Happiness is a feeling. It arises when a new dimension is added to perception: Room. Happiness is a gift that one receives when one leaves space. Happiness is our primary nature. That’s why you can’t find it when you look for it. Happiness comes naturally when you stop looking for it. This was one of the central findings of the Buddha. Stop searching and constantly worry (=think); arrive in what your original nature is:
Space = Emptiness = Inner Peace = Happiness.
This arrival happens when we leave room. If we not only add this new dimension to our perception, but let it become our primary focus. Then happiness develops as an inner state and makes us independent of external changes.
In many cultures, the wheel is a symbol of happiness. It’s constantly spinning into space. It is the sign of the ever-expanding space. Insisting on the narrowness of the old is the definitive strategy for being unhappy. Stagnation is misfortune. This is what the Buddha meant with his noble second truth: For this he again used the metaphor of the wheel. Suffering is when the wheel gets stuck. When nothing moves, when things get tight, we experience fear. Both words are closely related. The Dharma body is the Buddhist symbol for this expanded space, without which this earthly existence, according to many Buddhist teachers, is hard to bear.
There are many ways to get stuck. A fixed idea, a deadlocked situation or a stagnating relationship is enough. The first step out of a deadlocked situation is relaxation in the inner space: a deep breath, a stretch or an inner smile. There are many possibilities to create space within and to escape the narrowness of the ego and compulsive thinking.
If you want someone or something to blossom, give them space. Do the same to yourself. Give yourself room. Now! How does it feel? Stay for a look into the feeling of your own existence. How does it feel to just be? This is the space of pure being, this is our home. the deeper we dive into it, the more we experience this simple, indestructible happiness. It is true, it is fleeting, intangible. But that’s happiness, it’s fleeting and intangible. You can’t organize it and certainly can’t buy it. It’s not the other one either. It is a feeling that arises when one stops searching and arrives in one’s own essence. Now. How does it feel when you leave everything as it is, pause for a moment and let this space simply arise? He’s always there, he’s your primary nature. He always takes you now.