Preface
This book is about you. It is not about your relation to the world or about the worlds relation to you. It is just about you. When you finish reading this book, you will know how to get happy and how to stay happy.
PART 1: BASIC INSTRUCTION
What Is Happiness?
Happiness is the mental state of feeling pleasure.
Perhaps you have read one or more Happiness Is books. If so, then probably you have realized that those books are not entirely practical.
Is happiness really a pizza with extra cheese? Is happiness really a friend who cares? Is happiness really a high-paying job, a comfortable house, good health, or any of the other things that people want or imagine that they need? No, it is not.
In this world, everything emits a vibration, a wave. This is true for your mind; and it is true for the objects, both physical and mental, that your mind comes in contact with. When your mind connects with sympathetic waves waves that are complementary and reciprocal then that contact gives pleasure. And that pleasure is what we call happiness.
Regardless of what anyone says or you may think, happiness is not to be found in any external object. Happiness exists entirely within the mind. It is a state of mind a pleasant state of mind.
Why Is Happiness Important?
Seeking happiness is the primary drive of all living beings.
Under normal circumstances, everyone wants to survive everyone wants to stay alive. Lack of happiness endangers ones very existence, because unhappy individuals can think to commit suicide. This is why no one ever wants to be unhappy. On the contrary, everyone wants to be happy all of the time. Happiness protects us from the unhappiness that threatens our lives.
Some philosophers say that you cannot know happiness unless you first know unhappiness. But is that logical? Why must the experience of unhappiness precede the experience of happiness? Is unhappiness any easier to recognize than happiness? Is unhappiness more natural than happiness?
Listening to some people talk, unhappiness almost becomes attractive. But ask your friends and neighbors if they want to be unhappy. They will probably think that you have lost your mind. No one ever wants to be unhappy not in the here and now. Everyone wants to be happy, today and for all time.
How To Get Happy?
So how do you get that all-important happiness? The answer is attitude.
Happiness is a mental state a pleasant mental state. If you are going to enjoy that pleasant mental state, then you must let your mind go there.
By its nature, the mind always has an object. From the moment you get up in the morning until the time you go to sleep and even while dreaming you think about something. If you examine closely the object of your ideation, you will discover that it has both a bright side and a dark side. For every entity in this world material or abstract there is a bright side and a dark side.
The key to happiness is prioritizing the bright side. Whatever you contemplate, do not let your mind dwell on the dark side of that object. You may recognize the dark side that can sometimes be essential but after recognizing the dark side, remember and mentally reside in the bright side.
Even the worst situation can be viewed as a blessing. When you lose property or a friend, find a new opportunity. When you park far from your destination, value the healthy walk. When a colleague falls sick, repay a debt through service. Train your mind to seek the bright side, and you will always find one.
If you want to be happy, avoid looking at the dark side, and talk even less about it. Think happy, and you will be happy.
How To Stay Happy?
Getting happy is relatively easy. Everyone manages to do it once in a while. Knowing what happiness is and how to get it will help you to be happy more often. But staying happy under all circumstances is not easy.
Life is a series of challenges. To remain happy, you must constantly adapt to ever-new situations. This means that there will be lag times when you experience a difficult situation but still have not found the bright side. Even when the lag time is negligible even when you see the bright side almost immediately it can still be hard to enjoy happiness if you are physically or mentally sick. Even when you are healthy, some conditions (for example, homelessness or joblessness) can be quite troublesome, despite your best effort to adjust. So staying happy is not as easy as getting happy. Staying happy requires much discipline.
But is discipline all that you need? Even after you become habituated to seeing the bright side even when you always see the bright side of everything the brightness will still dim (or seem to dim) after a while. In other words, your level of happiness will tend to decrease. Nothing in this world is static. When it comes to worldly happiness, we are all running upwards on an ever-accelerating downwards escalator.
If you want to optimize your happiness and make it stable, there is more to learn and more to do. Continue to Part 2 of this book Advanced Instruction.
PART 2: ADVANCED INSTRUCTION
Maximizing Happiness
Mind is never satisfied with just a little of anything it tends to crave more and more.
The happiness that you experience through the medium of your sensory organs is constrained by your body. Eventually, such happiness cannot and hence will not meet your needs. But there is another type of happiness, unconnected with the senses a transcendental happiness that is unbounded. That limitless happiness is called bliss.
Just a little happiness will not satisfy anyone for long. Ultimately, everyone wants unlimited happiness. Knowingly or unknowingly, all living beings seek bliss.
Redefining The Goal
There can be just one limitless entity. If there were two, then the only way that both could remain limitless or all-inclusive is if they merge if they become one.
The limitless entity is always one, but it has many names. Bliss, Peace, Truth, and God are just some of those names. Generally, advanced seekers prefer to state their goal in terms of God. This enables a personal and devotional relationship with the goal.
Attaining Peace
Limited objects cannot satisfy a hunger for the unlimited. Only realization of the one, limitless being only realization of God can satisfy such a need. Thus, realization of God is the only way to end all longing, the only way to attain peace.
Some people try to find peace by emptying the mind. But mind always wants an object. An empty mind is unnatural it cannot be sustained. Therefore, the recommended approach is ideation on the Great infinity rather than zero.
Fulfilling Self
Longing for and running after the Great is human nature. Most people do it unknowingly. When knowingly you take God as your goal, that bearing reflects your true nature. The systematic attempt to reach God is the way to self-realization and self-actualization.
Achieving Perfection
Happiness is the cherished goal of all living beings.
The desire for happiness can only be fully and finally satisfied with the attainment of God.
The effort to attain God is natural for all living beings.
Due to their relatively undeveloped minds, creatures less evolved than humans cannot make a deliberate and systematic approach to God. Humans, on the other hand, can. Therefore, any woman or man who does not maintain such a discipline little merits the status of humanity.
Be fully human, and then be perfectly human. There is no gap between an ideal human being and God.
