love....

The part of our nature that is sensitive to the reality of others makes possible both our deepest sorrows and our deepest joys. It is by this capacity that we are able to attune ourselves one to another, soul to soul, and bond together in friendship, love, and loyalty, (that we find happiness). ...

[d.]

my opinion; you need to let go of 'happiness' and 'unhappiness'. take a step back, or go beyond. and don't spend so much time on discussion forums.

[zenzero]

Friend idea,
Just read your post and like to say that you have described happiness in the best manner through your experience.
That is fine.
What is important to understand is that when you are talking of happiness then the other pole or 8UNhappiness* too is created by default. Both are true and REAL. For a buddha it is to be in the middle not on either side of the pendulum. Life is like the swing of a pendulum between happiness and unhappiness and buddhas though they go through the motions in totality but do not identify themselves with either. They always remain in the middle when the pendulum is neither in the zone of happiness or unhappiness. That is BALANCE. That is when your karma does not have any carry forward as you are not accepting any results or rather not attached to either results be it good or bad.
That is what may be called a state of permanent bliss or happiness.
Love & rgds