Buddhist Concept of Happiness

Feeling (venada) is a mental factor and a universal contaminant of experience found in all conscious beings. It has the characteristic of being felt, experienced and manifestation of mental factors gratification. The feeling is invariably said to be born of contact that comes together of sense object, faculty or any type of consciousness. There are six kinds of feeling corresponding to the six types of contact from which it is born. 1 There is a feeling of nose contact, eye contact, skin contact, ear contact among others. Buddha believes that life, which means Dukka arise from ignorance and false knowledge. Dukka (suffering or mental dysfunction) arises from craving and grasping. Importantly, the result of ignorance is stress and disappointment. As people grow and practice wisdom, they become more concerned with others, and less self focused.

The While dukka can be eliminated, the only way to do it is through following the eightfold path. By achieving a mental state, one becomes free and can attain transcendent happiness and well being. Buddha encourages his disciples to pursue calmness and knowledge as these mental skills would bring Nilvana, the ultimate reality. 6 The areas of mental cultivation, which entail right mindfulness, right effort, and right concentration, are rational tools for achieving happiness. First, Buddha proposes that people should apply the right effort by avoiding and eliminating all negative thoughts in their mind. One this is attained, they should perfect their tranquil state of mind by practicing positive thinking. In his teaching, Buddha taught truth, compassion, and consideration for all life because he related one’s happiness to that of others.

People who are less self-centered are less anxious to seek happiness. Practicing compassion makes one and also others blissful. 9 The minds that are free from all factors that oppose them generate happiness. The act of doing good actions again and again with pure mind brings bliss among people. It is unfortunate that many people go for such things that bring happiness that does not last. As a result, human beings never seize looking for such things while discussing factors of alignment, Buddhi emphasizes that true happiness is a state of mind that is sustained through discipline of the mind. Furthermore, this kind of bliss is permanent since it is not reliant on physical objects. 12 Those who cultivate piti (joy/rapture) still experience effects of momentary emotions of happiness and sadness.

However, they appreciate such emptiness and impermanence. According to Buddhism teaching, the above definition of happiness is inadequate. Procuring something perishable, temporary and changeable or something that comes and goes makes one unhappy than getting it in the first place. Similarly, people experience more unhappiness if they get something only to use a lot of money, time, skill, energy and peace to secure or protect it. Generally, people misunderstand the source of happiness. Many of them think that they can be happy if they please their unlimited and insatiable desires. 15 However, it is buried by our anxiety, jealousy, hatred, desire for revenge and other negative state of mind. 16 To achieve real happiness, human beings must eliminate every trace of unhappiness and try to cultivate and nourish the roots of happiness.

In Buddhism, happiness is based on the practice of moral principles. Hatred, greed, and delusion are the three poisons that prevent people from being happy. The three behaviors corrode one’s mental and physical health, and thus destroys their happiness. The knowledge what happiness helps one to relinquish a lower level of happiness to pursue higher levels of happiness. Ordinary people perceive the idea that there is no higher happiness than sensual pleasure. As a result, they become too afraid to seek higher levels of non-sensuous bliss. The path to the highest level of happiness is through gratification and not suffering since it is the path that avoids self-mortification and sensual indulgence. 18 The decisive turning point in the quest of highest happiness is not panic, but the real experience of suffering.

There is a feeling that develops from the realization of nonattachment, nonduality, and selflessness. Understanding that there are no differences among people within the community is an ultimate sense. Another way of experiencing happiness takes the form of accepting karma. If the society embraces the reality of effect and cause, then it is easy to understand that whatever happens to any individual is not bad or good, but it is the end of karma’s sequence. Since karma keeps the society bound to the wheel of birth and death, it is a reason for happiness. With the help of sensual parts of the body, individuals can undergo a cognition process. Depending on the sensory contact, one can feel and perceive different objects.

What one examines physically initiates conceptual proliferations and drags the mind to perceive similar objects. 21 It is apparent that the three stages of the cognitive process have a vital role in determining happiness. Greed, delusion, and hatred prevent people from experiencing happiness. Compassion is the third brahma-vihara that accounts for a state of mind that has no sorrow but joy. Metta, as described by Buddhist, is the desire to possess. 23 Buddha advises followers to merge their minds through mutual love to achieve true happiness. In conclusion, Buddhism is a practice and philosophy that is concerned with the mind, its misunderstanding, cravings, and delusions but reveals the way out via mindful practice and consciousness. From the research, it is apparent that Buddha seeks to define and enhance an understanding of the reality of happiness.