There is nothing in this world that can give you lasting happiness. Your very longing for happiness is the recipe for dukkha — suffering.

Happiness is never permanent. It is fleeting, momentary, like a flash of lightning. You have tasted it again and again, but perhaps never realised that the same desire that brings it also plants the seed for suffering.

Think of it this way: whenever you desire something, only two things can happen — either it does happen, or it doesn’t.

If it doesn’t happen, disappointment is obvious.

If it does happen, suffering still follows, because everything is anitya — impermanent. Sooner or later, you will lose the object of your desire, or it will lose you. In both cases, dukkha arrives.

But we focus only on that initial moment of pleasure, not realising it is merely a prelude to suffering. The same is true when you desire that something should not happen — the moment desire arises, a subtle division is created.

That is the root problem: desire creates duality.
Your body may be here, but your mind races into the future. And whenever there is duality, there is dukkha.

Buddha saw this clearly: it is the mind that desires, the mind that creates this split.
The moment the mind desires, you are already preparing the ground for suffering.

Now, here’s the trap: the mind will hear this truth and create a new desire — “Okay, so if I stop desiring, I’ll be happy!” But that too is a desire, just in disguise. You cannot “do” non-desire.

The only way is to rest in the middle — neither grasping nor rejecting — and that happens through meditation. This is the whole process of meditation — just becoming aware, as in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. Just observing, moment to moment. Seeing the flowers bloom without plucking them, seeing the mud without turning away in disgust.

You simply watch.
And in that watching, you are free.