Happiness is....

My daughter and I had a great vacation conversation the other day about happiness. What is it, we asked ourselves, and how do you get it? If you get sucked into the common view maelstrom it seems like you can be happy if you are famous, good looking, wealthy, or marry somebody with one of those things, maybe two of them. If you marry somebody with all three you're probably toast

So we decided, me and my 17 year-old, that you really shouldn't be aiming at happiness as a goal in and of itself, as it seems happiness is better sought as a by product of other things. "Things" in our parlance wasn't meant to be physical objects or money.

What do you think those other "things" are?

(Hats off to AugustLeo)

You and your daughter are great people.

You've increased my happiness by sharing this. Not sure what that means.

what Nigel said

singing karaoke with a bunch of drunken chilean campesinos at the top of our lungs while red wine flowed freely.

aaaand

knowing that I basically achieved the biggest goal I ever had in my life (1st path), and now Im just happy to experience whatever comes my way from now on till the end.

...a warm gun.

Seriously though, I think this is a question that depends on who-what-when-where-why-how. It's like asking "what is the favorite color?" The question isn't even meaningful until it's framed with respect to a particular individual, and there is no basis for expecting broad generalization or a justified basis for a "right" answer. Perhaps there are statistical regularities, but this perhaps implies nothing more than the statistical regularity that most people prefer (say) blue to other colors. There are surely reasons underlying any such regularities, be they cultural or biological or whatever, but these reasons need not apply to all cases, nor need they carry normative weight as the reasons that "should" apply.

So happiness is the product/byproduct of "whatever works", where it is up to each individual to find or stumble upon what the solution to that variable happens to be for them at the moment.

Ditto Nigel and Kate's comments.

Also, some time ago I had a little realization that when life was really going well, I was aware of 'things' as the expression of happiness, and not necessarily any one 'thing' as the cause of happiness. I've kept that in the back of my mind ever since, and I'm happy to share it in reply to your story / outlook, Chris.

In fact, I notice happiness flowing, floating about now, as I write this post. : )

- Ryan

I read this great Shunryu Suzuki quote in "Saltwater Buddha": 'Waves are the practice of water.' So maybe happiness is the practice of buddhanature.

What made me happy for a bit last week was the realization that my 17 year-old daughter has a good sense of what makes for happiness, if anything.

"
What made me happy for a bit last week was the realization that my 17 year-old daughter has a good sense of what makes for happiness, if anything.

"

Yeah, that would make me happy, too! : )

In other words, I'm happy for you and your daughter, Chris.

Also, happiness as I see it is well summed-up by the attitude of Maude, in the film Harold & Maude, when she says, "Go, team, go! L-I-V-E, live!"

Fierce engagement with life, in love and fearless exuberance.