The Opposite of Happiness

It’s understandably likely
That most of us consider sadness
To be the opposite of happiness.

And accordingly, innocently,
As we learned to do early on,
We mistake preferable feeling-states
And pleasant bodily sensations
For happiness itself.

Therefore, happiness seems both attainable and elusive.

And we are forever seeking
To acquire or enhance these states and sensations.

This results in a seesaw sort of life
In which we swing from dissatisfaction and suffering . . .
To achievement and elation . . .
And back again.
And forth again.

What’s always available, however,
Is for us to turn our attention
From a world filled with feeling-states and sensations
To the very source of that attention.

What we’re likely to see, then,
Is that all these feeling-states and sensations, without exception,
Are merely the coming-and-going expressions
Of the content of experience . . .
They are always merely temporary appearances
That arise and dissolve within YOU . . .
Within who you really are . . .
The boundless, constant, peaceful, unobstructed, unperturbed,
Knowing presence of awareness.

In other words,
Sadness is a temporary appearance
Within stable, constant happiness.

And in other words,
You are the ever-present happiness
That you’ve innocently been seeking.

And in yet other words,
The opposite of happiness is to seek it.