How to be Happy?

[Big Uncle]

This cartoon was featured on the official Facebook page. It does an amazing job of summing up the main philosophies  found in Buddhism. What do you think of this cartoon?

[Tenzin K]

Some people have characterized Buddhism as a negative religion that identifies all that we experience as suffering and does not acknowledge happiness at all. This, however, is a misinformed view. It is true that Buddhism speaks of our usual, ordinary happiness as the suffering of change. This means that this type of happiness is unsatisfying: it never lasts and we never have enough of it. It is not true happiness. If, for example, eating ice cream were true happiness, then the more we ate of it at one sitting, the happier we would become. But soon we reach a point at which the happiness at eating ice cream changes into unhappiness and suffering. The same is the case with sitting out in the sun or moving into the shade. This is what is meant by the suffering of change.

Buddhism, however, provides many methods for overcoming the limitations of our ordinary happiness, this suffering of change, so that we reach the everlasting joyous state of a Buddha. Nevertheless, despite the drawbacks of our ordinary happiness, Buddhism also explains the sources for achieving that kind of happiness. Buddhism provides this teaching because one of its basic axioms is that everyone wants to be happy and no one wants to be unhappy. And, since everyone is looking for happiness and, as ordinary beings, we do not know of any type of happiness other than the ordinary, usual kind, Buddhism tells us how to achieve it. Only when that wish and need for happiness has been fulfilled on the most basic level of ordinary happiness can we go on to aim for deeper, more satisfying levels of it with more advanced spiritual practices.

In other words, although we wish for happiness, we are naive about its sources and so, instead of creating more happiness for ourselves, we create only more unhappiness and sorrow.

Happiness Is a Feeling
Although there are many types of happiness, here let us focus our attention on ordinary happiness. To understand its sources, we first need to be clear about what is meant by “happiness.” What is this happiness (bde-ba, Skt. sukha) that we all want? According to the Buddhist analysis, happiness is a mental factor – in other words, it is a type of mental activity with which we are aware of an object in a certain way. It is one section of a broader mental factor called “feeling” (tshor-ba, Skt. vedana), which covers a spectrum that spans a wide range from totally happy to totally unhappy.

What is the definition of “feeling?” Feeling is the mental factor having the nature of experiencing (myong-ba). It is the mental activity of experiencing an object or situation in a way that actually makes it an experience of that object or situation. Without a feeling somewhere on the spectrum between happiness and unhappiness, we do not actually experience an object or a situation. A computer takes in and processes data, but since a computer does not feel happy or unhappy in doing this, a computer does not experience the data. This is the difference between a computer and a mind.

Feeling a level of happiness or unhappiness accompanies either cognition of a sensory object – a sight, sound, smell, taste, or physical sensation such as pleasure or pain – or cognition of a mental object such as when thinking something. It does not need to be dramatic or extreme. It can be very low level. In fact, some level of feeling happy or unhappy accompanies every moment of our life – even when we are deeply asleep with no dreams, we experience it with a neutral feeling.

The Definition of Happiness
Buddhism provides two definitions for happiness. One is defined in terms of our relation to an object, while the other is defined in terms of our relation with the state of mind of the feeling itself.

The first defines happiness as the experiencing of something in a satisfying manner, based on believing that it is of benefit to ourselves, whether or not it actually is. Unhappiness is the experiencing of something in an unsatisfying, tormenting way. We experience something neutrally when it is in neither a satisfying nor a tormenting way.

The second defines happiness as that feeling which, when it has ended, we wish to meet with it once more. Unhappiness as that feeling which, when it arises, we wish to be parted from it. While a neutral feeling is that feeling which, when it arises or ends, we have neither of the two wishes.

The two definitions are related. When we experience something in a satisfying way, the way we experience the object is that the object, literally, “comes to our mind” (yid-du ‘ong-ba, Skt. manapa) in a pleasant manner. We accept the object and it remains comfortably as the object of our attention. This implies that we feel our experience of the object is of benefit to us: it makes us happy; it feels good. Because of that, we want the benefit from this experience to continue and, if it ended, we would want it to come back. Colloquially, we would say that we enjoy the object and the experience of it.

When we experience an object in a tormenting manner, this unhappy experience of the object, literally, “does not come to our mind” (yid-du ma-‘ong-ba, Skt. amanapa) in a pleasant manner. We do not accept the object and it does not stay as the object of our attention comfortably. We feel that our experience of the object is of no benefit and, in fact, it is hurting us. We want it to end. Colloquially, we would say that we do not enjoy the object or the experience of it.

In short, the long-term, most basic source of happiness according to Buddhism is building up a habit of refraining from acting, speaking or thinking destructively under the influence of disturbing emotions and attitudes such as lust, greed, attachment, repulsion and anger, all of which are rooted in naivety. Such constructive behavior builds up the potentials on our mental continuums for experiencing happiness in the future. We can trigger those potentials to ripen by not exaggerating or denying the good or bad qualities of any object or situation we experience or any level of happiness or unhappiness with which we experience it – regardless of what the object or situation may be. Without naivety, and so without attachment, repulsion, or indifference, we then need to quiet our minds of mental wandering and dullness. We need especially to quiet our minds of worries or expectations. In that serene and tranquil state of mind, we will already feel a low level of happiness and trigger the potentials we might have for feeling even greater happiness.

We then expand our minds by turning our attention to the problems of others and how they might be in even worse situations than ours. We stop thinking of only ourselves. We think how wonderful it would be if all others could be free of their suffering, and how great it would be if we could help them to accomplish that. This strong compassion naturally leads to a feeling of love – the wish for them to be happy. Thinking of their happiness triggers even more of our own potentials for happiness to ripen.

With these thoughts of compassion and love, we may then turn our thoughts to the Buddhas or to any great humanitarian figures. Thinking of their examples, we gain the inspiration (byin-gyis rlabs, Skt. adhisthana) to take some responsibility to actually try to help others. This helps us to gain the strength and courage to tackle not only the problems of others, but our own as well – but again, without exaggerating them and without worries about failure or expectations of success.

[diamond girl]

Happiness is an attitude and a choice we make every moment in our life.

Happiness thus is not dependent on anyone or anything but ourselves.

If we choose to be happy and not dependent on any external factors we will make such choices to maintain happiness even in times of great difficulty and even when you want to disintegrate because the people around you want to make you vomit.

For example: you are in a difficult situation like a relationship. If you choose to be happy no matter what you will then choose to listen and understand and practise compassion to the "difficult" person you are with.

[bambi]

It is so true. Most of the people I know thinks that the world revolves around them only. Everything is about me, myself and I and they do not care what others say about them. I used to be like that sad to say. But thank goodness I have the merits to meet people who have Dharma knowledge to advise and teach me. In order to move forward from all the unhappiness, I must understand that it is all impermanent. To let go of the projections and wants.


Happiness Comes from the Mind

We are here to receive peace and happiness in our mind by avoiding suffering, but first we have to recognize the cause of happiness. We have to understand what brings us happiness and what brings us suffering. This is extremely important to understand, or there is no way to prevent suffering and receive happiness in our mind.

In our dreams, happiness and small pleasures are created by our mind, and suffering and unhappiness are also produced by our mind. In our dreams, even the small suffering and the pleasure that we feel when we meet an object is a projection of our mind. It is easy to understand how this is dependent on our mind and is produced by our mind.

Similarly, all our happiness and the small pleasures of our life—when we feel extremely cold, we stay inside for a long time and when we are hot, we go outside and feel pleasure—even small pleasures and physical pains are just like a dream, they all come from the mind. Just like this, all our enjoyments—our food and clothing, whatever we wear and whatever we see, beautiful or ugly, always wearing soft, comfortable clothing, always receiving good enjoyments and food, always being busy in a beautiful comfortable place—all this is received by depending on the mind. All our pleasure and happiness comes from the mind.

This is explained in the Buddha’s philosophical teachings about nature and the evolution of the universe and things. All these various worlds are born from karma or action. What Buddha is saying is that all the planets, the earth on which we live and the reason we have to live on such an earth and in such a country—why there are different planets and at night-time another moon and lighting, and the sun, stars and different planets that we enjoy, all these objects that give us pleasure—all these various worlds are born from our actions or karma.

[rossoneri]

Most of us being brought up to have an impression that material wealth will make us happy. Yes, with money we might be able to "purchase" some moments of joy but if we think deeper, does that moment really going to be a feeling forever. Yes, in these degenerating age money plays an important role in of life, but my point here is not just focusing on making money and neglecting our family, health and spirituality which ultimately will lead us to eternal happiness.

Two Approaches to True Happiness

Happiness comes about in two ways.


1. On an ordinary level, there are many ways we can train our mind in happiness.  For example, we can choose loving thoughts, words, and actions.  The more we cultivate love, compassion, joy and impartiality, the more we will become a vibrant source of happiness for others.  And for ourselves too.

2. On a profound level, when we are in touch with our true nature – our innermost essence – joy naturally arises.  We don’t have to do anything in particular to create it.  It just flows up when we abide in our natural mind.  Other emotions may arise like sadness, anger, worry, or fear, but they won’t necessarily stick if we become accustomed to simply resting in the clear and open space of our original mind.

“So, where do we find this lasting happiness?  In the realization of the ultimate nature of ourselves.  Everything is here within us.  The truth is within us.  Happiness is within us.  True happiness and peace of mind cannot be found in anything external; it can only be found within.” – Sogyal Rinpoche

These two approaches to cultivating happiness are interconnected.  Actively engaging in positive thoughts, words, and deeds brings us closer to our true nature.  When we are in touch with our true nature, these positive qualities spontaneously manifest.

Most of us are not even aware of our innermost essence.

We spend all our time embroiled in our thoughts and emotions.  We think thoughts and emotions are the real self.  But thoughts and emotions are simply like clouds passing by in the open, clear space of our original mind.  Sometimes the clouds are white and puffy.  Sometimes they are stormy.  But they are never permanent, nor are they our true essence.  All our suffering comes from confusing the clouds for the sky and holding on to them ever so tightly.

“When the mind goes beyond the thought of ‘the me,’ the experiencer, the observer, the thinker, then there is a possibility of a happiness that is incorruptible.”  – Jiddu Krishnamurti

[Midakpa]

This cartoon shows clearly that happiness is not derived from the self-cherishing mind ("I want"). Once this mind of selfishness is eradicated, and the mind of cherishing others (selflessness) is established, the result is peace and happiness. The message of the Buddha is the truth that one finds happiness by seeking the happiness of others. There is no other way.

Master Hsing Yun says that, "Happiness is an especially wonderful gift to give to others. This may mean giving our time, sharing our expertise, or helping those in need... Happiness is something that grows when it is shared with others... The happiness of others makes our own happiness that much more meaningful and enjoyable. We should not be afraid to share happiness." (Living in Harmony with Others, in "How to Develop Happiness in Daily Living", 2005)

The master also says that if we want to understand what Buddhism teaches us about building affinity and living in harmony with others, we must first understand the four great all embracing virtues. The four virtues are: giving, speaking with kind words, conducting oneself for the benefit of others, and adapting oneself to others.

If we practice the four virtues, there is no doubt we will find happiness because this practice focuses on giving happiness to others.

[biggyboy]

We constantly experience happiness and unhappiness but we are quite ignorant as to what happiness really is.  Whatever and wherever we live in, everyone has the same deep desire to become happy. 

The secret of happiness lay within us in building a strong inner self that no trial or hardship could ruin it. Be they man or woman happiness does not come simply from having a formal education, from wealth or from marriage. It begins with having the strength to confront and conquer one’s own weaknesses. Only then does it become possible to lead a truly happy and enjoyable life.  By putting the following Eight Verses of Training The Mind, into practice we shall experience ultimate happiness, purify our negative karma and obstacles, and eliminate the ignorant minds of self-cherishing and self-grasping being the the principal cause of our suffering.

"Happiness doesn’t exist in the past or in the future. It only exists within our state of mind as we face the challenges of life.”


The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation
    by Geshe Langri Tangpa

With the thought of attaining enlightenment
For the welfare of all beings,
Who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel,
I will constantly practice holding them dear.

What is the ‘ultimate, supreme goal’ of human life? For some people it is material possessions, such as a large house with all the latest luxuries, a fast car, or a well-paid job. For others, it is reputation, good looks, power, excitement or adventure. As an end in themselves worldly attainments are hollow; they are not the real essence of human life.

Of all worldly possessions the most precious is said to be the legendary wish-granting jewel, which existed when human beings had abundant merit. Such jewels, however, could only fulfill wishes for contaminated happiness—they could never bestow the pure happiness that comes from a pure mind.

Furthermore, a wish-granting jewel only had the power to grant wishes in one life—it could not protect its owner in his or her future lives. Thus, ultimately even a wish-granting jewel is deceptive. The only thing that can never deceive us is the attainment of full enlightenment. So, whenever we are with other people we should be continuously mindful that their happiness and wishes are at least as important as our own.

Of course, we cannot cherish all living beings right away, but by training our mind in this attitude, beginning with our family and friends, we can gradually extend the scope of our love until it embraces all living beings. When in this way we sincerely cherish all living beings, we are no longer an ordinary person but have become a great being, like a Bodhisattva.

Whenever I am with others
I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all,
And from the very depth of my heart
I will respectfully hold others as supreme.

In the first verse, Langri Tangpa explains how to cherish all living beings, and in this verse he now shows us how to enhance this mind of love. The best way to do this is to fami-liarise ourselves with cherishing all living beings by putting our determination to cherish them into practice day and night.

If we wish to attain enlightenment, or to develop the superior Bodhichitta that comes from exchanging self with others, we must definitely adopt the view that others are more precious than ourself.

This view is based on wisdom and leads us to our final goal, whereas the view that regards ourself as more precious than others is based on self-grasping ignorance and leads us along the paths of samsara.Here Langri Tangpa is encouraging us to develop the mind of humility and to see ourself as lower and less precious than others.

One of the advantages of humility is that it enables us to learn from everyone. A proud person cannot learn from other people because he feels he already knows better than them.

On the other hand, a humble person who respects everyone and recognises that they may even be emanations of Buddha has the openness of mind to learn from everyone and every situation. Just as water cannot collect on mountain peaks, so good qualities and blessings cannot gather on the rocky peaks of pride.

If, instead, we maintain a humble, respectful attitude towards everyone, good qualities and inspiration will flow into our mind all the time, like streams flowing into a valley.


In all actions I will examine my mind
And the moment a disturbing attitude arises,
Endangering myself and others,
I will firmly confront and avert it.

Whereas the first two verses explain the practice of equalising self and others—cherishing ourself and all living beings equally—this verse shows us how to exchange self with others. This means that we give up our self-cherishing and come to cherish only others.

Because the main obstacles to gaining this realisation are our delusions, Langri Tangpa explains how we can overcome our delusions, and in particular our self-cherishing. Normally we divide the external world into that which we consider to be good or valuable, bad or worthless, or neither. Most of the time these discriminations are incorrect or have little meaning.

For example, our habitual way of categorising people into friends, enemies, and strangers depending on how they make us feel is both incorrect and an obstacle to developing impartial love for all beings.

Rather than holding so tightly to our discriminations of the external world, it would be far more beneficial if we learnt to discriminate between valuable and worthless states of mind. To overcome a particular delusion we need to be able to identify it correctly and distinguish it from other states of mind.

It is relatively easy to identify delusions such as anger or jealousy and to see how they are and how they are harming us. Delusions such as attachment, pride, self-grasping, and self-cherishing, however, are more difficult to recognise and can easily be confused with other states of mind.

For instance, we have many desires but not all of these are motivated by desirous attachment. We can have the wish to sleep, to eat, to meet our friends, or to meditate, without being influenced by attachment.

A desire that is attachment necessarily disturbs our mind, but since it may affect us in subtle, indirect ways we may find it difficult to recognise when it arises in our mind. In summary, through practising the Lojong instructions, Langri Tangpa and countless other practitioners of the past have attained profound realisations, including the complete realisation of exchanging self with others.

At the beginning the practitioners of these instructions were self-centred people just like us, but through perseverance they managed to eliminate their self-cherishing completely.

If we practise these instructions wholeheartedly and patiently there is no reason why we too should not attain similar realisations. We should not expect to destroy our self-cherishing immediately, but through practice it will become weaker and weaker until it ceases altogether. The complete eradication of self-cherishing is an uncommon Mahayana realisation that can only be accomplished through the practice of exchanging self with others.

Whenever I meet a person of bad nature
Who is overwhelmed by negative energy and intense suffering,
I will hold such a rare one dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure.

Pure compassion is a mind that finds the suffering of others unbearable, but it does not make us depressed. In fact, it gives us tremendous energy to work for others and to complete the spiritual path for their sake. It shatters our complacency and makes it impossible to rest content with the superficial happiness of satisfying our worldly desires, yet in its place we shall come to know a deep inner peace that cannot be disturbed by changing conditions.

It is impossible for strong delusions to arise in a mind filled with compassion. If we do not develop delusions, external circumstances alone have no power to disturb us; so when our mind is governed by compassion it is always at peace.

This is the experience of all those who have developed their compassion beyond the limited compassion normally felt for a close karmic circle into a selfless compassion for all living beings. Developing compassion and wisdom, and helping those in need whenever possible, is the true meaning of life.

By increasing our compassion we come closer to enlightenment and to the fulfillment of our deepest wishes. The indication that we have mastered the meditations on cherishing others and compassion is that whenever we meet another person, even someone who is harming us, we genuinely feel as if we had found a rare and precious treasure.

Even if someone I have helped
And of whom I had great hopes
Nevertheless harms me without any reason
May I see him as my holy Spiritual Guide

The purpose of this verse is to teach us how to develop and improve our experience of wishing love. It is important to understand the relationship between actions and their effects. Our normal reaction when faced with a problem is to try and find someone to blame, but if we look at the situation with wisdom we shall realise that we created the cause of that problem through our negative actions.

The main cause of all our problems is necessarily a negative bodily, verbal, or mental action that we ourself created in the past; other people’s actions are only secondary conditions that enable our negative karma to ripen.

If they do not provide the conditions for our negative karma to ripen, someone or something else definitely will; for once the main cause has been established, unless we purify it through purification practice, nothing can stop the effect from occurring sooner or later. Instead of blaming others for our problems we should use our misfortunes to deepen our understanding of karma.

By training our mind to recognise the spiritual lessons in all our experiences, we can come to view everyone and everything as our Spiritual Teacher, and we can turn any and every situation to our advantage.

When others, out of jealousy,
Mistreat me with abuse, slander and so on,
I will practice accepting defeat
And offer the victory to them.

This sixth verse reveals that having gained some experience of love and compassion for all living beings we now need to put this good heart into practice in our daily life. For instance, when someone out of anger or jealousy harms or insults us, with our mind abiding in love and compassion we should happily accept the harm and not retaliate. This is the meaning of accepting defeat and offering the victory to others. This practice directly protects us from discouragement and unhappiness.

Langri Tangpa’s intention in this verse is to encourage us to practise patience. We may think that if we patiently practise accepting defeat all the time, our suffering and problems will multiply and completely overwhelm us; but in fact the practice of patience always lessens our suffering because we do not add mental pain to the difficulties we are having.

Suffering, worry, depression and pain are feelings—types of mind—so, they exist inside and not outside our mind. If while experiencing adverse conditions, our mind remains calm and happy through the practice of patience, we do not have a problem.

We may have a challenging situation, and may even be sick or injured, but we are free from pain. By controlling our mind in this way we experience a cessation of our pain, worry and depression, and find true inner peace. Furthermore, by keeping a peaceful mind in difficult situations we are far more likely to find solutions and respond constructively.

Buddhist practice is very gentle. It does not require physical deprivation and hardship but is mainly concerned with the internal task of controlling and transforming the mind. In summary, if we wish to help others effectively, we need to be able to accept our problems without getting angry or discouraged. Helping others is not always easy—it often involves considerable hardship and inconvenience, and going against the wishes of our self-cherishing mind.

Unless we are able to accept this, our commitment to benefit others will be half-hearted and unstable. However, once we develop the ability to accept our own problems patiently we shall have the strength of mind to practise taking on the suffering of others and giving them happiness.Gradually we shall develop the inner realisation of accepting defeat and offering the victory.

In short, I will offer directly and indirectly
Every benefit and happiness to all beings, my mothers.
I will practice in secret taking upon myself
All their harmful actions and sufferings.

In this verse Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa explains the practices of taking by means of compassion and giving by means of love as a conclusion to the preceding verses. ‘In short’ in the verse therefore means ‘in conclusion’. When we first meditate on taking and giving we cannot actually take on the suffering of others nor give them our happiness, but by imagining that we are doing so now we are training our mind to be able to do so in the future.

The word ‘directly’ refers to actually taking on the suffering of others through our imagination. When we start our practice of taking and giving, we do not need to think too much about how it is possible to relieve others' suffering through the power of mind alone.

Instead we should simply practise taking and giving with a good motivation, understanding it to be a supreme method for increasing our merit and concentration. This practice also purifies our non-virtues and delusions, especially our self-cherishing, and makes our love and compassion very strong.

Through gradual training, our meditation on taking and giving will become so powerful that we shall develop the ability to take on the suffering of others and give them hapiness. We can reflect that since beginningless time we have had countless lives and countless bodies, but that we have wasted them in all meaningless activities. Now we have the opportunity to derive the greatest meaning from our present body by using it to engage in the path of compassion and wisdom.

Without these practices being defiled by the stains of the eight worldly concerns,
By perceiving all phenomena as illusory,
I will practice without grasping to release all beings
From the bondage of the disturbing unsubdued mind and karma.

The first line indicates that the ultimate Bodhichitta is not an isolated realization but depends upon all the method realisations explained in the first seven verses. For a realization of ultimate truth to be ultimate Bodhichitta, we need the realisations of cherishing others, great compassion, and so forth. Moreover, for our study and meditation on emptiness to have a deep impact on our mind, it must be motivated at least by renunciation, the wish to attain liberation from samsara by abandoning our delusions.

If we are motivated only by philosophical curiosity the best we can hope to achieve is a superficial, intellectual understanding of emptiness; we shall never achieve a deep and liberating experience. All our problems arise because we do not realise the ultimate truth. The reason we remain in samsara is that we continue to engage in contaminated actions because of our delusions, which stem from self-grasping ignorance. Ignorance is the source of all our negativity and problems, and the only way to eradicate it is to realize emptiness.

Emptiness is not esay to understand, but it is important that we make the effort. Ultimately our efforts will be reawarded by the permanent cessation of all suffering and the everlasting bliss of full enlightenment.

[Dorje Pakmo]

Very nice cartoon drawing. Simple and to the point.

From this cartoon it seems "happiness" is actually quite simple to have.
The things that makes happiness hard to achieve is actually our own ego and desire.
Often we look at things, stubborn, and refuse to back down no matter what because our ego is playing in our mind. The ego tells us that we are right and others are wrong, the ego tells us that we should be treated in certain manner and procedures, it also tell us that we are superior, and many other things.

So the ego wants (desire) things to be a in a certain way. If it don't happen the way we want it. Then we become unhappy. Then ofcourse we'll keep on experiencing unhappiness, because if we keep wanting things to happen the way we "expect" it to be, then when it doesn't we'll feel disappointed. I am not saying to totally not have expectations, but know that things will not always happen the way we want it to be. And when it doesn't, learn, accept and move on. Clinging on and not letting go of how things are "suppose" to be this way and that way that makes one unhappy.

So, exactly what the cartoon meant, remove the EGO, and the DESIRE.  Then happiness comes a lot easier.

[Tammy]

The cartoonist has a lot of wisdom, that I am very sure.  Thank you for sharing this simple yet profound illustration.

Without ego, we stop focusing on ourselves and with less or totally rid of desire, we would be contempted with whatever we have right now, right here. Hence happiness is achievable.

Happiness is a state of mind and a relative emotion (for lack of better words), to a homeless person who has no home and with very little belonging, a simple room with a roof over his head can being bring him happiness. On the other hand, for a rich man, I takes so much more to make him, as he has a lot to his name.

May all of us find happiness in this lifetime and beyond.

[RedLantern]

Being happy protects  us from stresses of life,so living a happy,resilient and optimistic life is wonderful and good for health.The only thing in life that always remain the same is change.We have the power to make the necessary changes if we want to.When we  are in an unbearable situation  we can always find solace in the knowledge that it too would change.
Social network or relationships are essential to happiness.People are different and accept them for who they are or what they are.
Happiness is found in everyone,increasing it is a way to make life more wonderful also and more healthy.Being grateful is also a great attitude! Thank those who had been kind to us and appreciate.The song by Bobby Mcferin is simple but meaningful and can surely made a lot of peope  happy ,by telling them not to worry.

[buddhalovely]

 This is about as simple and direct a definition of happiness as you can come up with.  Buddhist teaching says that what is not happiness, false happiness if you will, is the gratification of desires, because for one thing, desire is rooted in the delusion of the discrete self, and for another, this kind of gratification only leads to more desire. The more one wants the more one gets, and the more one gets the better one gets at wanting, and so we become stuck in a seemingly never-ending spiral of want-it, get-it, want-some-more, get-some-more, and so on.  All of this wanting and getting has a built-in frustration factor that only grows with each repetition, and so, not having satisfied all of our wants sufficiently, we experience un-satisfied-ness, or more correctly, un-satisfactoryness.  This unsatisfactory state is the mental and spiritual breeding ground for all of those things which cannot be borne with ease

[Jessie Fong]

The smiley face is a well-known symbol of happiness


What is happiness - it is a emotional or mental state of well-being.  It is our own choice to be happy or not.

Happiness forms a central theme of Buddhist teachings. For ultimate freedom from suffering, the Noble Eightfold Path leads its practitioner to Nirvana, a state of everlasting peace. Ultimate happiness is only achieved by overcoming craving in all forms. More mundane forms of happiness, such as acquiring wealth and maintaining good friendships, are also recognized as worthy goals for lay people (see sukha). Buddhism also encourages the generation of loving kindness and compassion, the desire for the happiness and welfare of all beings.

Psychologist Martin Seligman provides the acronym PERMA to summarize Positive Psychology's correlational findings: humans seem happiest when they have
Pleasure (tasty foods, warm baths, etc.),
Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity),
Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness),
Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger), and
Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals).

[sonamdhargey]

Thanks for the post! Yes it does makes sense by removing the "I" and we can be happy. Removing "I" means removing the self grasping, self cherishing and selfishness of ourselves. Removing "want" means removing the urge to our desires. With these removed, one can be free from their ego and their attachments. Without these two, one can acquire selflessness, generosity and compassion.

[ratanasutra]

This cartoon pass a direct and clear message of happiness. I believe that most of us are have happiness, just a matter of we want to acknowledge it or ignore it and looking forward for other things with hope that it will
bring more happiness to us.

Happiness is subjective, my happiness and other happiness can be different. so there is nothing to measure the happiness.

But what is the ultimate happiness? The happiness that no one can take away from us. The happiness that we truly enjoy and make us want to do more things to benefit other.. 

[pgdharma]

Happiness is the most important aspects in our lives, we desperately struggle to avoid suffering for happiness, and we commit crimes and mistakes and endure a life indispensable of suffering. Very few of us understand what peace and happiness really mean and very few of us pursue our lives in the right path for it. Happiness comes when we are able to control our mind and when we are able to attain inner peace forever.

The Buddha said, “Happiness is in the mind which is released from worldly bondage. The happiness of sensual lust and the happiness of heavenly bliss are not equal to a sixteenth part of the happiness of craving’s end.”

The Buddha described elements of a happy life:

• Living without hate among the hateful.

• Living without domination of the passions among those who are dominated by the passions.

• Living without yearning for sensual pleasures among those who yearn for sensual pleasures.

• Living without being impeded by the Three Poisons of craving, anger and ignorance which are seen as hindrances to spiritual progress.

• Giving up thoughts of winning or losing.

• Overcoming the Five Aggregates (a sense of objects, emotional attachment to those objects, and categorization of those objects, mental states arising from contact with those objects, a dualistic view of a perceiver and that which is perceived).

• Subjugating the passions.

• Not being in the company of the foolish but being with the wise.

• Attaining the final happiness which is Nirvana,

Thank you, ratnasutra, for this cartoon which sums up everything the Buddha said.  Thus when we removed the “I” (Ego) and “want “(desire) we will definitely achieve having happiness