Why are'nt we Happy?

We are constantly seeking happiness. Every morning we greet people whom we meet wishing them a ‘good day’ or a ‘Good morning’. This is keeping with our natural desire to be free from unhappiness that we commonly experience in our day to day life. It’s interesting to note that we wish happiness at all our life events as well such as, Birthdays, Anniversaries and so on. Does this imply that we are usually unhappy? or is it that there is more likelihood to be unhappy than happy? 

Historically the man is preoccupied with activities that are supposed to keep him happy. He went in search of food to satisfy his hunger and built shelters to protect him from elements.  In terms of the basic needs one needs to live, there is no difference from these early times to the present other than that the man has made things complicated in his attempt to fulfil the basic needs and to be happy.

It is evident that in his attempt to find happiness he has embraced more and more things that bring unhappiness than happiness. For instance, to satisfy the hunger now he needs to prepare complex meals and thus requires sophisticated appliances and different forms of energy, at a cost. In terms of a shelter he needs a modern house that is energy dependent for the comforts he is attracted to. He raises children keeping up with social norms and practices to gain happiness and perhaps to take over the possessions after him. All these, though they seemingly bring happiness, without his knowledge, drags him towards unhappiness eventually causing unsatisfactoriness.

An example of how we aggravate our burdens is explained though the following analogy.

An old person goes to his field in his bullock cart every day and he use to carry his plough in the cart. One day he felt bad that the weight of the plough is burdening the bull and thus he decided to carry it on his shoulder while still standing on the cart. Due to lack of his intelligence he did not realise that it is not making any deference to the bull but makes him carry the burden as well. Unfortunately, we behave in the same manner when it comes to our actions to overcome unsatisfactoriness by exposing ourselves to more and more burdens.  The Buddha advised to let go of all burdens.

One cannot be free from unsatisfactoriness, without knowing what unsatisfactoriness is. The Enlightened one saw how people are ignorant of this and hence came forward to teach them what unsatisfactoriness is, cause for unsatisfactoriness, cessation of unsatisfactoriness and the path to cease unsatisfactoriness.

If there is a leak in our roof, first we need to find where the leak is before we fix it. Similarly, we need to know what unsatisfactoriness is and identify the cause to find our way out of that.

If we drop a rock into a well it will sink, regardless of whether you make a wish that the rock should float or not. If you go near a plant that is growing well and whether you wish or not that it shouldn’t grow it will keep growing. This is the way the nature behaves. If the tree catches a disease it will get weaker and become frail and when it reaches its life expectancy it will die.

Similarly, our body is prone to diseases and as we grow old it decays. The body is also destined to die one day like the tree. Just because we have grasped this body as me, mine and my-self, it will not make any difference to the laws of nature, i.e, the body will catch diseases, decay and eventually meet death. As we are ignorant of how the nature behaves we experience unsatisfactoriness due to decay and death. The Buddha said, the cause for unsatisfactoriness is our grasping of the body as me mine and my-self. He urged to consider the things in the world, both animate and inanimate, as grass or wood which are lifeless, free from sentients or persons.

As we don’t see the real nature of the body we experience unsatisfactoriness. We need to distinguish between the name and matter (nama-rupa) aspects and the fact that the body is manoeuvred by the name (nama) which occupies it. When we see them apart, it is said, we will not take the body as me mine and my-self any more. Venerable Sudassana argues that if the body is me how could we see our body in our dreams?

The one who sees this dhamma through insight is said to be free from sensual pleasures and free from unwholesomeness. It is the state known in pali as ‘vivicceva kame,  vivicceva akusale’ experienced in the first dyana . A state where one feels the pleasantness that is beyond the worldly pleasures.

This makes us to believe that the treatments we have undertaken so far to cure unsatisfactoriness haven’t worked and that we need to seek alternative treatment. The Buddha diagnosed the cause and prescribed us how to treat this illness of unsatisfactoriness hence he was called ‘Sathhata wana bhava dukata vedananan’, the doctor to all beings who experience the suffering of existence.

He showed us that the real happiness we can experience is found when we liberate from the body, by seeing the body as it is.

How do we see this, Venerable Sudassana explains,  ‘look at the body as a composition of five components, hair, bodily hair, nails, teeth and skin, the ones that we see.’ As the mind associates the body we feel sensations. It is the mind that sees form, sound, smell and so on and manoeuvres the body movements as well.

The sensations are felt by the mind but not the body, the leg or the hand. There aren’t any people who sit and experience, for instance see forms etc. The body does the role of the chair when we sit, and we say we are seated taking account of the posture of the body which is in a seated position.

When we recognise that it’s the mind that sees, through arising of eye consciousness and that  it’s the mind that hears through arising of the ear consciousness and so on, we liberate from the feeling of self or of an entity. We realise that it’s not me, mine or my self. This is vidarshana or insight meditation.

In order to improve our ability to see insights we need to develop concentration by making use of a tranquillity meditation technique such as In and Out breathing (Anapanasati), loving kindness, Qualities of Buddha or foulness meditation (Asubha). Morality helps with restraining speech and action that is vital in maintaining concentration.