November 7, 2026
We do not know what happiness means. We only know what sorrow means. Happiness is, according to our limited experience, the period in between two sorrows; the time when we are not miserable. Between two headaches there is a head - waiting for the next headache! Life is something that happens between two deaths. Happiness is something that happens between two sorrows. I was unhappy yesterday, and while I say that I am happy today, there is the sneaking suspicion that this may not be so tomorrow. The valley between two hills of sorrow is envisaged to be happiness. The wish to enjoy the delight, the bliss - to capture and hold it - that becomes sorrow!
Whatever you are trying to hold onto is dead. You are left with just the effort of holding on! That effort is pain and sorrow. Unfortunately, since we do not want to recognize this truth, we do not see it as such. We pretend to ourselves that we know what happiness means. The mind is not trained to live in truth. Freedom from sorrow is a negative concept. We want something positive, so we invent bliss. Having invented it, we go looking for it, we want to experience it. The periods in between the peaks of pain in life are regarded by the foolish mind as bliss, which is in fact non-existent.