What is happiness in relationship to highest Consciousness?

Question

I am intrigued with the word "happiness" as applied to an aspect of our Source, beyond duality where all is separate and individuated, judged and labeled.

What is the fundamental element of such elevated and eternal happiness? What is its quality?  It certainly cannot be compared to the happiness experienced within the illusion (wealth, success, relationships, fame, artistic expression, etc.), for these are ever-changing and insubstantial.  Here, one moment we are happy, and within hours or days or months that happiness has shifted.  We cannot hold onto it.

It is claimed that the happiness attributed to Source is constant.  Could this spiritual happiness simply be the experience of harmonizing with all things, such that all differences and judgments fall away, leaving one continuous expression of union and communion with Creator?

? · Accepted Answer

I have found a difference between happiness & joy.
Happiness is ego dependent.
My ego is happy when it gets what it wants when it wants it.
Denied the object of its desire & it becomes moody & temperamental like a petulant child.
But joy comes from that deep inner connection.
With that inner connection I can walk thru any outer storm & be a safe harbor.
Joy & peace are closely related & both come from that same inner source. That is why it is said it is a peace that the world can not give or understand!
Great Q!
Many Blessings!

Edit:
You are correct.
When I first began my journey I came to a place where I felt the need to differentiate in my understanding what happiness was as the world saw it & what I saw as true & lasting happiness.
So for a time there was duality.
Fast forward many years & I have found that what is illusion is just that, illusion. Then the duality began to fade.
Real & lasting happiness, joy, or peace by any name has only one source & it is not dependent on the external.
Where you stand within, your state of Being will always color what the eyes believe they perceive.
Many Blessings!

Anonymous · Answer

I find words lead me somewhere.  The word 'happiness' is rooted
in the verb 'to happen'....that's what you well pointed out...
Insubstantial... good word.
Maybe 'harmonize' is the better word as you put.

I think of a tuning fork gently struck..vibrating.

I heard somewhere?, that everything vibrates!

In our body, all!! our cells vibrate.  If we get sick,
and diseased, the cells will wobble!!

I find you correct re Source, connecting to Source
where my life...won't wobble!  I was led to Jesus
but follow rather literally, eg Sabbath, which also
stabilizes the 6 days through focus on the 7th, which
is 'the end' getting me knowing..the plan of salvation
which goes deeper as I look into it.

Yoda · Answer

The description is not the described: there is no source except the knowledge speculating and conjecturing... It is thought which invents cause and effect. Also, some thought says: "there is no separation between cause and effect, it's a unitary movement". That thought too is commentary upon artificiality. Thought is the only instrument to use, and it is not capable of measuing the stated concepts....

There is no highest consciousness, only your observations of your own condition, which themselves are merely objective abstractions... If those objective abstractions help you to live, great.

What "there is" that is beyond objectification you will never know...

There is no self except that which you know, and the known is not the thing. Therefore, there is no happiness. Lets face facts, you tell yourself you were happy. There is never a time that you recognize you are happy; when you recognize you are happy, you were happy.

The recognition is not the thing, therefore the thing exists not.

Most people say that they are unhappy and want happiness. Happy people tend not to seek it, so only after they stop being happy do they remember being happy.

claptic · Answer

The word equilibrium comes to mind which implies neither polarity happy/sad.  Since you said it is non-dual, maybe what you are trying to describe is neither one but something greater than both when there is created a point of rest between the two equal but opposing forces.  At that point there is no motion, both are still like on a motionless horizontal see saw, and something arises out of this equilibrium.   If I am at rest, tranquil, it matters not if I am happy or sad.   The soul has a subtle body which is pure infinite consciousness. The first thought is what causes it to step outside of this.

DinDjinn · Answer

Just do it. Go to that nonduality state, regardless of whether you think you'll be happy or not. 
Don't suffer from the paralysis of analysis.

Thimmappa M.S. · Answer

It is Existence, Awareness and Bliss ( sat-chit-ananda ); Being rather than Becoming, Being in itself rather than struggling to become something other than itself.

Mystic Shiva Says · Answer

I miss you Shiva.

Its been a long  time really, I don`t much but I am gonna tell you the very thing you told me.

Not so long ago you told me not to depend on happiness to be happy. But truly you told me that nothing lasts and that included happiness and sadness. You told me its a passing phase every time we feel it. I asked you what remains you told me nothing. It took me quite sometime to understand what you meant by `Nothing`.

You told me its simply a swing of the duality that causes happiness or sadness. You told me not to be attached to even happiness. I thought that was a crazy idea because everywhere you see everyone wants happiness. But overtime I understand how calm and soothing this `Nothing` you have told me. You told me its the middle path of Buddha. You told me the axis point of the cross of Christ. Most important of them all you told me to embrace this duality to be in the unity. I love you and hate you Shiva. lol.

Hmmmmm Shiva says sway when you being swayed and be still when IT becomes still. Shiva says dance with IT.

Personal note: Thank you for all the questions and answers, truly you and many others here has brought me close to my dear friend, that blue guy.

Salutation to all directions, to all all beliefs and to all of you. I bow to you in love. Om may all be well. Om Nama Shivaya.

Artemis · Answer

"Pleasure is of the physical world. Happiness is of the spiritual world"

Sandra Rogers had a near death experience during which she was shown this:
1)	Our soul is a part of God and God is a part of us; therefore, our souls are immortal and eternal.
2)	Hardships are necessary for the growth of our soul.
3)	Those born with mental or physical afflictions are more spiritually advanced than others, born to help others evolve spiritually.
4)	The physical body the spirit enters is chosen prior to birth.
5)	If an addiction isn't conquered before your physical death, it could keep your spirit earthbound.
6)	Earth is only one realm of learning; there are many.
7)	Hell is a state of being we create by being away from God until we choose to return to him. It is a state totally devoid of love.
8)	THOSE WHO SEEK TO DO GOOD ARE ON THE QUICKEST PATH TO GOD.
9)	 If you want to find happiness, look for those in pain and help them. Pleasure is of the physical world. Happiness is of the spiritual world
10)	From the point of view of our conscious mind, life's not fair, but our spirit being knows there's a purpose to our dilemmas: to experience in order to gain knowledge.
11)	All you do and think is known to God, and God understands everything perfectly, and loves everyone just the same.
12)	All the pain we feel or cause is felt by God.
13)	In order to become one with God, work must be done to remember or find the truth.  The truth is this: your true self is a spirit and your spirit is one with God.
14)	Love, being God, is too immense and profound to ever be fully understood or experienced in the physical world.
15)	The universe is God's cathedral.
16)	God created differences in religion because of the different lessons we all need to learn.
17)	When you do unto others, you do unto God and yourself.
18)	THE BEGINNING OF ALL SIN IS SEEING SELF AS SEPARATE FROM OTHERS and God.
19)	There are only two true religions - the religion of love and the religion of fear.
20)	Communication in the spiritual world is telepathic. Your thoughts are answered as rapidly as your mind can send and receive them.
21)	When you die, everything you have said, thought, or done will be known by all. There are no secrets in the afterlife.
22)	Spirits with evil thoughts avoid the light because they are too ashamed to have their life revealed.
23)	Spirits with like thoughts are drawn to each other in the afterlife.
24)	God's paradise for us is love. We can create paradise again if we learn to love one another as ourselves.
25)	There is one God who is worshipped through many different teachings of many different religious faiths.
26)	In the search for truth and understanding, all paths lead to love. God is love, light, and the energy in all. God is the source of perfect love and all life.
27)	God loves and forgives you, and expects you to love and forgive others.
28)	Forgiveness is the capacity to give love in the most difficult circumstances.
29)	The only thing that lives forever is love.

Sandra Rogers had a near-death experience during which she was shown this:
 “I asked the light, which I call Christ, how people from other religions get to heaven. I was shown that the group or organization we profess alliance to is inconsequential. What is important is HOW WE SHOW OUR LOVE FOR GOD BY THE WAY WE TREAT EACH OTHER. 
The light showed me that what is important is that we love God and each other, and that it isn't what a person says, but the love in their being that is examined in the afterlife. In reviewing and reliving your life, your acts and thoughts of love bring you and God great joy, and your acts and thoughts of indifference, selfishness, and anger bring you and God deep remorse. 
We are all part of God's family, and are all interconnected. Those organizations or religions which claim some singular relationship with God, claim superiority over others, or exclude people for various reasons, GO AGAINST GOD'S LAW that we love one another as we love ourselves.”

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/suicide03.html

“True HAPPINESS does not depend on others loving us, but rather that you love.  If you wish to be happy, stop seeking desperately for others to love you and try to awaken your own feelings of love. 
You will never succeed in being happy by acquiring the admiration, affection, success, and recognition of others. If you are dissatisfied with your life, if you feel alone and empty, do not look outside for others to blame for your unhappiness because the cause is not outside, but rather within you. 
Do not seek to warm yourself with the fire of others because you will never have sufficient. Light your own flame so that in this way your state does not depend on what others do or do not do for you. Leave egoism aside and love, because the only way to fill the emptiness within is to love unconditionally.”

The Spiritual Laws – Vicent Guillem

“There are different levels of learning, and we must LEARN some of them in the flesh. We must feel the pain. When you're in physical state in the flesh, you can feel pain; you can hurt. In spirit form you do not feel pain; there is only happiness, a sense of well-being.”