What is pleasure? What is happiness? Are they the same?

I have been reading this book titled "The Art of Happiness". It is a book that is written to show two perspectives, one is the western approach to seeking happiness, which is more medical and another perspective which comes from Tibetan Buddhism.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is seeking happiness in their life. (I assume this is one of the main goal for all beings in this world.) Inside the book, there is one paragraph that ask the questions in the title. What is pleasure? What is happiness? Are they the same?

Here I shall attempt to explain the both of them, their differences and how such wisdom can be applied in our live, to improve our live. Before you attempt to read on, ask yourself the three questions I have asked in my TITLE before you continue reading.

Have you contemplated? Great if you do because like that you would be able to understand how you think and I might provide you with another perspective to think about with my understanding later. Here goes.

What is pleasure? Very simply put, it is a comfort to your BODY. When you body is comfortable, it is having pleasure. For instance, if the environment's temperature is just nice, your body is comfortable, you would feel pleasure. When you are relaxing in a jacuzzi, with the water hitting your BODY at regular pulses, massaging you, releasing your BODY tension, you feel pleasure. And I do not deny that if your body feel pleasure, you would be happy. But there is a connection there, and the connection is between your mind and your body. Your body feels comfortable, not giving you pain, so conditionally, we would feel happy. But think again, what about when you are taking drugs? When you are abusing alcohol? When you are having unrestrained sex? These are destructive pleasure. Pleasures that bring about unhappiness later on.

What is happiness? Happiness is a state of the MIND. You can feel happy even if there are no external factors to trigger it. External factors like your dream car, dream mate, dream body. Don't believe? Very simple, ask your mind to start thinking of happy thing that happen in your past. See how your mind and later your body react to it. You will start to smile and your body will feel an energy rush. It could be small it could be large, but I can tell you, by asking your mind to start thinking of things that will make you happy, you will definitely feel good.

So you can see the happiness comes from intrinsic source whereas pleasure comes from external source. If it is external source, it is not within our control and it cannot last long. If it comes from an intrinsic source, then it can be continuous and you have much control over it. Think about it.

Now that we know about it, the next thing would be how to apply it. Very simply, make your decision based on whether it will make you happy or not and happy for how long? I am sure we want happiness that can last long and is immense.

Hope the insights help! Cheers!