In reviewing the past year and gearing up for this one I’m wondering if I’m responsible for a lot of my own unhappiness by being too complacent, and not working hard enough for what I would like to accomplish in this life. The yogis teach detachment but I think I may be misinterpreting the word. Could you please give me some insight on this idea of detachment and how it works for us in the real world.
You ask an excellent question. Happiness is illusive. We sometimes find it and at other times cannot describe where it has gone. Mostly we experience an association with events, accomplishments, relationships, and environments as being the catalyst for our happiness. Thus as you put it if you are not working hard enough or in the wrong relationship your happiness will disappear. For the Yogi this form of happiness is not real. It is sensual pleasure. This form of happiness is dependent upon the senses bringing us accurate representations of the outer world coupled with an uplifting interpretation from our mind.
For the Yogi, the true happiness lies within us just beneath the surface of contentment, serenity, and peace. So we must search for and develop these qualities before we can find the depth of happiness that we yearn for. These qualities are gained from a change in attitude and a redirecting of our attention to inner events as being the source of what we seek. The Yoga Sutras (I, 33) says that happiness can be cultivated by generating an attitude of friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion toward suffering, delight toward virtue, and equanimity toward vice. In this way our mind becomes purified and the obstacles to uncovering the inner well of happiness are removed. Yoga and Meditation are crucial tools to develop so that we can go beyond our former way of looking and interpreting our experiences. The delightful rhyme from Donovan “Happiness runs in a circular motion, thought is like a little boat upon the sea, you can have it all if you let yourself BE” is accurate, what we generate comes back to us. Generate happiness to others and it comes back to its source.