So what is “happiness” and why are so many people in search of it? When you ask each individual person what happiness consists of each person would have differing responses. Some people would say that having good health would make them happy, others would say money would make them happy, and a wide variety of people would have a different combination of things that they believe would make them happy.
If these answers are examples of what constitutes happiness, then why are there still so many unhappy people walking the face of the earth?
Universal Definition of Happiness
If one was to define this word so that everyone had the same universal definition of "happiness," one could use the meaning found in the dictionary. According to the Merriam Websters online dictionary, one of the meanings of happiness is, “a state of well being and contentment.”
Although this definition is very simply put, this concept can still have have an array of different meanings to different people.
Differing Opinions of Happiness
So why is it that people have different definitions of "What is happiness?" as well as what elicits happiness? This has to do with each individuals personal beliefs about what brings happiness to that individual.
These concepts of happiness can be tangible or intangible. Many of the items that people associate with tangible components are objects like money, a nice house and material objects. Other components that are intangible could be success, power or a sense of belonging.
Intangible vs Tangible Sources of Happiness
According to the Dalai Lama in the book The Art of Happiness, the only way that a person can experience complete happiness is to feel happiness within the self and not depend on material things to make them happy. He states that the reason why there are so many unhappy people in the world is because too many people focus on material gains as oppose to the lessons they learn when trying to obtain these objects.
They associate these material items with what should bring them happiness. The reason why this is not an effective way to go about obtaining happiness is because these people are always trying to feed that urge within them that associates happiness with an abundance of materialistic and superficial items. Therefore, they feel restless because they are never able to attain the level of happiness that one seeks. This genuine form of happiness is only attainable through self-contentment.
Spiritual Laws of Success
Another well-known modern day philosopher on life is Deepak Chopra, and in his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, he states that only when these seven rules are implemented into one's life will they achieve overall success which is the key to happiness. Some of these rules consists of laws that incorporate such intangible concepts such as karma, giving, potentiality and purpose in life.
He states that in order to achieve the material objects in life, one must first practice these laws and have a dedication to developing their spirituality other then focusing on material or monetary gain. When a person lives by these spiritual laws they create a certain energy or chakra that helps them achieve these material objects with the passage of time.
In essence, both books have excellent points in what overall happiness entails and they give valuable insights into the true definition of what happiness consists of. If people focused more on the intangible spiritual aspects of what constitutes happiness, there may be more happy people living in today's world.
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