Happiness make me happy .  Not things. 

 Firstly things dont make me happy or sad.

Though i do enjoy "things", even if i dont get them, does not affect me much. For example, a good hot cup of south indian filter coffee. I do relish when i get.. There are days when i dont. That does not hit the Joy /Sorrow Quotient in my heart even a bit.

 Moments in life, experiences , thoughts and feelings do.  Happiness of everyone around me and myself. That everyone include all the sentient beings I come in touch either directly or indirectly. Last month I mourned the death of Jackie Mu, our Zendog at Little flower zendo. Though we used to meet just for a week every month I used to go there, there was some spiritual connect . Then I felt joy when I recollect the long walks we used to have together.

It is also important to note that, sadness , suffering and tragedies of make me sad . Then one realize they are sides of a same coin what we call as Life . One view is that there may not be much need of any happiness and joy if there was no sorrow and sadness in our world . The question that school of thought raises is "What is the need of happiness / joy in a world where there is no sorrow or sadness.". But then Joy is not just the absence of sorrow. When we have toothache and suffer the pain, our happy state will be the absence of it. But during normal times, we dont get overjoyed just because we dont have a toothache.

Last week there was this great tragedy at Wynad . One news report said , the rescue workers had to identify a small girl with the henna design on her leg . They could just get a few pieces of her mortal remains. And that hit me quite hard. I was quite sad . Then today early morning , I woke up early to drive to Lalbagh for a morning walk with Thara. We had a long walk . And I suddenly thought that girl may have bloomed again as that yellow bell flower. Or that koel who was singing sitting on that yellow bell flower tree. Don’t know for sure . Surely, we dont have anyway of knowing it for sure. Even that thought might have arisen in me as my mind was trying to comfort me. Even that thought brought a smile in my heart and face .

So it is not 30 things . If things indeed would have made happy, Ambanis and Adanis of this world , would have been the most happiest of people. The way they  try to be happy, by showering really expensive gifts to  their acquaintances and try to make them happy through things, does point out that.  The millions of moments in our life. They bring in happiness to a large extent and to some times (un) happiness.

But true joy (which is not even part of happiness((un)happiness scale) occurs to us, when we are in really in union with the universe. When we get totally lost  in a lovely sunset, beauty of a  flower petal,  and wonderful design of a leaf,  when a  dog recognizes from a distance even after a long break,  then true joy occurs.  And it occurs when. I am not in the picture of my mind. But the moment we realize it , it is gone.  Experiences  objectify them. And especially when we try to count it through value judgement, those things gets commodified.  When things dont make you happy, there is even lesser chance commodities will  do.  The moment we realize that, true joy comes back.