What is true happiness?

If someone has a baby, we usually say congratulations. But Buddhism believes that life is more painful than happy, and even "life" is also a kind of suffering, so Buddhism teaches us not to take pain as pleasure, but to get happiness from suffering.

Buddhism calls the four basic phenomena of life - birth, aging, disease and death "four bitterness". It is easy to understand that old age, illness and death are regarded as suffering, but if "life" is also a kind of suffering, it may be difficult for most people to understand.

Almost everyone can no longer remember what happened at birth. No one knows whether a baby is happy or bitter at birth. But we can infer that the baby's skin is very delicate and smooth. When leaving the mother for the first time and suddenly contacting the outside air, it must be very uncomfortable and sad. The sudden change of the environment made the baby cry when he was born, but he had to come to this world.

For mothers, it may not be easy to give birth. Many women's pain in childbirth, that is, the use of the word "pain beyond birth", is not enough to describe, so the ancients called the birthday "mother difficult day". But after the baby is born, the pain is relieved, and the mother will feel very comforted and happy again. It is like going through thousands of hardships and finally climbing the mountain. When she no longer needs to climb, she will feel ecstatic. In fact, this is just the happy feeling after the relief of suffering and oppression. It is the result of suffering, and it is not another new happiness. It can be seen that "life" is a hardship, not a real happiness.

Birth is hard. In one's life, there is not much real happiness. The happiness that ordinary people feel is derived from satisfying the "five desires" - eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. For example, the eyes see the beautiful scenery, the ears hear the pleasant sound, the nose smells the fragrance, the mouth tastes the food, and the body has a soft and smooth touch. In addition, talking with others very congenially, or obtaining a new achievement, discovering a new fact, making oneself feel very successful... These are psychological pleasures, also belong to "pleasure".

Most of us have no knowledge of the fact that "happiness" for pleasure contains "pain", which is "happiness with pain". For example, a rare and beautiful beauty appears in front of you. Because it is rare to see her, you will appreciate her and feel happy when you see her. However, if you can see beautiful things every day, or let beautiful women and handsome men appear in front of you every day and let you see enough, there is nothing strange. Although the short contact makes people feel dizzy, after more contact times, happiness will disappear.

All desire for happiness is temporary and impermanent, and will pass soon. It feels very real, but in fact it is illusory, and the illusory feeling itself is a kind of pain. Therefore, the happiness of the five desires is still in pain. To put it bluntly, this happiness is just a feeling opposite to "suffering".

In this way, it seems that there is nothing to be happy about being a human being, but it is not always the case. Because there is another kind of music called "calm music", that is, the happiness of meditation is better than the pleasure of desire, and the feeling of happiness is also stronger. Because we have got rid of the physical and mental restrictions in meditation, especially the burden and pain of the body will disappear, and we will no longer have a heavy feeling. At this time, we will have a sense of satisfaction, and this feeling of "nothing but light" is very happy. But after the determination, because the body is still there, all kinds of burdens due to the body still exist. Therefore, Dingle cannot be maintained for a long time.

The ultimate happiness is the "joy of liberation". After the liberation through practice, there will be no more troubles and worries, and no more psychological burden. At this time, it is the true and absolute happiness, and the happiness that is truly worth pursuing.