Happiness

For much of my life I’ve felt that the purpose of human birth was to be happy – to be in a state of genuine, unfettered, unbounded happiness that comes from feeling connected, in the flow, seeing the perfection of it all. When in this state I’ve thought, “this is it - I just have to work to maintain this – this is the natural, ultimate human state.” But now I have a somewhat different view, because as a particular emotional state happiness will always be transient, and the life situation of some people makes it all but impossible to feel truly happy in the midst of their suffering. The true purpose of human birth is to become free. And a state of freedom needn’t be accompanied by happiness. Rather freedom is characterized by acceptance and equanimity in all situations. Not necessarily devoid of emotion, but free of the desire for a state of happiness.