Hand a five-year old a new set of Hot Wheels. Get a quality education and make your parents proud. Live a successful life and have a lot of fun. When any of these things happen, we usually label the feeling as being “happy,” but what is true happiness? I believe true happiness does not exist. Happiness is only temporary.

The problem with this so-called “happiness” in this world is that it is usually at the cost of someone else’s happiness. Anytime this happens, it is not true happiness, because how can you be happy if you are hurting someone else? Eventually, when you gain the knowledge to understand what kind of pain you are causing to the other person, you will not be so happy. Also, since I believe in the karma theory, what goes around comes around. If you are happy now at the cost of someone else’s pain, you will eventually end up experiencing that same pain. Since life is a cycle of temporary happiness and sadness, it is impossible to truly become happy.

The universe maintains perfect balance. For every positive charge there is a negative. For every good action there is a bad action. For every male there is a female. For every day there is a night. The list goes on. This means that nobody can ever be truly happy, because for every happy moment there is a sad moment. The only way to experience true happiness is to escape this universe and world of material possessions. Although it is not possible to physically escape this world, one can at least liberate their mind from the actions of the rest of the world. This can be achieved through meditation and concentration on nothingness. The idea is so abstract it is hard for people to imagine. Perhaps I could relate it to something that more people would understand. If instead of meditating, that person is praying to God, then the question I would be asking is what is God? What does God look like? There is no accurate physical description of the being, so in that sense, if you believe in God instead of karma, you may be concentrating on nothingness as well.

How can a person experience true happiness if they are not alive? They would have to escape this world, and the only way to do that is to liberate the soul from the body. In that case, it is impossible to experience true happiness while living life. One can get close to that experience by concentrating on nothingness.

Posted in Posted by Umang Patel at 9:54 PM