There is no happiness in things or people or situations, only in my feelings about things or people or situations.
There is no happiness in a car that works, a blender that works, a government that works, a body that works, a marriage that works…
There is only happiness, or sadness, or angst or elation in my feelings about cars and blenders and governments and bodies and marriages. Whether they “work” or not.
And a feeling is nothing more than what happens to my body when I believe a thought.
No believed thought, no feeling.
If I want to be happy and I’m not, I can identify the thought I’m believing, question it in an open minded search for happiness and wait for another thought to emerge in its place.
If this thought evokes a feeling of happiness in me and I believe the thought, I am instantly happy.
And I find there is never a reason not to believe a happy thought - just as there is no reason not to believe a sad thought: they’re all imagined. So it’s just a matter of how I want to live.
When I believe “happy” or “sad” thoughts about anything, I am happy or sad.
It has nothing to do with the thing - which is always just “what is” before my thinking gets involved.