Why are some people happy?

[Hope is certainty]

When you correct your beliefs to true ones, you have gratitude for life.

[biggalloot2003]

There are two answers.

The first, is that we are easily entertained. I can just sit on the back porch and listen, and I am entertained.

The second, is that we are open to being happy. You can't hang out on street corners with a sign that says, "God hates fags!" and then go home and be happy.

I have numerous guitars, a girl friend, books up to the ceiling, and many other friends. How can I not be happy?

[t4]

Happiness can come from knowing that you have a purpose in life and you are striving to fulfill it. The first statement for the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ described those being happy if they are conscious of their spiritual need. So, by recognizing that need then striving to fill that need, we can be happy.

[Agape]

How Jesus’ Sayings Promote Happiness

The nine happinesses that Jesus pronounced highlight why Christians are happy, and these sayings are as beneficial today as they were nearly 2,000 years ago. ... Matthew 5:3 “Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need, since the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them.”

[Mia]

I think there is the possibilty to more easily realize and learn to put into practice the idea happiness can be a choice. Some teachings include being in the moment as opposed to thinking about stuff in the past (especially negative stuff) and to be aware of negative thoughts or emotions but then let them go and choose to nurture the more positive things we all have around us.

To me it's a bit like this scenario. Three people waiting for a bus. Person 1 is thinking how much it sucks to wait for the bus, why is life so unfair they have to take a bus, or why were they such a stupid person that they are in the position to be waiting for the bus, what do they have to do next to get a car. They feel miserable and stressed.

Person 2 is sitting there thinking how hot they feel, focusing on looking at an old building and thinking how ugly it is, looking at an old woman and thinking how old she looks and how they are going to get old, thinking how hungry they are, how nasty someone at work is, all the laundry they need to do later, etc....Also feeling miserable and stressed.

Person 3 is sitting there listening to the sound of a bird singing, enjoying the feeling of the breeze, noticing a flower growing and really looking at it and enjoying it's intricacy, or looking at the old woman and how beautiful her white hair is and wondering what stories her life might tell, maybe they bring out their sketch book and sketch the flower or woman, maybe they are enjoying an engrossing book, listening to music they love, So on. They may also have had a hard day at work and laundry to do but they are choosing to be happy this moment.

It's about what you choose to do with your mind and time and realizing it can be a choice. It should really ever truly be boring in very few situations. There are so many beautiful and interesting things to see, do, and learn in the world. So boredom is usually a choice that says I am not doing anything positive or interesting to me now but I am too lethargic to change that. Negative thoughts are similar. It is not always easy for many but you can choose to say why focus on this if it is making me miserable? If, there is no good reason like you are learning something so you can improve from it then you really can choose to stop dwelling on it and direct your mind to happier and more positive things.

I read a book on Buddhism and choosing to be positively present. It gave an example of doing dishes if you normally dislike the task. Instead of just dreading it and thinking the whole time how much you wish you were doing something else find the positives in the situation and enhance them. Find an appealing fragrance soap, focus on the smell of it, play music you like, focus on the satisfaction of how clean and shiny the dish looks once cleaned, how much nicer the kitchen feels neat and tidy, if you have a window look out and enjoy nature, or enhance the environment where you do the chore (suncatcher, candles, music, whatever apoeals to you). So happiness comes from within and is about choosing to focus on all the positives and enhance them in each situation where you can.

[Brent Oh]

. . In the hell, there are only long spoons.
Nobody can eat the soup because everybody tries to eat the soup only with his spoon.

. . In the heaven, there are only long spoons.
Everybody can eat the soup because everybody makes others eat the soup with his spoon.

. . Mufillyou 629

[Been There]

Many people I know always say stuff like "I have no life" or "I am boring" or "I feel like death". Stuff that you say about yourself. My friends in twitter talk like this, but they say they're only kidding.
A: They aren't really kidding. It just sounds too raw and vulnerable once they have said it, so they "retract" it by saying "I'm kidding."

But sometimes I meet people who are genuinely "happy". I think they are called enlightened people.
"Happy" in enlightenment, is not the same thing as "happy" in non-enlightenment.

And I heard Buddhism helps you become enlightened. But Buddhists say that you don't have to be Buddhist to BE enlightened, which is why non Buddhist people are happy.
True, you don't have to be a Buddhist to become enlightened. But remember that Siddhartha Gautama took 6 years ot TOTAL UNDISTRACTED attention to the problem of "Why do we suffer and how can we stop suffering?" And that it was not only the end of those 6 years, when he sat down and meditated for 49 days straight (that is 1,176 hours straight) that he finally saw his inner mechanisms that PRODUCED his unhappiness, and he saw the solution.
I doubt if he actually sat for 49 days straight .. more likely, this is a way to impress on us just how difficult it is to change our perceptions of ourselves and the way we react and interact within ourselves.
And, honey, it IS a slow process requiring incredible commitment and discipline and persistence. It takes 3-8 years of doing the practices even just to budge our psyche off the "starting line", to say nothing of completing the race.

Anyone can achieve enlightenment for themselves, but it doesn't happen overnight.
The state of enlightenment means that you no longer rely on something to make you happy, and you no longer allow anything to make you unhappy.
You achieve this by living in the moment and by relaxing into whatever IS happening. And you are able to live in the moment because you have mastered the art of "mindfulness" through gaining skill at the mental discipline of meditation.
It is not that you no longer feel unhappiness or happiness .. it is just that you have opened up to EVERYTHING going on inside you and no longer try to "fix" it. You just take it for with it is, vibrantly and fully alive to who you are and what is going on inside you, feeling linked with others by virtue of your compassion for our common human state, and living each moment with a richness and acceptance. Buddhists become free from the tyranny of Unhappiness, and also from the tryanny of Happiness (likely you won't grasp that until you have practiced Buddhism for some years).
The more you think you need this or that, or need to avoid this or that .. the more unhappy you will be with life.
And the more you focus on yourself, instead of others, the more unhappy you will be (actually, modern psychology says the same thing: the more self-centered you are, the more neurotic and unhappy you will be).

How to explain it?
Are you at the point where you can get a shot in the arm and it's no big deal? Where you hardly even feel it, and your emotions are not disturbed by even a ripple of upsetness? That means you have learned to relax into the experience.
Or do you still tense up with dread and fear, and find the whole experience both painful and terrifying? That means you are resisting.
And resistance always increases pain: both physical AND emotional pain.
Buddhists .. on the other hand do not try to fix life (they don't run from the "needle") .. they just let it happen and relax into it, residing in that focused awareness called "mindfulness".

Yes, you can learn how to do this without doing the practices .. if you are willing to put the same kind of focus and energy into it that Siddhartha did.
Unfortunately, even the monks in temples don't put THAT kind of focus and energy into it.
The odds that you can do it without the specific techniques and practices of Buddhism, without the guidance of someone who is further down the road than you are .. the odds are very low you can stumble upon the way to become happy on your own.

So I wondered, well, what's the trick? I wanna be happy and not mean or miserable. I keep hearing smile a lot. But that sounds stupid,cause, peoples will think you have smoked weed, if you're constantly smiling. Smiling a lot does not make you happy. It's not that simple.

You are right .. "smiling a lot" is stupid. It does not work.

"Mia" and her answer are on the right track.
The only thing is that we are talking about changing our unconscious habits. Habits are difficult to change and require constant and EFFECTIVE behavior change techniques. It takes years to change ourselves. it's not just some "mind trick" on how you see things .. but that IS half of the equation.
The other half is to discipline and train the mind (meditation), so that you can see - without distraction - how YOU work inside yourself. That produces inner insight, and that is the source of our change and the development of our wisdom.
Even practicing Buddhism.

[username_hidden]

Humility helps. If you don't demand much, if you don't make grandiose plans, and if you learn to take pleasure in small things, then you won't end up dissatisfied and striving after unobtainable or illusory pleasures. Just focus on what good things you have (however small they may be), and give thanks to God for those.

[JJB]

Please refer the following link, http://buddhism-explained.blogspot.com/