“Permanent happiness cannot come from holding on to something that is not permanent. The fallacy is that all of us live by searching for and expecting permanent happiness from holding on to impermanent things. That is the reason why we have this huge need for security and control, living all the time in insecurity and fear that it may be lost.  This does not require much intelligence. Your experience itself makes you a philosopher….

You should look back on this logic from your experience to see if this logic is faulty. Let us look at our impending death, towards which we travel on each birthday. We keep the body close to us, always hoping to live forever, but the facts tell us that the reality is we will end up either in the fire or under the ground to be eaten by insects.  Yet, we ignore this reality and live hoping to forever be happy. For most of the time, this fear of life dictates the quality of our life.  We also come to believe that by more control, we can extend the span of happiness. Of course, this works in an opposite direction.

Maybe you find out from your experience and reflect on our pains.  Look at all relationships and all the things that made you happy – what happened when you lost them?  Extending this to the universe, the moon is impermanent, so too is the sun.  Astronomers see the birth and death of stars and galaxies coming to life and dying almost every day. Impermanence.

So we live in a catch twenty two situation that we call samsara. If everything and every relationship is impermanent, then permanent happiness is not possible in this life, we are doomed to live in pain with little doses of pleasure or happiness.

But here is a suggestion – while you are free to enjoy things and people, do so with the knowledge that they can go anytime.  Be prepared to let them go. Holding on will only cause pain. This is slightly better than assuming that it will be permanent. This knowledge can help us to live life a little better. 

From an Advaitic point of view, permanent happiness can come only by holding on to something that IS permanent.  Atman / Brahman is the only permanent thing in the whole universe.”