Happiness is like a bird.
You can fully appreciate its beauty when you see it flying, and singing, freely in the nature. But once you try to possess it–be it putting it on a cage, or even preserved in a box–it starts losing its beauty, and the amusement we had, depreciates gradually…
The same goes for happiness. We feel excited when, for instance, we hear our favorite song played either in the radio or on the TV. But when we put them all in an MP3 player, and play them all the times, we lose the excitement gradually; and soon favorite songs turn boring, lose their freshness…
Happiness is, indeed, like a bird. It is intended to be free. Once we try to possess it, we lose the excitement. That is when we turn to another wish and try to possess it, but once we have it in our grip, we start losing the excitement again. That’s how greed develop. We think by possessing something dear to us, we can keep the happiness along. But no matter how much we possess, we never seem to have enough; in the end, we always lose the happiness anyway.Even if we possess the whole world in our hand, we will never hold happiness in our grip. Because happiness is not intended to be kept.
So, true happiness lies in un-possessiveness. A baby, for instance, possesses nothing, yet to him everything is wonderful. A dragonfly flying in front of him might excite him so much, yet he does not seek to possess it. Soon after the dragonfly flies away, the baby finds another amusement. A baby experiences happiness almost in every moment, because he does not cling to any possession to feel that way. And so shall we.
So, happiness is indeed like a bird. Any attempt to capture it depreciates it. So better let yourself free of any wish to cling to it. Stop trying to freeze and possess it. Let it flies around freely. Only then can you be so sure; it will always present with you, all the times…
