Happiness does not come from your mind. Happiness comes from your Self.

In the Teaching Article of June 2021, Why Is My Mind Crazy, Swami Nirmalananda says your mind is incapable of happiness. The best your mind can give you is “a brief sense of satisfaction, like when you check a task off your to-do list.”

Some people live constantly moving from one task to another, getting their brief nibbles of satisfaction one by one as they check off each task on their list. Does this bring them any profound, lasting happiness? No. They might end up with a checked off list at the end of the day, but they do not end up fulfilled. The next day they’re on to another to-do list.

We are human beings, not human doings. Happiness is a state of being, not a state of doing. This does not mean you should stop doing everything you do. It means find a state of being that brings happiness, no matter what you are doing … or not doing.

When you take a closer look at your mind, you realize that you are never happy when your mind is busy. When you call someone on your phone, you don’t get a connection if the “line” is busy. Likewise, you can’t get a connection to happiness if your mind is busy. Have you ever experienced great joy when your mind is running like a wild monkey that has been bit by a scorpion? That is how the great yogis describe the average person’s mind. That’s your crazy mind … until you start doing more yoga and meditation.

Swami Nirmalananda explains: “When you’re happy, your mind is quiet. It’s peaceful inside your head. When your mind starts up again, it disturbs your happiness… Your mind must stop for you to experience happiness. Thus yoga says, just quiet your mind and you’ll be happy.”

For more about your mind, the good and the bad, see Why Is My Mind  Crazy? Yes, there is something good about your mind. Swami once said: “The mind is the problem. So does that mean you should get rid of your mind? No. Stupidity is not the path to Enlightenment.”

You need your mind. You just don’t need a crazy mind.