Happiness is...

Recently, some friends and I engaged ourselves in a discussion and the topic led to this question: " Are you happy? " Generally, most of them said that they were happy. Which of course, led me, to do a little bit of musing on the side.

It would be interesting to discuss (in depth - but I would not want to bore you with) the definition of the notion of happiness; for is it merely a biochemical response to an external source which depends on both biological instincts and nurtured experiences?

And when we present ourselves with the following statement "Happiness is indeed 'real'; a myriad of problems will arise from the definition of happiness, or at least the concept of what IS real; thus the true definition is buried by our limited ability to express, our consciousness, and perhaps our notions of objective or subjective reality.

So, if we go by our common notion of happiness as a feeling, a fleeting moment in our stream of consciousness, the original question, "Are You Happy" could therefore refer to numerous things, of which I'm considering the following to be the most likely:

1) Are you happy, as of this instance?

2) Are you happy, as of the recent past (possibly minutes ago before reading this)?

or...

3) Were you happy (however this notion should not be confused with satisfaction, which is close but not the same thing), reflecting on your past actions and thoughts, in what you perceive to be your inhibited consciousness?

There is never a right or wrong answer here. However, I do believe that there are only actions or reactions to achive a certain level of satisfaction, but never feelings of true happiness, for the latter is involuntary and transient at best. Happiness is truly a state of mind prescribed best when you have had too much to drink.