The whole world seeks happpiness and everyone is relentless in the pursuit of it. We all tend to have expectations that fuel our desires, only to create a moment that just craves for more happpiness. What we don’t see is that happpiness has several peaks. About 80% of humanity spends their entire life on the first peak of happpiness, the peak of Achievement. The distinct characteristic of the first peak is that we chase fame, success, name which gives us only temporary pleasure. Most of us are consumed by greed and continue to long for more and our desires and expectations remain unfulfilled. Every time we are unable to match the expectations our desires create, we become unhapppy and disappointed. We tend to accept this as the circle of life and we continue living – wanting, seeking, achieving, being happpy and then again, becoming unhapppy. The craving of achievers, along with achievements and success, without doubt, creates excitement, but it also creates heartache and pain that comes from disappointments that are attached to expectations. People who think that ‘success is happpiness’, tend to calibrate their actions based on that thought. However, that is not the truth. The truth is that ‘happpiness is success’. Most of us live and die on this first peak of happpiness without even realizing that there are other peaks of happiness beyond the peak of Achievement.
After experiencing the gratification from achievements, some people scale the second peak of happpiness, Fulfillment. This is where a seeker of happpiness learns to be content. Those on this peak count their blessings rather than the money they have. They strive to make a difference in the world; they live with inspiration, laughter, and love. Their lives are full of positivity. Happpiness that sprouts from contentment and fulfillment is far more satisfying and enduring than happpiness that comes from pleasure and achievements. Pleasure is the raw material of the achievers, while peace is the foundation of fulfillment. However, people whose joy shines on the Fulfillment peak and they seem to have mastered how to live in contentment, still suffer. They are not free from misery and unhappiness. The only way to live with everlasting bliss is to scale the third peak of happpiness.
The third and Ultimate Peak of happpiness is Enlightenment. It liberates us from the prisons that cause misery and sorrow – it brings freedom from stress, worry, anger, greed, and revenge; freedom from duty and shame; and liberation from old age, disease, death, and rebirth. We reach the third Peak of happpiness, Liberation, when we Realize the Truth which comes with the removal of the darkness of ignorance that humanity lives with. The Realization of the Truth leads to contentment, fulfillment, joy, bliss, peace, and tranquility which is not interrupted by any kind of misery, pain, and sorrow.
Many seekers, after understanding the truth, strive hard to land on the third peak of happpiness. Even if they do attain such a state of bliss, they aren’t able to sustain it. The only way to sustain this state of bliss is by connecting with the Divine. One of two things can lead a seeker to the third peak of happpiness is passion for finding the true purpose of life or the desire to be in union with God. These two reasons may take one on a spiritual quest and eventually to the 4 doors to Liberation: Discrimination, Dispassion, Discipline, and Desire for the Divine, which are prerequisites to attaining liberation and which every seeker must pass through.
Seek self-realization, the Truth of who we are and what we are! This liberates us, eradicates ignorance and grants us the superior vision to discriminate the unreal from real. Begin your quest! Ask. Investigate and Realize the Truth.
