Joy and Happiness

Do not seek joy as you would a treasure, for the search itself proclaims its absence. 

Happiness is not a distant shore to be reached, but the very sea upon which you travel. 

It is found in allowing, not in grasping. 

When you cease to divide the world into pleasure and pain, you will discover that joy is the natural stillness of a heart at peace with what is. 

Surrender the chase for happiness, and in that surrender, you will realize you are already afloat in its boundless ocean.

Reflection - Joy and Happiness

Beloved, be still for a moment.

(He pauses, letting the silence settle.)

Just... stop. Stop trying. Stop reaching. Stop scrolling. Stop planning your next minute, your next meal, your next argument, your next defence. Just be here. Feel the seat supporting you. Feel the air as it enters and leaves.

...It’s exhausting, isn’t it? This chase.

We are a people who have made a religion of "elsewhere." We are a generation of happiness junkies, frantically searching for the next fix. We tell ourselves, "I will be happy when... I got the job. I will be at peace when... I find the right partner. I will relax when... I get the children settled. I will be content when... I am validated, when I am secure, when I am right, when I am retired."

We are all like people standing knee-deep in the ocean, complaining of thirst.

This morning, we have a short, beautiful, and utterly devastating text to reflect upon. It says:

“Do not seek joy as you would a treasure, for the search itself proclaims its absence.”

Think about that. The very act of looking for your keys is proof that you don’t have them in your hand. The very act of frantically searching for happiness is the announcement to your own heart that you are unhappy. The search is the problem. The chase is the sickness.

And then, this line, which is the whole sermon in one breath:

“Happiness is not a distant shore to be reached, but the very sea upon which you travel.”

This is the message. This is the whole Way. You are already in the Kingdom. You are already afloat on the boundless ocean. The problem is that you have been told you must swim to it. And so you are thrashing, and kicking, and grasping, and splashing... and all your frantic effort does is make you tired and blind you with salt water. It convinces you that you must be drowning, because only a drowning person would struggle this hard.

The teaching for today, common to the Hsin Hsin Ming and my own Sermon on that Mount, is this:

Stop kicking. Just float.

This is what I meant when I said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

It does not say, "theirs will be the kingdom," as a reward for good behaviour. It says, "theirs is." Right now. Who are the "poor in spirit"? They are the ones who have stopped grasping. They are the ones who have given up the chase. They have become empty of preference.

And what is the root of the chase? It is a preference! It is the "disease of the mind" that the Way of Non-Preference speaks of. The mind is a division-making machine. It takes the one boundless ocean of "what is," and it chops it up. "This," it says, "is good. I like this. This is a pleasure." And "That," it says, "is bad. I hate that. This is pain."

And so you spend your entire life, your entire precious, divine life, like a frantic shepherd, trying to herd all the "pleasure" moments into your pen and keep all the "pain" moments out. It is a full-time, high-stress, impossible job. And it is the only reason you are not at peace.

The text says: “When you cease to divide the world into pleasure and pain, you will discover that joy is the natural stillness of a heart at peace with what is.”

This is not a new idea. It is the thread of gold that runs through all true seeing.

My friend Siddhartha, the Buddha, saw this clearly. He said the source of all our dukkha—all our suffering and discontent—is tanha. Thirst. Craving. Grasping. The desperate demand that reality conform to your preferences. He taught that the cessation of this craving, this grasping, is Nirodha. It is released. It is peace. It is Nirvana. It is the "letting go" that our text speaks of. You let go of the hot coal of "I want," and your hand is finally, blissfully, un-burned.

The great sages of the Upanishads in India saw it from a slightly different angle. They didn’t just say, "Let go and find peace." They said, "You are the peace you are looking for!" They said your true Self, your Atman, is not this small, anxious, grasping personality. Your true nature is Sat-Chit-Ananda. Being. Consciousness. And Bliss.

You are not a thirsty wave. You are the ocean. You are not a separate, unhappy person seeking joy; you are the boundless field of Joy itself, pretending it's a small, sad-faced little cloud. The "chase" is simply a profound case of mistaken identity.

So, one tradition says, "Extinguish the flame of craving, and find peace." The other says, "Realize you are not the spark, you are the entire Sun."

What is the difference? (He smiles.) One is worried about fire safety, the other is worried about you forgetting your divinity. But the path is the same: stop identifying with the small, flickering, separate spark. Stop grasping. Stop dividing.

This is the Inner Kingdom. It is within you. You are looking for it on earth, in your bank account, in your relationships, in your political victories. But as long as your treasure is "out there," your heart will be "out there" with it. And you will never be here.

And this "being here" is the Higher Ethic I spoke of. You have heard it said, "Love your neighbour." But you cannot truly love your neighbour if you are secretly using them as a source for your happiness. You have heard it said, "Do not murder." But you murder your own peace a thousand times a day with anger and preference. You have heard, "Do not commit adultery." But you are constantly unfaithful to the present moment, lusting after a "better" future that does not exist.

The work is to be faithful to what is. To love what is, as it is.

How does this land in your life? Right now?

It lands in the anxiety of your social media feed. You are scrolling, scrolling, scrolling... looking for what? A little hit of joy. A little treasure. And in that search, you are proclaiming your own absence. You are comparing your "boundless sea" of real life—with its laundry and its traffic and its quiet moments—to everyone else's highlight reel of their "distant shore." And you feel poor.

You are "poor in spirit," but not in the blessed way. You are poor because you believe you are poor.

The text says: “Surrender the chase for happiness, and in that surrender, you will realize you are already afloat in its boundless ocean.”

Surrender. What a terrifying word for an ego that lives on control.

Now, let's make this sharp. Let's make this Wisdom in Action.

Look at the news this past week. Look at the large-scale event that has everyone shouting. (He gestures vaguely.) You know the one. The one that has split everyone into two, three, ten camps.

What do you see? You see a world of people frantically grasping. "If my side wins, it is 'pleasure.' If their side wins, it is 'pain.'" Everyone is certain that happiness is a "distant shore" called "Victory." And in their desperate swim for that shore, they are drowning in their own rage, their own fear, their own self-righteousness. They are miserable. They are so certain they are right, they have forgotten to be at peace.

This is the plank in your own eye. The "Way" does not mean you become a doormat. It does not mean you "check out" and let the world burn. That is just another form of aversion.

No. The Wisdom in Action is to first stop your own frantic kicking. First, you float. First, you find that "natural stillness of a heart at peace with what is."

You remove the plank of your own desperate need for the world to match your preferences.

And then, from that place of clear, boundless, oceanic peace, you will see clearly what must be done. Your action will come from love, not from fear. It will come from clarity, not from rage. It will come from the whole sea, not from one terrified little wave. And that action... (he nods slowly) ...that action changes the world.

So, this is the good news. The best news.

You can stop. You can rest. The chase is over.

You are not a sinner who must earn heaven. You are not a failure who must achieve joy.

You are the boundless ocean of "what is." You are the Kingdom. You are the Way.

You are already home.

(He smiles gently.)

Now, stop kicking. And just float.

Peace be with you.