Mixed messages about happiness.

[ReturningMoon]

Hi everyone. I'm making this thread mostly because I think there are some mixed messages about happiness. It seems like we're told that the more you have the less happy you are. We are also taught that to desire is not the path to happiness either.
Basically the messages are that getting what you want or having won't make you happy. I can confirm that I have experienced happiness from these things which is why it's confusing to me.
What do you think the truth of this is from a spiritual perspective?

[FallingLeaves]

'those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my names sake will find it again'

[Starman]

The message from this world is often the reverse of the spiritual message. It is a balancing act to be in this world but know you are not of this world. Happiness is not dependant on external conditions, and even though we may react to the things of this world with happiness or sadness, true happiness is an inside job.

In this world more is better while in the spiritual realms less is better. In this world holding on to things is wealth while in the spiritual realm letting go of things makes you wealthy. In esoteric terms it is called “a reversal in the planes.”

Look at an infant baby who is happy, laughing and giggling for no apparent reason. We do not need a reason to be happy. As we grow into becoming adults our society imposes its rules on us, and life becomes very complicated and serious, and we may end up leaving the natural joy of life, replacing it with the joys of a material society.

Money and responsibility takes over and can burden us, but if we nurture our own inner being, in silence beyond thoughts, it is my experience that burden is lifted, and we are guided through this world surrounded by light and totally at peace with ourselves. The longest journey is the journey from the head to the heart.

The world is a drama which we are involved in; you can be absorbed in the drama or you can sit back and watch it unfold, secure in the experience of our deeper being. The world worships at the conceptual alter of logic and reasoning while in the spiritual realm you surrender to a flow which is much deeper then what is happening on the surface.

It is an individual journey and the time it takes depends on how much mental and emotional baggage a person has to unpack, and how much time they put in that unpacking. Intuition is the best guide, not what this world is saying. Listen to this world and you will definitely go on a roller coaster ride, listen to the deeper part of your own being, beyond thoughts, and the journey smoothes out. This is my experience.

Originally Posted by ReturningMoon

What do you think the truth of this is from a spiritual perspective?

Consider the difference between happiness and joy. Almost by definition happiness is dependent on things happening in a way that is personally favorable to you. Joy IMO is indicative of a much higher level of satisfaction…….

[sky]

Originally Posted by ReturningMoon

Basically the messages are that getting what you want or having won't make you happy. I can confirm that I have experienced happiness from these things which is why it's confusing to me.

Happiness is external but joy is internal. We think we are happy when we get what we personally want/desire but are we still happy when the situation changes ?

[Unseeking Seeker]

Happiness, sadness ~ these come and go.

What we are looking at from the spiritual perspective, is bliss as a permanent embodiment of being, like our breath. Ineffable rapture borne by divine magnetism, unaffected by the external. How does this happen? It’s when polarities merge in the heart centre illumining the central vein, Sushumna. There is nothing conceptual about this ~ we are in the physical, bliss is in the physical, the Self too is right here, in the physical. (where else would it be?)

Wondrous as it is, this bliss too transitions as time stretched peace, when we are in singularity of Self, where we are self-referral consciousness, living light, renewing itself within itself.

[Redchic12]

I definitely agree with Starman. Some very good points.

[CosmicWonder]

I didn’t achieve uncondtional happiness. What I did achieve is a far higher love level (that I can love myself and others and be warm even facing unpleasantness or friction). I guess, but not sure, the same as for love can be done for happiness. That there is a possible “source” within on which can be build.

Kind regards,

CW

[Starman]

There is a “Vocabulary of Feelings” which many counselors use to help people describe how they are feeling. That vocabulary is gradual going from mild feelings to intense feelings. When it comes to feeling good it may start with contentment, and then go to happy, then to joy, then to love, and so on with ecstasy as an intense good feeling.

Some might say they feel more then happy, they feel very happy, or overjoyed, or elated. These are all words which are used to describe good feelings. The spiritual experience has often been described as “bliss.” The foundation of good feelings is fulfillment, or to have a fulfilling experience.

On the outside people chase fulfillment but on the inside we bathe in it. How fulfilled we are determines what words we apply to how we feel. Lots of people do not know how to describe how they feel. Experience transcends words and it is ultimately an experience that most people are seeking, in my opinion.

[Starman]

Very beautiful Unseeking Seeker, and well said.