Hsu on happiness

 23 Happy, the biggest decision of my life

We usually need a good reason to be happy. Maybe success, maybe reaching a life goal, maybe needs being met, this is understandable happiness.

Such happiness often exists in the imagination of the end state before the goal is achieved, or in short-term physical and mental satisfaction. Imagination of the end will disappear as it arrives, physical and mental satisfaction will also fade, and new physical and mental needs will arise. So, we are constantly busy around the world, chasing happiness built by various conditions and settings day after day, trying our best, even forgetting that happiness is human nature.

The pursuit of these conditional, justified pleasures back constrain our understanding of ourselves, happiness, and even the reasons for being unhappy - we fail to achieve goals, fail to achieve something, achieve an ideal or perfect self-image, are not satisfied with ourselves, and therefore cannot be happy.

This unhappiness is the greatest misunderstanding of human beings about themselves and life, and it is the foundation that strengthens the continued existence of the "me". In order to get rid of the unhappy state, we have to keep chasing the conditions, trying to satisfy the limits of the reasons. This "unhappiness" set condition "unhappiness" pursuit of happiness cycle cannot jump without thorough rational reflection.

Happiness can only flow from the heart

Many friends will convince themselves to accept smaller happiness, the so-called "little luck", and comforting themselves is enough. However, the so-called little luck, no matter how simple it sounds, still cannot be separated from "moving" or "doing", from the content or experience of life, is just as short and cannot be dependable, and cannot be eternal.

Whether it's a big success or a small luck, it's the same way that "I" continues to use the external world of form to attract attention. Let us pursue happiness all the time through experiences, through the changes of life, ignoring that happiness is not an external thing that comes to us, but the essence of life that can only be revealed from the heart.

I call happiness from the essence of life in Holy You "sacred happiness". This happiness, not related to the content of life, but flows from the heart or the inner world, is the joy of being. It does not equate to external happiness, but it does not exclude external happiness.

Unconsciously looking for a substitute for happiness

We are all in touch with divine happiness, a warm joy that comes from inner peace. It is because of experience and unforgettable that I want to pursue, want to find it again and again. Unfortunately, we forget that this comes from the whole life of the heart, forget that it is there, and cannot help but find an alternative experience on earth, to return to or at least close to divine happiness.

A person can easily live "in" and "heart" and cannot be unhappy. Life always brings deeper serenity happiness, undifferentiated happiness, unexcited happiness, equal happiness. Each of us has it, cannot be lost, has nothing to do with life - people, things, things.

This happiness brings us a fixed spot, a place to never lose in the world of impermanent phenomena. As long as a person is completely "in", fully engaged in every moment, this joy, joy, joy naturally becomes the feeling of this external world that can be experienced. This happiness is happiness for no reason - it is irrelevant to the situation of life and it is impossible to limit it with any condition.

Happiness of life melts the inner and outer divisions

Jump out of the world of "me" and form, no longer subject to conditions, i.e. all happiness, all freedom, all awakening from every cell. At the same time, living in the outside world, can also experience the flow of inner life at any time. From the outside and inside, you can get happiness and enjoy it.

To be precise, happiness, flowing from the inside, penetrating into every external thing and experience. flow from inside to outside and back from outside. The inside and out of life is constantly united in the free flow of happiness, no longer makes any difference inside or outside. The contradiction created by the difference between the inner life and the outer world no longer exists.

This kind of happiness is in any life. Eternal and impossible to lose, precious and irreplaceable, it is divine in itself.

This kind of happiness is not achieved through experience. Happiness, in fact, is in the midst of all kinds of bitter and happy experiences, sorrow and joy, and even turbulence, we make free and sober choices again and again.

It doesn't need to be done by any "doing" to get it, but at best it's through our choices to bring happiness into As long as we choose to be happy, happiness is always in sight. No condition and no reason needed.

Choosing to be happy, always happy, is the biggest decision of our life.

Excerpts from Awakening Self-Help 楊