THE ASPIRANT DEEPLY QUESTIONS THE NATURE OF HAPPINESS:
I would like to go away from it all.
To some quiet place, work a little, and be happy.
I don’t think I have been happy in all my life.
And I don’t know what it means.
We live, breed, work and die, like any other animal.
I have lost all enthusiasm, except for making money,
and that too is becoming rather boring.
I am fairly good at my job and earn a good salary.
I’ve been in and out of love.
But what it is all about?
I haven’t the vaguest idea.
I would like to be happy.
And what do you think I can do about it?”
——-
THE GURU REPLIED:
Have you ever been aware of being happy?
Surely, what you were aware of was the sensation of an experience which you call happiness;
But that is not happiness.
What you know is the past, not the present;
and the past is sensation, reaction, memory.
You remember that you were happy;
Can the past tell what happiness is?
It can recall, but it cannot be.
Recognition is not happiness;
To know what it is to be happy, is not happiness.
Recognition is the response of memory;
And can the mind, the complex of memories, experiences, ever be happy?
The very recognition prevents the experiencing.
—–
When you are aware that you are happy, is there happiness?
When there is happiness, are you aware of it?
Consciousness comes only with conflict, the conflict of remembrance of the more.
Happiness is not the remembrance of the more.
Where there is conflict, happiness is not.
Conflict is where the mind is.
Thought at all levels is the response of memory,
and so thought invariably breeds conflict.
Thought is sensation, and sensation is not happiness.
Sensations are ever seeking gratifications.
The end is sensation, but happiness is not an end;
it cannot be sought out.
—–
Sensation can never put an end to sensation;
it may have different sensations at other levels, but there is no ending to sensation.
To destroy sensation is to be insensitive, dead;
not to see, not to smell, not to touch is to be dead, which is isolation.
Our problem is entirely different, is it not?
—–
Do what it will, thought cannot be or search out happiness.
Thought can only be aware of its own structure, its own movement.
When thought makes an effort to put an end to itself, it is only seeking to be more successful, to reach a goal, an end which will be more gratifying.
The more is knowledge, but not happiness.
—–
Thought must be aware of its own ways,
of its own cunning deceptions.
In being aware of itself, without any desire to be or not to be,
the mind comes to a state of inaction.
Inaction is not death; it is a passive watchfulness in which thought is wholly inactive.
It is the highest state of sensitivity.
When the mind is completely inactive at all its levels, only then is there action.
All the activities of the mind are mere sensations, reactions to stimulation, to influence, and so not action at all.
When the mind is without activity, there is action;
This action is without cause.
And only then, is there bliss.
—–
Excerpt from:
J. Krishnamurti | Commentaries on Living Series |
Chapter 85 `Sensation and Happiness’
