Happiness and Unhappiness

The other day, I found myself in a state of unhappiness. Stress, contraction, anxiety, and tension were making themselves known in my experience. And I found myself digging in and trying to figure out why I was feeling bad,trying to get to the root of the issue so as to get rid of my pain. But then I paused. Would I be acting this way if I was in a state of happiness and contentment? No one ever digs deep to try and figure out the cause of their happiness; they only do that when they are unhappy. So the question arises: what happens if I treat my unhappiness in the exact same way that I would treat my happiness? No digging, no trying to “figure it out,” no analysis. Just simply being in touch with the raw sensations of unhappiness. When you treat your unhappiness as if it were happiness, then it’s no longer a problem for you to solve, and it inevitably dissolves and is replaced by some other state of consciousness.

States of happiness and states of unhappiness are both equally ephemeral: they come and go on their own volition, like clouds in the sky, without us needing to intervene in any way. But when we treat our unhappiness as a state that we need to “do something” about, we suffer immensely. Or, we expend tons of energy trying to get rid of something that will only leave us when the time for it to leave comes, and not a moment sooner. In a way, the unnecessary expenditure of our energy to change things that will change on their own anyway is a core definition of suffering.

When something painful arises in our lives, the sane step to take is a step back. Step back to the place where pain and pleasure are both equally transitory states, soon to be replaced by something else. And in that place, a timeless, causeless joy  can be found. This is the joy of simply witnessing whatever is here to be noticed, whether it is painful, pleasurable, or something in between. When happiness and unhappiness are seen to be equally impermanent, inner peace is the inevitable byproduct.