I have been noticing lately that happiness is happy, but the pursuit of happiness may be unhappy. When happiness happens, be happy, but chasing after happiness may be filled with peril. The pursuit doesn't have to be perilous, but too much certainly could be. If I could graph it the shape would be an upside down "U" where it's going good for a while but then too much turns it around and becomes bad. After all, pursuit is a form of desire, but the desire of happiness can lead to unhappy suffering. Just separating out the occurrence of happiness from the pursuit of such an occurrence is an interesting form of practice I have been discovering lately.
What makes me happy, really?
How can I facilitate that without ruining it at the same time?
It's sort of like a koan.
I see Barry Magid has a book on this topic. I will have to get it and add it to all my other books-to-be-read list.
In the mean time I will just sit and let the discovery process continue.