I saw a movie recently with musings about happiness. It made me muse about happiness.

For me, there is no objective standard for happiness. Happiness doesn't happen because of some objective thing, some objective other thing happening. There is no road to happiness, nothing leads to happiness.

I think happiness is often confused with desire, when people think if they get some object of desire, they will be happy, but in truth, when people get the object they desire, they desire more and remain unhappy.

But I think there is some validity in that idea of happiness. Happiness is a state, that is, there is such thing as happiness, I think. Happiness has meaning. Remove desire from that equation, and that is something closer to what happiness is.

Oh wait, I've been through all this before with the "happiness generation meditations" I used to do. The idea was to do these meditations where I just generate happiness within myself, not attached to anything outside, no object of desire. Just create joy within myself. And I remember it working, that it is possible.

For me, that's the most important aspect of being happy. It has to come from within, it has to be a being. It can't rely on something else. If you want to be happy, just be happy. Don't look for it down some path, don't expect it to be a result of some other thing. And if you're unhappy, then choose it; realize you're choosing it. I'm sure I've written this before.