My view for liking ‘Happiness is closer to wisdom than it is to reason.-Francisco J. Varela.
A person is Happy. He may be sad by the evening. Happiness means a state like a river is flowing or ‘rivering’ of the river. The word river denotes that it is a constant but the river is not constant but flowing! It means it has two opposite components one is constant and another is change or it may be called a constant referring to a constant-change. Life is dialectical. Lao Tzu said that the ‘Tao” has both in it the Yin and the yang. So all the life forms of the cosmos together is composed of two opposite together in Tao or harmony. So the “Tao” or “Harmony” means just maintaining a state of witnessing or unattached or unaffected by the change, while ‘river’ changes it form into vapor, cloud or rain or in our life external situations gets changed.
If we term “River” as constant then we have to term “Rivering” of the river as its Soul, which is not constant. It means if we consider all life form as existing and term them as Noun then there is no possibility of another constant like “Soul” in it, instead it is the “Change” which is there. So Buddha said that there is no “Soul” i.e. Anaatma and at the same time he declared that life is a process, and that the world is true, if taken as “Noun”, as people as used to term them as River, Tree, Wind, Fire and Desert etc.
If River exists as constant then it’s soul is its ‘Rivering’, which experiences the flood when there is heavy rains in its basin, as an adolescent person feels it in his/her body when Harmons begin showering from all the glands. Then in summer season its flow starts decreasing and ultimately it gets dried up, but ‘rivering’ is still continue in the form of “Vapor” and then again change its form to “Clouds” and then again change its form to “Rain” or “Snowflakes” to again take form of “River” at different location(s).
In the same way we may call a person as Kid, young, aged and dead but its soul is not constant but moving or has changed its form only i.e. ‘personing’ is still there in another form, and may shower one day again in the form of a person. A tree is “Treeing” too.
So the “Tao” or “Harmony” means just maintaining a state of witnessing or remain unattached/unaffected by the change, while ‘river’ changes it form into vapor, cloud or rain. Wisdom is in remaining unaffected by the change in external situations like a river changes its form. Hindu call it as “Play” of God, it means this whole cosmos and all its infinite in time, space and activities together is without any reason just like a child starts playing with his/her toys and suddenly may put them again in his box. No one till date contradicted this theory. Even as science is progressing, it is nearing to this only conclusion. It may be assumed as God started dancing, because in a dance the dancer itself is the dance no one can separate dancer from the dance like one can separate a painting from a painter.
If we take river as Noun given to the change in it, then we need to consider its constant part which is visible to us as ‘Maya’ or illusionary. Hindu’s brought this philosophy but Buddha experienced that it will be easier to understand life when the constant is taken as constant and soul is the change in it. So in his teachings he stressed on soul as a change that is happening every moment.
As per my personal opinion, so is with Happiness, it is a constant state. It can be achieved only when a person has gone through various experiences of life and whole life itself becomes experiment on himself/herself and in return what is earned is wisdom. This wisdom that in this infinite cosmos I am an infinitesimal element and in comparison to infinite since I am tending to be zero so I may be assumed as Zero itself. Immediately the ‘Ego’ vanishes and “Wisdom” arises. The state of a person in this moment is “Happiness” and it may be lost within few moments but by applying principles given by Buddha in his sermon to Sariputra, “The Heart Sutra”, by practicing Meditation or Witnessing or Witnessing Awareness as the name ca