Happiness, they say, is a state of mind. It is not what you have and it is not what you do. It is how you feel as you are going through the motion of living. But then, it is not like emotions either, that change when the sun shines or the rain pours, or even for absolutely no reason at all. Rather it is a constant (like a background noise that ceases to have no sound because one ceases to listen to it) whose presence is noticeable only during its absence. Indeed, it is often in moments of unhappiness do we realize how happy our lives have been! In times of loss do we appreciate how much we actually own.
So, how do we achieve a happy state of mind then? It is not, as we have said, in possessing. But we do feel elevated in the anticipation of possessing something we’ve always wanted, do we not? However, this pleasant sense of anticipation normally disappears very soon after we finally possess what we wanted. So we move on to the next set of desirable object, not to delight in that object itself, but to fulfil that craving, to revel in the pleasure of the chase and the anticipation. To get intoxicated in the anguish of being denied.
This anguish (the pain of the lover waiting for the beloved) however, must not be confused with happiness. Though often it does make one feel that much more alive and gives one a sense of purpose. That one’s life has a meaning, whether it is in accumulation of all sorts of material things, experiencing different situations and forming a variety of relationships.