What Is The Cause Of Unhappiness

[JosephM]

What is the cause of unhappiness?

 

The dictionary defines unhappiness as "not satisfied; displeased or discontented:". To be any of these things covered in the definition, there must be a thought in mind that this moment, what is or as the Buddha says the "suchness" is not as the thinking mind would have it. There is a thought whether conscious or unconscious that something needs to happen in my life that is different than what is. The mind resents that it has not yet happened and somehow believes that resentment will somehow make it happen.

 

Or it could also be the thought that something happened in the past that should not have happened OR something is happening now that should not be happening. Any of these thoughts are enough to cause feelings of unhappiness. They are assumptions, thoughts that are confused with reality.

 

The truth of the matter is that these are negative thoughts and made up stories that the mind creates to convince you that you cannot be happy with what is (reality). Either the egoic thinking mind doesn't know that happiness can only be found in this very moment or it knows it but perhaps doesn't want you to find out because it knows that to find this place of happiness and peace is the end of the 'ego's reign'. In essence the ego is creating hell on earth. It is the essence of unconscious living because it operates on separation from the whole..

 

In my view, one way to end all this misery that the ego has inflicted upon humanity for thousands of years is to take responsibility for yourself and your inner state at every moment in time. Being aware of any negativity in thoughts is the key to overcoming them. Seeing thoughts for the story they are and for what they are, without self-judgement is just enough to start a dissolving process or sometimes sudden or more often seemingly gradual transformation from within. A transformation so these negative thoughts no longer have any power over your peace and happiness. Being aware of negativity in oneself is not a sign of failure but rather success. Why? Because in my view, you are not your thoughts and becoming more conscious of them shifts identification from the ego to ones essence which is aware of these thoughts. Or one could say to ones natural connected state which is found in peace with reality and who you really are.

 

May we all continue this journey of Self-discovery that is not found in the knowledge of abundance of books, which is knowledge about, but rather in the simple exploration of our own mind and thoughts which tries to create its own world. A world that is doomed to failure until we wake up to our true nature found in happiness, contentment, satisfaction and alignment with the whole. May we all fall in love and be in love with Life itself in whatever role Life takes us.. In this love is the home of happiness.

 

Joseph