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Have you ever been happy for no reason at all? You don’t know why. But you are happy. That is causeless happiness.

It’s natural to be happy. But the mind creates desires and demands that postpone happiness until the desires or demands are met. And that becomes habitual. But every once in a while, you might get a fleeting moment when you are happy for no reason at all. At least no obvious reason.

I think what happens is that the mind slows down and the focus is taken off the ego and its incessant demands. It is then that we have the opportunity to connect with the source of being, which is the universal Divine Presence that exists in everyone. It is a state of happiness that transcends duality. And as such, it gives a sense of freedom.

It’s freedom because we know, deep within, that we don’t have to have X, Y and Z to happen in order to be happy. This inner knowledge that happiness can exist without external cause goes a long way in freeing us from addictive demands.

My first experience with this causeless happiness came when I was not quite 20-years-old. I was in terrible physical shape. I had been in the hospital for almost three weeks with Crohn’s Disease as well as recovering from an emergency appendectomy. My skin was covered in bright red blotches. I was down to about 95 pounds – skin and bones. And when I walked in the hospital hallway, I had to push a pole on wheels that carried both my IV solution (my only form of nutrition) and my catheter bag.

So, on the surface of the situation, I had nothing to be happy about. But yet I was happier than I had ever been in my life. It was then, while walking in the hospital hallway, that a Catholic priest spotted me. He came up to me, and said jokingly, “If you don’t get that grin off your face you’ll be transferred to the psychiatric ward.”

There was an element of truth in what he was saying because my happiness was beyond the rationale of the mind, which in a sense made it suspiciously like a psychiatric disorder. But mystically speaking, it made perfect sense.

In my case, the physical suffering, which was intense, took me out of my head and into my body. It broke me of the habit of living in my head. And this gave my heart the chance to experience the joy of being.

This opened up for me the realization that there was an inner life to be experienced and explored. And with the intense joy and happiness that unfolded — without cause — it changed my perception of what real happiness was. It also changed the way I went about looking for happiness, from an outer pursuit to an inner one.

This is why it feels good to serve others. It takes the focus off of the ego’s demands. And when that is successful, the happiness that has its source deep within, floats to the surface.

I have always resonated with these words of Meher Baba: “Real happiness lies in making others happy.” It works for me.

What is your experience of this? I’d like to hear about it.