The Pursuit of Happiness

We try so many things to be happy. We study for years, we go to university, we complete degrees, we get jobs, we buy a car, a house, we find a partner, we marry, we make children, we travel, we become successful, we try to get rich, to be beautiful, we use sex, we use drugs. Or we do therapy, we read books, we make changes, we meditate, we go to retreats.

Are we asking ourselves why we do all these things? What are we pursuing?

We all want the same thing. It is in our nature that we all just want to be happy. We try so many things, especially in the outer world. Until we may come to a point where we understand that whatever we do outside, even if we are rich, it does not give us the happiness we were looking for.

The one who goes to a party and gets drunk and the one who does spiritual practice to be enlightened, there is no difference in what the two want. They only want to be happy. Just trying to get it through different things.
What does this mean? Does it mean that we human beings want at the end all the same thing, whatever we do? I would say yes, because it is more an instinct in our nature and not always conscious.

Let us see what it really means to be happy. Does happiness come through reaching and fulfilling our goals? Does true happiness come through any kind of relationship? Does happiness come through just being healthy? Does happiness come if we have enough to eat or if we are so rich that we can get whatever we want? Is happiness maybe just a subjective feeling? If yes, then someone with enough to eat a day can feel maybe even happier than someone who just bought his 3rd house?

What is the one who is meditating looking for? He has turned his attention from looking for happiness outside to finding it inside. Does it mean then that true happiness is only to be found when we turn our attention inside?
Why do we want happiness? Is happiness a state which comes but again goes? Can we be happy all the time? If it comes and goes and is not permanent, what are we actually looking for? Maybe we just want peace and contentment? Do we get peace when we sleep and forget about everything, even about ourselves?

The Master says that true peace has nothing to do with a state, because a state comes, and it goes again. It has a beginning and it has an ending. True happiness and peace can therefore be only if we realize that there is a place in us which is beyond a state which is coming and going.

But how do we reach this state or discover it? In my opinion through inner transformation. We have put people together who are gifted and trained for exactly this.