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IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS
Everyone wants happiness and is always in search of it but instead gets unhappiness. The reason is not far to seek; search itself is suffering. Where there is desire, want or search, it is by definition a suffering.
Mostly the search is for things, people, status and fame as we believe that happiness lies in things like money, land, property, and items of comfort and luxury like car, plane, air-conditioner etc. or in relations like mother, father, wife, children, lover etc, or in name, fame and status. These things seem to give us happiness but they are also the cause of unhappiness. We are unhappy when (a) we do not get the things or person we desire, or (b) when we get the things or person whom we do not want, or (c) when we lose the things or person we want or desire. There is only one situation when we feel happy and that is when we get the desired person or things. Thus out of four situations we feel happy only in one situation. So, as per theory of probability, there is only 25 per cent chance that we will become happy. Rest of the time we are likely to be unhappy as our 'happiness' is dependent on getting desired things or persons. Then what is so surprising if people in search of happiness' get unhappiness instead. Things, people and fame are not eternal. They are perishable and do perish. No sooner these things or people perish, happiness converts into unhappiness or suffering. This is the reason happiness and unhappiness is regarded as obverse and reverse of the same coin. A thing that gives happiness also becomes the source of unhappiness. Things change according to time and if we do not like the change, we become unhappy. This like and dislike or craving and aversion is the main root of suffering.
Happiness or suffering is not rooted in a thing or a person. If it was rooted in a thing or a person then it should have given happiness or unhappiness to all people and at all times. But a thing gives happiness to a person for sometime and later it becomes the source of unhappiness for him. Sometimes a thing is good to one person but not liked by another. For instance, curd is good for
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