Happiness is what's happening.

Look back at a time when you were happy and notice how "you" were not really there.

This happy time does not have to be some ecstatic, divine experience of enlightenment—just a pure, simple happiness that might have come with the sound of laughter and smiles. This happiness you felt is a natural state of lightness and a care-free abandonment of the self. In it, there is no past story or worry for the future. There is nothing to really cling to. "Time flies" and you relax into the present moment of beingness—that is, not being a "you".

Some might call it an escape.

However, it is not that you really stop or escape from being "you". It is more of a natural realization that "you" and the "experience" are the same thing. "You" become that funny joke, a lover's eyes, a baby's smile, or a warm bed. The defining line of the physical body is relaxed and forgotten. Times stops, thought stops, the world falls away and you enter into the current experience openly and naturally. You feel at home. You feel peace.

Now, look back at a time when "you" were in pain or discomfort. This might have come from "loosing" the happiness just described. In this state, the sense of self is heavy, upfront, and in the foreground. There is a strong sense of the past and worry for the future. The object of your pain or "lost happiness" is firmly in mind as being separate from you, attacking you. Time creeps by in a dreadful procession of minutes, hours, and days. The present experience becomes constricted within the body, submerged in thought, and lost in a hard, finite world. You do not feel at home. You feel suffering.

Notice the difference?

Suffering arises when the self is felt as separate from the experience. There is a "you" and there is a "pain" which is attacking the "you". Two separate things.

This occurs in any form of discomfort—mild or severe. If you are "freezing cold" it is because you have subtly created a line where "you" are on one side, and the "freezing cold" is on the other—making "you" uncomfortable. The same could be said for a harsh break-up, job-loss, etc.

On the other hand, when there is happiness, that's all there is! There is no "you" when peace comes. You and happiness merge into one seamless experience of freedom—a freedom where the "you" is not really there.

Upon realizing this, many people unconsciously say, "I must learn how to not be me! I must forget me!" However, attaining this loss-of-self is impossible through "personal" effort. You cannot remember to forget yourself. You cannot end you. That is a paradox. Happiness is only revealed naturally when the present experience is accepted for what it is, and the activity of a "you" stops on its own.

Most people endlessly search for definitive ways to trick themselves into a loss-of-self or happiness. Very innocently, they seek for a "new" and "different" experience that is separate from them, in an effort to forget themselves. They think it comes with a new car, spouse, drug, spiritual book, or religious practice that is somewhere outside of them. But remember, suffering only arises when the self is felt as separate from the current experience.

There are no "tricks," "techniques" or "objects" that can bring peace—because peace is all there is. Underlying and permeating every experience of "suffering" is the peaceful space that allows it to be. You, who are really just peace, confuse yourself to be separate from that which is happening. This "confusion" is a freedom that peace inherently owns.

Peace is absolutely free to be anything, even momentary "confusion".

The "problem" seems to arise when peace ties itself into a confusing knot, forgets that it has done so, and seems to "suffer" because it wants peace back—all the while forgetting what it naturally is. A metaphor might be a rope that takes the form of a knot, but never ceases to be rope. A knot cannot be without rope—a knot is made of only rope. Just the same, "confusion" cannot be without peace—"confusion" is made of only peace.

It is only the negative connotations implied with the experience of "confusion" that causes suffering (AKA forgetting that you are only peace).

In this sense, there is nothing to really "do" about suffering. Striving for happiness is "suffering". Striving for suffering to end is "suffering". If there is any effort at all, it is a gentle acknowledgment that "pain" or "something" has arisen in awareness, letting go of the label, and moving into the experience without judgment. It is a subtle release.

In truth, there is no real "moving into the experience" or "letting go of the label". There is just that which is arising, a recognition of it, and a release—all in one movement. Anything more than that is a self-centered game that keeps the illusion of "suffering" in place.

There is nothing more self-centered than devoting your entire life to ridding yourself of personal suffering.

Look deeply at the underlying motive to gain "liberation" or "happiness", and notice how it is all about "you" and your separation from peace.

How would it feel to just be what is happening, right here and now?

Beyond words. Beyond you.

How does what's happening feel?