Meditation and happiness

We constantly seek pleasurable situations that we think will bring lasting happiness. We’re attracted to wealth, power, success, possessions, relationships, security and the like because we think they can provide us with the stable happiness we crave. But most of these pursuits don’t lead to the desired outcome.

Maybe we’re looking for happiness in the wrong place because we don’t see the impermanent nature of these things we crave. In fact, every situation, every thing we might acquire to secure this happiness is going to pass. External things aren’t able to give us lasting satisfaction.

Suppose you’re in the perfect situation: you’re on the beach in the best company, you’ve just had the best meal you can imagine, everything’s going exactly like you want it – then a fly or a mosquito comes by, or you see rubbish on the beach, and suddenly your perfect situation is shattered and the only thing you can think about is the problem that makes it imperfect.