Chasing Fleeting Bliss: The Unattainability of Happiness

In our time, the pursuit of happiness turns into an endless marathon of desires, where every achievement merely spurs the emergence of a new one. We often believe that reaching a particular milestone or possessing something special will bring us complete contentment, yet the joy of possessing such a blessing is fleeting and quickly overshadowed by the desire for something new. This dynamic of our inner world demonstrates how the very nature of human yearning makes happiness an ephemeral goal. The limitations of our reality—whether spatial, temporal, or social—only fuel this endless search. The reality we inhabit imposes its own constraints on us, denying us the opportunity to fully immerse in a state of absolute bliss, regardless of our efforts to construct it. Ultimately, happiness remains a state that we can only experience briefly, always slipping away in the final moment, compelling us to continuously seek new joys and meanings.

Why does the pursuit of happiness often remain an unattainable dream?

The pursuit of happiness frequently remains an unattainable dream because it is rooted in the very nature of human desire, which is never final. As noted in one source, "Happiness is unattainable due to the psychological nature of the pursuit of happiness. At any given moment, the pursuit of happiness is the quest for some particular good, and a person feels that only this good is missing for complete happiness. However, once this good is achieved, the pleasure of possessing it quickly fades, and the soul swells with an equal or even greater desire for a new good" (source: 1233_6163.txt). This means that as we obtain something that appears to be the key to happiness, the brief satisfaction is replaced by a new desire, and the state of ultimate fulfillment never materializes.

Furthermore, another perspective explains this phenomenon by referring to the conditions of our existence: "Our spatial, temporal, and social existence predetermines the unattainability of happiness for us. The impossibility of happiness in this reality is not only an ascetic, but also a metaphysical assertion. As we have noted, happiness can only be realized under conditions that do not exist and cannot exist in this reality..." (source: 1283_6412.txt). In other words, the limitations of our world—including its finiteness in time and space—prevent us from reaching a state of complete happiness, no matter how fervently we strive for it.

Thus, the constant shift in our desires and the insurmountable constraints of our reality render happiness a state that we can only momentarily experience, but never fully achieve.