What Is Happiness?

Editor’s note: Ricky Schlesinger, the President of the Vista Buddhist Temple, wrote this article for EVERYDAYBUDDHIST.org on Sept. 25, 2024. The Wheel of Dharma is reprinting Schlesinger’s article with his permission.

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So, what is happiness?  My Jewish mother used to say, “There is happy (holding her hands six inches apart) and there is HAPPY (as her voice elevated and her hands spread as wide as she could reach). Big range.  

And there is a big range of not being happy, too. I think Buddhist practice leads us to happiness. Not always the outstretched kind, graduating college, bonus day at work, new car kind of happiness, but a profound happiness, not event driven.  

Buddhism brings us a happiness which transcends a great dinner, a good golf shot, winning your fantasy football league, or your kid’s report card. It’s harder to describe, it isn’t emotionally intense. It has deeper meaning in our lives.

The country of Bhutan tracks an index they refer to as “Gross National Happiness.”  Their scale includes conditions of “narrowly happy,”  “extensively happy,” and “deeply happy.”

Apparently, Bhutan puts a very high regard on their happiness.  Research indicates Bhutanese are 91.2% happy.  An estimated 775,000 people live in Bhutan and their average per capita income is about $8,000 a year (so what are they so happy about?). 

Their country located in the Himalayan mountains is predominantly Buddhist.  Are they so happy because they are Buddhist? I don’t know, but as my Jewish mother would say about chicken soup curing a cold, “It couldn’t hurt.”

Gross National Happiness is really a sense of well-being, which is shared by most Bhutanese. They are not wealthy, they don’t live in luxury, but they are 91.2% happy with a sense of well-being.

Is that what we are achieving with our Buddhist practice? Buddhism is a pursuit of well-being, we find in our individual practice. There are all kinds of religions looking for external answers to feel better. 

For us as Buddhists, well-being resides inside ourselves. We believe the answers come from the Buddhist nature we are all born with, not externally delivered by Door Dash. There are many forms of Buddhist practice, none of them right or wrong, just variations of the same path.

As Buddhists, as we deepen our practice, we have an opportunity to move up the “Bhutanese Happiness Scale.” I don’t think there is anything wrong with the thrill of a good golf shot, celebrating your kid’s report card or playing fantasy football. For a brief moment I might experience a momentary thrill. 

But if I want lasting well-being, it will come from my Buddhist practice. I don’t have to move to Bhutan, I can stay right here at home. My Buddhist practice is an everyday pursuit, the Dharma is everywhere. Who knows, maybe it will even help my golf game!