What is happiness?

I once met a friend who strongly urged me to spend a few minutes of my day to write down my thoughts. I used to laugh at him saying, "I don't think I have the time". At that spur of the moment it did not occur to me that what I was saying was an excuse that I was giving myself. Every second of our lives somewhere in our brain there are thousands of neuron connections being made and each was the product of a thought. I realize that in this stage of life it is important that I began to write something down, be it a nimble and insignificant thought. Be it, be read by someone or just me speaking to the cosmic space out there. It is important for the development of me as a person. For the development of my intellectual sanity and also my own spiritual growth.

Lately I have been reading as I have mentioned in my entry before this. I am currently reading a book titled, " The pursuit of Happiness" by Darrin McMahon. An indeed insightful book and one that I suppose prompt me to sit down and write. I have never been one who was totally into philosophy. To me it was a hard nut to crack and one that involves one who walks with his head in the clouds. But to my astonishment I find that the idea of questioning in a fundamental basis is quite enlightening and yet complex. It is not as folly as I thought it would be. In fact one of the argument as far as I have understood from what I have read (opinions may vary) was the fact that the notion of happiness can be equated to following the path of virtue. Indeed people stray away from the initial role of gaining happiness is because they are over come with greed, vanity etc. A fairly simple thought. However a recent incident had made me ponder a bit further.

The idea of a attaining happiness is through the path of virtue. However what then defines the term virtue? Who decides what action contributes to being virtuous? Pardon me for being ignorant, but does the term virtue necessarily bring happiness? Before I further dwell further, let me define to you that the term happiness I am looking for is not the sensational pleasure or everyday emotions that one experiences. It is the notion of happiness itself. I am just curious, to many the notion of attaining God through following his virtuous means brings them happiness. Many a times we have heard that people have given their lives for God and have attain happiness. But my question is, why does one attain that happiness? How is it that one gains happiness by leaving everything behind (family, friend, lover, spouse etc) to seek a new family (people of the same believe and faith) and be more contented than with the people they choose to love compared to their initial family and friends etc. It really puzzles me. What is 'that' that brings so much happiness? Is it because there is an expected award as what many believe in, when they serve GOD? Then how different is that when compared to say attaining wealth, isn't that reward in the mortal life? Isn't that greed too?

What puzzles me even more is the notion of happiness one gains when one does not get anything in return. They don't expect anything and that brings happiness. How is that so? So many questions and I am only at Chapter 2 of the book. It is a thick book with 486 pages and 8 chapters. I am intrigued. Amazing and I shall return to my book to see if I can get more answers or more questions