The Conditions of Happiness:
Every creature in the world is seeking happiness, and man is no exception, Seemingly man sets his heart on many kinds of things, but ultimately all that he desires or undertakes is for the sake of happiness. . . . [He is keen to have power, strives for money, seeks knowledge, health or beauty, science, art, or literature or struggles for worldly success or fame, it is because he hopes to find happiness in their attainment.] Through all his endeavors and pursuits, man w_s to be happy. Happiness is the ultimate motive power, which drives him in all that he does.
Everyone seeks to be happy, yet most persons are immersed in some kind of suffering. If at times they do get small installments of happiness in their lives, it neither unadulterated nor abiding. Their lives are never a series of . unmixed pleasures. It moves between the opposites of pain and pleasure, which are entwined like darkened clouds and shining rainbows. The moments of pleasure occasionally appearing in their lives soon vanish - like rainbows. . . . If these moments of pleasure leave any trace, it is of a memory that only augments the pain of having lost them. Such memory is an invariable legacy of most pleasures.
Man does not seek suffering, but it comes to him as an inevitable outcome of the very manner in which he seeks happiness. He seeks happiness through the fulfillment of his desires, but such fulfillment is never an assured thing. Hence in the pursuits of desires, man is also unavoidably preparing for the suffering from their non fulfillment. . . .
Fulfillment of desires does not lead to their termination; they are submerged for awhile only to reappear with added intensity. . . . Worldly desires can therefore never lead to abiding happiness. On the contrary, they invariably invite unending suffering of many kinds. . . .
Desire is inevitably the cause of much suffering: this is the law.
. . . Sometimes intense suffering makes him detached from worldly life, but this detachment is often again set aside because of a fresh flood of desires. . . . But these thoughts, as well as the detachment born thereof, are short lived. They are soon forgotten, and the person resumes his attachment to the world and its alluring objects. . . . Such a mood of detachment is as temporary as it is sudden
Sometimes the mood of detachment is more lasting and not only endures for a considerable time but also seriously modifies one's general attitude toward life. . . .
The disgust for the world that a person feels in such cases is due to the powerful impression left by a misfortune, and it does not endure because it is not born of understanding. It is only a severe reaction to life. . . .
Complete detachment is one of the essential conditions of lasting and true happiness. For the person who has complete detachment no longer creates for himself the suffering that is due to the unending thraldom produced by desires. . . .
Humanity is subject to much suffering, physical and mental. Of these two, mental suffering is the more acute. ... It is not right to make much of purely physical suffering. It can be borne through the exercise of willpower and endurance. The true suffering that counts is mental. Even yogis who can endure great physical suffering find it difficult to keep free from mental suffering, which is rooted in the frustration of desires. If a 'person does not want anything, he is not unhappy under any adverse circumstances. . . . The state of complete desirelessness is latent in everyone. And when through complete detachment one reaches the state of wanting nothing, one taps the unfailing inner source of eternal and unfading. happiness-which is not based upon the objects of the world but is sustained by Self-knowledge and Self-realization.