To pursue happiness is to take the wrong direction

We hope for a brighter future.

We hope that tomorrow will be better than today. We think: Tomorrow, if I have more money, I’ll be happier. If I have more comfort, I’ll be happier… We are in the pursuit of happiness. And the more you pursue happiness, the more it escapes; this is because true happiness depends on our innermost mind. To pursue happiness is to escape from it. Buddha teaches that we should free ourselves from the me, the I and the mine. It is when we are free from everything, when we free ourselves at every step, at every moment, that every moment is a moment of happiness.

To pursue happiness at all cost is to take the wrong direction. Practicing the Way, practicing life, practicing truth; this is how to free ourselves at every moment from the illusions, the fetters of egoism. If we aim at liberation, moreover we get happiness. With a mind free from everything, happiness is guaranteed.

Free from the self, free from everything.

See the joy of the fish in the pool of water… so threatened a life though! See the joy of nature: clouds gliding in the sky, the life-giving rain nourishing the plants, birds singing, flowers opening.

The poor poet Verlaine, jealous, drowned in absinthe, writes however:

My God, my God, life is here
Simple and peaceful…

Taiun JP Faure, September 2021