I left a comment over at Ideological Putty, on "happiness".   What was surprising, was how definite an opinion I had on this topic, that I had never really coherently thought about, or put on paper. 

At any rate, I'm reprinting the comment here, because, basically, this is my current opinion on happiness.  I'm not cleaning up the comment for clarity either, so there are a couple of sentences that are confusing..

"Happiness is a learned process, and the learning process for happiness is grounded in "correct" motive and emotional stances towards life. These are MUCH more foundational for happiness than contemplative stances in life. Meditation in this sense is helpful, but it is icing on the cake, rather than the the parts of the cake (happiness) itself.

Happiness isn't much of a mystery anymore, actually.

a. Every human is born with a certain baseline emotional modality, predisposed towards harmony/disharmony, positivity/negativity, and stablility/instability.
b. The first four years are formative in either enhancing or debilitating this certain emotional baseline, in the sense of belongingness/lovingness. Various forms of natural wounding happen here.
c. The next 10 years, forming the rule structure/ideation phase of life, develops a natural trust in ego/self, rules/structure, or being enveloped in B.S. family rules, attitudes, and actions, that again, form the basis of cognitive/motive "stances" towards life, played out inside of one's ego.
d. The next seven years determine the stance of engagement with life - this of course is deeply influenced by the above - but here the "stance" towards life is taken - openness, experimentation? Retreat, surrender? Fixedness or flexibility? Very related to the sexual persona's success/failure in sexual experiences.

e & f. The process of "working on oneself", and "finding ones place in the world". In this process, healing of previous "woundings" occur (and self-actualization) because of internal lack of love/support, or internalization of various action/belief stances that are - for lack of a better word - anti-life.

In this sense, 80% of the people you meet are "not happy", or "not sane", in the sense of good mental health. (and of course, that is "average" mental health, without getting into the possibility of recognizing and living various spiritual truths). In this sense, everyone is "the walking wounded".

E&F of course, can last for a long time, perhaps one's whole life.

But with an "integral" education, one realizes certain "living truths", or the secrets of life.

1. Take care of your health.
2. Maintain a positive attitude.
3. Develop a deep sense of faith and gratitude (in life, God, meditation, community, whatever)
4. Be open and available to new experiences, challenges ("he not busy being born is busy dying")
5. ENGAGE FULLY with life, in the sense of living life with MEANING,and CONFIDENCE, in actions and beliefs.
6. While paradoxically, recognizing "humility" - that flexibility that comes with loving your neighbors as yourself, recognizing that your actions have only a limited influence, so "don't sweat the small stuff", etc - which is paradoxical in a way, because part of "e" - Engaging Fully - is CARING about the small stuff. A happy medium, basically living the Alcoholics Anonymous creed. Use good judgment, without being judgmental.
7. Find an occupation/way to express in the world that agrees with you. Doesn't have to be "the soul's job", although if that happens, great. But, something that agrees with you!

At any rate, engaging in Step "e" and "f", raises a person to the outer limits of the baseline in which "a" through "d" has given you in life. In some cases, of course, a through d might have done such a job on a person, in terms of derailing natural happiness, that chemicals may be required while healing from the effects of a negative a through d. That's why chemicals are always used as an adddition to the PRACTICE of living well.

That's the theory of happiness.

Meditation adds to happiness, in the sense of aiding the process of fast-forwarding humanity's future evolution into deeper calm, bliss, truth, etc.

But again, this is an extra on the Practice of happiness.

That's my view."

And:

"The hardest part is the psychological stuff we aren't aware of, at least for me. The psychological scotomas we suffer from, that we are blind to. These ostensibly are CAUSED by yourself, but at the same time, is unknown to yourself. In cases like that, therapy is very useful, as you can see - perhaps - how and why you are actively destroying "practicing happiness"."

Any thoughts on this, by others?  Who would agree that "happiness" is NOT some static state, but it is more a way of actively being in the world?