Michael James about what is happiness based on teachings of Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

For whom do we desire happiness? Do we not each desire happiness for

ourself? First and foremost, we each want ourself to be happy.Though we may

also want other people to be happy, we want them to be happy because seeing

their happiness makes us feel happy. All our actions of mind, speech and

body are impelled by our desire for our own happiness.

 

However unselfish we may think our actions to be, they are still all

motivated by our desire for our own happiness. Even if we sacrifice our

time, our money, our comforts and conveniences, or anything else that is

precious to us, in order to do some altruistic action, whether to help some

other person or to support some noble cause, the ultimate driving force

behind such sacrifice is our desire to be happy. We do altruistic actions

only because doing so makes us feel happy.

 

Our natural state is to be happy. Our desire for happiness is our desire for

our natural state. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all seeking what is

natural for us. For example, when we have a headache, why do we wish to be

free of it? Because a headache is not natural to us, when we experience one,

we desire to be free of it. The same is the case with all other things that

are not natural to us. We cannot feel entirely comfortable or happy with

anything that is not truly natural to us. That is why we never feel

perfectly happy, in spite of all the material, mental and emotional

pleasures that we may be enjoying. All such pleasures come and go, and

hence they are not natural to us.

 

Why should we think that happiness is our natural state, and that

unhappiness is something unnatural to us? If our true nature is really

happiness, why do we not feel perfectly happy at all times? How does

unhappiness arise?

 

We can understand this by critically analysing our experience of our three

states of consciousness, waking, dream and deep sleep. In our waking and

dream states we experience a mixture of pleasure and pain, or happiness and

unhappiness. But what do we experience in deep sleep, when this mixture of

pleasure and pain is removed? In the absence of this mixture, do we

experience happiness or unhappiness? In the state of deep sleep, do we not

feel perfectly happy, and free from all misery or unhappiness? Is it not

clear therefore that neither unhappiness, nor a mixture of happiness and

unhappiness, is natural to us? Since we can exist in the absence of

unhappiness, it cannot be our real nature. Unhappiness is merely a negation

of happiness, which is natural to us.

 

Unhappiness is a relative state, one which exists relative only to

happiness. Without the underlying existence of happiness, there would be no

such thing as unhappiness. We feel unhappy only because we desire to be

happy. If happiness were ever to become absolutely non-existent, we would

not feel any desire for it, and hence we would not feel unhappy. Even in a

state of the most intense unhappiness, happiness still exists as something

for which we feel desire. There is therefore no such thing as absolute

unhappiness.

 

The happiness that we thus experience when one of our desires is fulfilled

is a fraction of the happiness that always exists within us. When a desire

arises and agitates our mind, our inherent happiness is obscured, and hence

we feel restless and unhappy until that desire is fulfilled. As soon as it

is fulfilled, the agitation of our mind subsides for a short while, and

because our inherent happiness is thus less densely obscured, we feel

relatively happy.

 

By fighting our desires we can never get rid of them, because we who try to

fight them are in fact the cause, source and root of them. That which seeks

to fight our desires is our mind, which is itself the root from which all

our desires spring. The very nature of our mind is to have desires. Without

desires to impel it, our mind would subside and merge in the source from

which it originally arose. Therefore the only way to conquer our desires is

to bypass our mind by seeking the source from which it has arisen. That

source is our own real self, the innermost core of our being, our

fundamental and essential consciousness ‘I am’.

 

So long as we attend to anything other than our mere consciousness of being,

‘I am’, our mind is active. However, if we try to turn our attention back on

ourself to know our own essential self-conscious being, the activity of our

mind will begin to subside. If we are able to focus our attention wholly and

exclusively upon our consciousness of being, ‘I am’, then all our thoughts

or mental activity will subside completely, and we will clearly know the

true nature of our own real self, which is perfect and absolute being,

consciousness and happiness.

 

If we wish to experience our natural and perfect happiness permanently,

therefore, we must not merely make our mind subside temporarily in a state

of abeyance like sleep, but must destroy it completely. Since the rising of

our mind is the rising of all our unhappiness, the temporary quiescence of

our mind is the temporary quiescence of all our unhappiness, and the

destruction of our mind is the destruction of all our unhappiness.

 

Source: Happiness and The Art of Being Book

which is a layman’s introduction to the philosophy and practice of the

spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana By Michael James

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram