The Quiescent Hum of Happiness

The word 'Happiness' comes into my mind when I opened this blank page to write. Am I feeling happy? It depends on what one means by happiness.

In general there are two types of happiness. There's that conventional one: you've got a raise or promotion; your favourite soccer team just won the league; you see your loved ones again after a long separation. This is that surge of elation one feels when a favourable event happens to you. But they always subside after a while. You return to your regular quiescent state.

It is this quiescent state--your everyday background mode which I'm more interested in. Because this is where true happiness manifests itself. If you are truly happy, you have an undercurrent of joy permeating your entire being. Nothing in particular is really happening, but you just feel at home and contented. You are not anxious about anything. You see the past with equanimity and gratitude and you welcome the future with an open optimism. 

You are not exactly walking around with a smile on your face, but your overall attitude is one of cheerfulness and positivity. Neither does it mean that you are shielded from any unpleasantness or pain, rather you know how to see things in their proper perspective. A dark cloud could momentarily shield the golden rays of the sun, but you, that bright resplendent orb in the sky, remain untainted.  

All dark clouds drift away eventually. True happiness is the ability to maintain that background feeling of joy, which like a carrier wave, is ever-present, and only occasionally modulated by bursty signals, which we, with our ignorant minds, label 'happiness' and 'sorrow'. 

True happiness is that positive constancy that emerges when the momentary flashes of pain or pleasure subside. Pleasure is not happiness. Neither is pain, sorrow.  

When this background state drops below zero, and strays into the negative region, we call this depression. A person suffering from depression always needs something or someone to distract him or her from this default state. There's a nagging sense of emptiness, loneliness and fear that surfaces when all the noise of everyday life has subsided.

How then does one establish this level where joy constantly permeates the mind? Well, by not allowing any event or thought to dominate the mind. This is called equanimity. We can slowly train ourselves to acquire this habit by simply not grasping to anything. Every moment is fulfilled completely. And we live for each and every moment of our existence, truly and thoroughly. All we experience are fulfilled moments.

The devotionally type can use the worship of God to cultivate this state of being. Everything is willed by God. Your successes are blessings from God, which you enjoy with a sense of gratitude. The challenges are merely tests from the Almighty, which you face courageously. That quiescent state of joy would arise--which you would feel as the grace of God.

The atheistic or agnostic types can use reason to cultivate this state. Tune the machine of your body and mind to run at this optimum state of happiness. Everything--the crests and troughs of pain and pleasure--are merely perturbations to the system. Make sure that the hardware and software is sufficiently resilient to  maintain stability and equilibrium. 

True happiness is within everyone's grasp. We just have to find it within. Let your mind be quiet for a while. Listen to the hum of quiescence within. Does it ring of happiness?