The emptiness. The transparency. The ease. Letting go. It reminds me of being a kid because it makes me see things how I used to see them back then, very bright and big and beautiful. The colors appear so bright and colorful. The details of the waves crashing on the shore are so exact, so drawn that they remind me of cartoons, The Little Mermaid, where every color is exaggerated and underlined. Happiness is a weapon; it is a decision, the decision to become an observer, a witness; a kid. It is to stand before all that our senses can grasp and admire its quantity and quality, feed the brain with it. It is to direct our attention to what makes us… well, happy!
It seems so obvious, yet most of the time, what becomes obvious is nothing but an illusion. Illusions come from thought, I think: the power of thoughts, the mind over reality. When the mind is bombarded with recurrent thoughts, these thoughts become real -to the person experiencing them- and start to own a place in one’s mind. This affects the transparency with which one perceives his world, either to the better or to the worst, depending on the thoughts of course. It makes sense to say that once our thoughts are beautiful, then it would be like wearing the “Shallow Hall” goggles, where everything is more beautiful than it really is, thus leading to more happiness.
However, this does not follow from the way happiness was defined above. Happiness is the lack of goggles, filters or screens. It is to receive what is shown to you as it is, without adding accessories to it, or taking out of its beauty. The world is indeed colorful and bright, without any goggles. We say kids live in their imagination, but we do too, a much less creative imagination of course, one which does not do nature right, which tampers with the brightness and contrast of the colors we see, making us unaware of the actual beauty which things hold. We find ourselves fascinated by things, to which kids are indifferent, while they dwell on the multitude of sand.
It is the objectivity. The ease. The flow.