Happiness hides in the Heart...

There is no source of happiness other than that in the heart of man.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of
happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man. But man does not look for
it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure. Anything that is passing and
anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness.

In reality very few in this world know what happiness means. Pleasure is the
shadow of happiness, for pleasure depends upon things outside ourselves;
happiness comes from within ourselves. Happiness belongs to the heart quality;
pleasure to the outer world. The distance between pleasure and happiness is as
vast as that between earth and heaven. As long as the heart is not tuned to its
proper pitch one will not be happy. That inner smile which shows itself in a
man's expression, in his atmosphere, that belongs to happiness. If position were
taken away and wealth were lost in the outer life, that inner happiness would
not be taken away. And the smiling of the heart depends upon the tuning of the
heart, the heart must be tuned to that pitch where it is living.

There are a thousand excuses for unhappiness that the reasoning mind will make.
But is even one of these excuses ever entirely correct? Do you think that if
these people gained their desires they would be happy? If they possessed all,
would that suffice? No, they would still find some excuse for unhappiness; all
these excuses are only like covers over a man's eyes, for deep within is the
yearning for the true happiness which none of these things can give. He who is
really happy is happy everywhere, in a palace or in a cottage, in riches or in
poverty, for he has discovered the fountain of happiness which is situated in
his own heart. As long as a person has not found that fountain, nothing will
give him real happiness.

If there is any source from where one can get the direction on how to act in
life, it is to be found in one's heart. The exercises of the Sufi help to get to
the source where one can get the direction, the right direction, where there is
a spark of the Spirit of Guidance. Those who care to be guided by the spirit,
they are always guided, but those who know not whether such a spirit exists or
does not exist, they wander through life as a wild horse in the woods, not
knowing where it goes, why it runs, why it stands. It is a great pity to be
thirsty and remain thirsty when the spring of fresh water is within one's reach.
There can be no loss so great in life as having the spark glittering in one's
heart and yet groping in the darkness through life.

In point of fact, whatever one makes of oneself, one becomes that. The source of
happiness or unhappiness is all in man himself. When he is unaware of this, he
is not able to arrange his life, but as he becomes more acquainted with this
secret, he gains mastery, and the process by which this mastery is attained is
the only fulfillment of the purpose of this life.