Our pursuit of happiness.

We all agree that happiness is what we are pursuing. If we agree that happiness is the absence of suffering or dissatisfaction, we can agree that the feeling of happiness is a universal feeling.

The pursuit of happiness starts when we recognize that we are suffering. Before that, we are in the permanent state of bliss of a newborn child. We live out our emotions as they arise before returning to our default state of being: love. At some point, either through a (or a few) traumatic circumstance(s) or through smaller negative events spread over longer periods of time, conflict arises within. We are wounded and often don't even know why. We go about our lives in the pursuit of happiness mostly thinking that there specific material things (not just possessions) we need to accumulate for us to be happy. On a cultural level, we share an idea of what happiness means. That idea lives within us and we compare ourselves to that idea. Real happiness comes from within and begs the question: If I am not happy what is it I must learn so that I may be happy?

Some part of the answer is universal. We suffer because of our humanity and so we must learn how to cope with that. Change being the nature of things, we all suffer from our expectations. That's just how the human mind works. There's a part of our suffering that is shared with everyone around us.

Another part of the answer is unique to you. It will arise from the answers to your unique set of questions. Your upbringing, cultural background, education, physical appearance, personality, and so on, have a unique impact on your well-being or the lack of it. No one really knows how you feel. Often times we ourselves don't even know exactly why we don't feel happy. How can others answer our questions for us?

Happiness is our common destination which we reach starting from our unique vantage point.