The True Nature Of Happiness

We've all had experiences of "happy places" and "happy times." In this meditation, we take both as starting points for an experiential inquiry into the nature of happiness. It turns out that happiness is neither perceptible (like the sight of a flower) nor thinkable (like a mathematical equation), but yet it is experienceable.

In fact, the true nature of happiness can be experienced right now. This, indeed, is the essential point of this meditation.

Transcript

This meditation will be an experiential exploration of the nature of happiness.

We will not be engaged in a conceptual inquiry that will proceed,

That would proceed along philosophical lines.

Instead,

As noted,

This is going to be an experiential exploration,

The point of which is to actually know directly,

To taste intimately,

Happiness as it is.

To begin with,

Ask yourself the question,

When can I recollect an especially happy time in my life?

It may have been a singular experience,

It may be referring to a particular period of time.

Allow yourself to imagine or visualize the details of this happy time.

Who was there?

What was it like?

What sort of thoughts or feelings did you have?

What was the scene in all of its glory?

How would you characterize the general mood of this happy time?

Just allow the mind to roam and to delight in this very or especially happy time.

Next,

I want you to slowly take away all the qualities that you were just exploring.

Take away the scene and all of its colorings.

Take away the notion of a period or of a singular experience.

Take away all the people that you are vividly recollecting.

Take away all the feelings and thoughts.

In other words,

Take away all the colorings,

All the names and forms from what you were regarding moments ago as a happy or especially happy time.

But do not take away what you are actually remembering.

So ask yourself the question right now,

In the absence of all of those very objective and colorful qualities,

What is the essence,

The distilled essence of what remains?

Experience that distilled essence now.

That is to say,

The essence that has no objective qualities.

Label this pure experience number one.

I want you to now reach out an imaginary intentional hand and I want you to take that imaginary potential hand and dip it into that pure experience.

Into this sample called pure experience number one.

Try to really feel what its substance is.

What is the substance of this pure experience number one?

All right,

Set this experience now off to the side.

Come to a second visualization.

In this case,

Imagine or visualize a very happy place.

Maybe this is a place that you often frequent or maybe it's a place you only went to once.

Maybe it feels like home.

Maybe this scenery is glorious or not.

Maybe the people are agreeable,

Friendly.

Maybe there's a je ne sais quoi,

Some quality about this experience that somehow puts you in mind of being happy or of feeling happy.

Just let all the colors and shapes and thoughts and feelings in connection with this especially happy place unfold.

And now take away all the objective qualities from this happy place.

All the colors and shapes and names and forms.

If there's a great majestic scenery,

Then you'll take away everything about that scenery that is majestic.

It will all go to dark,

Go to black,

So to say.

Take away all the people,

All the things that are remembered with the exception of one thing.

I want you to stay with the experience right now of what remains.

What remains of the happy place when all of the objective qualities have been removed from it?

What is this distilled essence that you're now coming in contact with?

Again,

Take out your imaginary attentional hand and bring that hand into this experience,

Which I'll term pure experience number two,

And come up with the substance.

What is a sample of the substance of pure experience number two?

All right,

We're coming somewhere soon.

Hang on tight.

Before we do so,

We turn to a third experiment or case.

Set the other two to the side,

Then,

And simply pay attention to the following question.

Where are you right now?

A qualified question reformulated is this,

Without appealing to any memories,

Without appealing to any thoughts,

Without using any sophisticated theories.

How would you ask the question,

Where am I right now?

And I will help you.

The answer is,

I am here.

So,

Set aside your concepts like the United States,

Or New Mexico,

Or Utah,

Or New York,

Or California,

Et cetera.

Set aside cities,

Towns,

Houses,

And so on,

And so on,

And so on.

Your direct experience,

Your innocent,

Very innocent experience is,

Oh,

I am here.

Now,

Take one step further in the proper direction in this inquiry,

Because you don't actually know there or over there in your actual experience.

Those are also concepts based on memory,

So you can set them off to the side.

All you actually know in your current experience is what I will term here-ness.

Not here set over against there,

Or set over against over there.

Only here-ness.

Therefore,

If I ask you the question,

Where are you?

The answer is,

I am here-ness.

Experience this.

Don't think about it.

Experience it right now.

Here-ness.

Likewise,

If I were to ask you the question,

When are you?

The innocent answer would not be involving an appeal to a clock,

Or to a year,

Or to something else.

Those are all concepts.

They are all hearsay.

All you can say in your direct experience right now is that you are now.

I am now.

In fact,

You can't say now in a way that's set over and against then,

Or that is set over and against later.

Those are also mere concepts based on memory.

Set them off to the side.

All you can innocently and indeed truthfully say is,

I am now-ness.

Notice a twist.

Your direct experience is that here-ness and now-ness are one.

You have no way in the pure innocence of your experiencing right now to differentiate between here-ness and now-ness,

In which case I'm going to make up a German-like word,

Which will be here-ness now-ness.

So if I were to ask you the question,

More German,

So to speak,

Where when are you?

Where where when is one word,

You would say here-ness now-ness,

One word.

I am here-ness now-ness.

Thankfully,

We have a word that we can swap out for here-ness now-ness,

And the word is not present.

The word is presence.

We are not splitting hairs.

We are rather saying that here-ness now-ness is identical with presence,

In which case I am presence.

Where are we going with this inquiry?

All right,

I want you to take a sample of pure presence.

Go in with your imaginary hand and really feel pure presence.

We will call this experience or pure experience number three.

Recall,

Pure experience number one refers to what was hitherto termed happy time.

Pure experience number two referred to what was hitherto termed happy place,

And pure experience number three refers to pure presence.

Follow along.

Notice the plot twist.

If I were to ask you the question,

When you put pure experience number one,

That is that which hitherto referred to happy time,

Very,

Very,

Very close to pure experience number two,

Which hitherto referred to happy place,

Can you distinguish these two experiences?

Are they different,

Similar,

Or the same?

You have two samples.

You need to bring those samples closer and closer and closer so that you're able to inspect them.

What do you find as you,

So to speak,

Look back and forth between pure experience number one and pure experience number two?

Can you find a difference,

Any difference,

Any difference at all?

You know that you can't.

You know that they are non-different.

You see clearly right now that they are completely identical,

In which case you can collapse experience number one into experience number two.

We will call them lumberingly for a moment pure experience number one two.

See where we're going with this.

Now I want you to compare pure experience number one two to pure experience number three.

So you're going to hold up happy place,

Happy time without any qualities,

Really taste that sample,

Really have it in your hand,

And put it very,

Very,

Very close to pure presence,

That is pure experience number three.

Same question.

Can you find any difference between these two,

Between number one two and number three?

Really inspect in order to see whether you can differentiate between one two and three.

Maybe this is quite astonishing.

Without any objective qualities,

There is utterly no way to distinguish between number one two and three.

So let them all collapse into one another.

All you have right now is simple,

Gentle,

Pure experiencing.

Feel this now.

And here's the wonderful insight.

It is that pure presence,

Otherwise known as being,

Is none other than happiness.

What you're experiencing here-ness now-ness,

I.

E.

As pure presence,

Is happiness.

What is not being said is that you are contingently experiencing a mere passing happy moment.

Rather,

The proposal being put forth here,

Which is none other than a description of your actual experience,

Is that you are currently,

That is,

In presence,

Experiencing happiness.

Happiness complete,

Happiness entire.

Experience the truth of what is being said.

In other words,

The objective qualities of the happy place and of the happy time were not those on account of which you are experiencing happiness.

You are experiencing,

Indeed are experiencing,

Happiness in virtue of being presence.

Being,

It will turn out,

Thought-free presence.

In which case,

The further insight is that happiness is not any sort of object whatsoever.

Happiness,

Rather,

Shines forth as being,

As pure presence.

Let's go one more step together.

One final experiment to bring this home.

Ask yourself the question,

Am I aware of the sound of this voice?

Initially,

The attention will fall on the object,

Namely the sound of this voice.

But that isn't quite the question being asked.

The question was intending to emphasize the first part.

Therefore,

I'll ask it again.

Are you aware of the sound of this voice?

Yes.

Place all the emphasis on being aware of the sound of this voice.

In fact,

Imagine that there are two dimmer buttons.

I want you to slowly dim your interest in the sound of this voice.

So,

It will slowly become less and less bright,

So to speak.

Next,

I want you to turn the dimmer button up on being aware,

So that increasingly,

The light of awareness,

The light of being aware,

Swallows up your interest.

Keep turning up the brightness on the light of awareness until you're experiencing,

Chiefly,

Being aware.

You are,

Therefore,

Knowingly,

Or wakefully,

Or luminously,

Being aware.

Experience just this now.

Really go into it.

Dive in to being aware,

Wakefully.

And now,

Take a sample of the substance,

Which we will term pure experience number four.

Compare pure experience number four with our composite experience.

We'll just call that pure experience number three,

Presence.

Put the two samples up very,

Very closely.

Go back and forth between them while asking,

Where is the difference?

How do they differ?

And what is clear is that you cannot find any difference at all.

The two samples are completely identical.

In which case,

What is stunningly clear is that presence,

Or being,

Is none other than awareness.

Furthermore,

And perhaps most surprising at all,

As most surprising rather of all,

Is the fact that awareness-presence,

Or being-awareness,

Is happiness.

In other words,

Your very nature,

Awareness-presence,

Or being-consciousness,

Is none other than happiness.

Know this.

Be this.

Embrace this.

Just is to knowingly be.

Being.

Awareness.

Just is to knowingly be happiness.

Just is to knowingly be abiding happiness.