Life is a See-Saw of Happiness!!!

There is a million dollar question throughout the history of Man – What makes us happy? Whatever makes an individual satisfied, makes him happy. An individual high on drugs or alcohol, an individual earning lots of money irrespective of the ways it was earned, a social system keeping masses down the ladder just to keep few up the ladder satisfied - All these smells like happiness then!!

Biologists point out biochemistry in this happiness research. Serotonin, Dopamine are some of happiness hormones that ring the bells. Gene has put upper and lower boundaries on happiness. You can either climb to the top or fall to the bottom. Genetically, we are all different. Dhoni and Kohli are not same. Depending on the situation, you may be happy or sorrow or neutral. Scientifically, it stops here in inferring the happiness. We don’t have any proven healthy medicine to influence this. Of course, we have non-healthy alternatives - drugs, alcohol or any other thing your gene considers it as happiness for time being. 

Evolutionists blame Natural selection. An organism evolves its gene over a long period of time. But for what? SURVIVAL. Survival of the fittest is a direct jump cut from evolution. You evolve continuously to suit the needs of the climate you are living in. It’s a natural process to select beings suitable to survive. Then why were dinosaurs selected for extinction? VOLCANOES/METEOR ATTACKS are not normal events for any being to get evolved and survive. How does it operate? It creates important milestones for survival like Sex, Eating etc. You setup short-lived pleasures on achieving the milestone. It’s a deceptive tactic that drives you towards that short-lived pleasures. You start developing more craving for sustenance of pleasure, try reaching the goal again and again and hence you survive. Along this course of survival, Man developed another interesting attribute of delusion. He started being over cautious for things more than necessary for preventive purpose. You are 99% of the time cautious not to stamp on a snake while walking in a forest. For survival, this illusion about reality remains important and make yourself prepared and preventive. 

Man internally combined this craving and delusion. He started developing delusion of being more worried than necessary for pains and problems in life. In turn, he started developing craving towards pleasures more than necessary as a reaction to the delusion. Now we stand at a point where we have created ever-ending vicious cycle and love for short-lived pleasures. We don’t like the evaporation of pleasure and try to ride on a hedonic treadmill that can never exist. We want to be in contentment all the time.

Most religions have easily cooked up the reason for this suffering of Man. But they serve it in different dishes. If you search your Religion’s holy scripture or teachings, you will definitely find this: Man should always stay away from craving for pleasures. Of course, it is going to be part of worldly moral for any age or period on Earth. Religions don’t stop there and suggest some things to follow to achieve it. But most religions don’t infer this phenomenon the way Buddhism and Buddha did. 

In a nutshell, Buddha propounds that Man keeps suffering because of his illusion about the pleasures and problems and how he always likes to cling to pleasures. He pin points how Man attaches himself towards pleasures so much that he fails to understand the reality that Man’s eternal state is always to be in Calmness which weighs both Pleasures and Problems the same. In fact, Buddha’s explanation of cause for Man’s suffering augurs well with both Biological and Evolutionary explanation about Happiness and Sorrow. This opened up numerous Psychological researches on Buddhism ideologies where they try to understand his suggestion of Meditation as a means to detach from this illusion and remain as calm as possible. You self introspect yourself about in what degree you handle pleasures and problems and suit the meditation accordingly. Is it that easy? Thats for every individual to introspect and understand but it is REALITY.