One on One Philosophy with Discord

by CrackedInkWell

Pinkie - On Sadness

Pinkie didn’t get it. What happened didn’t make sense to her. She was only trying to help. A cheering up party was what was needed, right? Honestly, she didn’t mean to make Roseluck upset. She just wanted everypony to be happy.

So… why did it go wrong?

It bothered her all day. From the bakery to the classroom, that gadfly of a thought kept returning. She kept recalling the stinging words that Rose said. It puzzled her as much as it did stick out like a splinter.

‘Well maybe I want to be sad!’

Nothing in that one sentence made sense to her. It was a contradiction of existence itself! Why would anyone want to be sad? Isn’t the goal of life is to be happy? Everyone wants laugher and joy. Every creature on the planet wants the comforting peace that brings a smile on their face. Isn’t this the default need for life? The purpose of hard work; for obtaining friendships even? Surely, gladness is something that is greeted with open hooves.

So why would anyone want to be sad?

This was why she was hopping her way towards Fluttershy’s on a Saturday to go see Discord. She knew that Saturdays were when her friend and the Ex-Chaos spirit get together to catch up with whatever was going on with them. Normally, Pinkie and the rest of her friends would leave the two of them alone during these tea parties. But today, however, she felt that this was an emergency.

“Discord?” She called out, knocking on Fluttershy’s front door. “Discord? Are you in there?”

She waited for a moment before it opened and found that Fluttershy answered the door. “Pinkie?”

“Hi Fluttershy,” she waved, “is Discord here? I need to talk to him over something really confusing.”

“We’re almost done.” Her friend replied, “And Discord is helping me putting the dishes away. Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure, Roseluck said something to me that I’m really, really confused about, and it’s been bugging me for a whole day now.”

“So why come to Discord?” Fluttershy questioned. “Didn’t you go to Twilight or Starlight about this?”

“I did, but they didn’t make sense. Well, they kinda suggest that I should give Rose some space, but she’s all cooped up in her home moping about and I’m not meant to do anything? It’s crazy that I want to help but now I’m told not to? How the hay does that make any sense!? It doesn’t.”

Fluttershy blinked. “So… Why do you want Discord’s help?”

“Well duh!” Pinkie explained. “Have you heard how good he’s at giving advice now? What he does affects students, our friends, the readers-”

“Readers?”

“The point is, he’s really good and I need some help figuring something confusing enough to make me try to pull my mane out from my skull!”

“You do know that there are less painful ways to make cotton candy.” Said Discord, getting the mare's attention as he walked through a wall. “But as much as I would oblige in having your mane be divorced from your head and having it rain chocolate all over Equestria, I’m afraid Fluttershy wouldn’t approve.”

“There you are!” Pinkie jumped high enough to reach the Ex-God’s eye-level. “You mind helping me out on something that’s super weird and-”

“And just like that, I’m sold.” Discord said, grabbing the bouncing pony mid-air. “Come! We shall open a door with the key of imagination to go beyond a dimension of sight, sound, and mind! A place of things and ideas to cross over into Twilight’s bathroom! Oh and,” he turned to Fluttershy giving her a wave, “I’ll see you the same time next Saturday!”

With a hop and a skip, Discord transported himself and the pony under his arm into a black and white bathroom tub with the curtain drawn and the showerhead running. Pinkie looked over and noticed that Discord was wearing a suit.

“Actually,” she began, “I was hoping I could use your philosophical expertise to help me out on something.”

“Oh…” Discord blinked. “Well, that’s completely different.” He drew the shower curtain aside to step out from it. Putting Pinkie down, they left the bathroom into a colorful bedroom. “Now what would you need of my expertise for?”

“Okay,” she drew in a deep breath to quickly say: “so recently Roseluck has gotten all sad for some reason so I thought that maybe I should throw her a surprise cheering up party. But despite all the candy, the confetti, inviting her friends over, the twenty-story cake with chocolate pudding, and the balloons that have big smiling faces; did you know what she did? She told me to get out! I mean, all the effort to have her put on a big happy smile and all I get is be kicked out? Can you believe it? I was like ‘Whaaaa?’ and she was like ‘Leave me alone!’ and I was like ‘Nah-ah! You’re all gloomy face and I need to make you happy.’ But then she was like ‘Well maybe I want to be sad!’ I tell you; it makes no sense what-so-ever! I thought everypony wants to be happy and now I’m being told that Roseluck wants to be miserable? It’s the kind of thing that you might have done back when you were evil but this! No! I want answers! Why would she want to be miserable?” Pinkie took in another deep breath.

Discord hummed in thought, floating over to the bed, he hovered over while his suit, still wet from being in the shower, dripped down below. “Has this Roseluck have always been like this?”

“No, and that’s what worries me. Usually, she’s a bit over dramatic when it comes to taking care of flowers and goes around from time to time with Dr. Whooves to go… I have no idea where. But sad? She’s rarely like that. Besides, I thought I was helping by trying to cheer her up. What gives?”

“Perhaps…” Discord began. “You haven’t asked yourself the right sort of question. Something that the Element of Laughter seemed to have continuously overlooked.”

“Overlooked what?”

“What’s the proper way to be sad?”

Pinkie scrunched up her snout in confusion. “Proper? But being sad is an emotion, not a skill.”

“Except,” Discord said, levitating his still wet clothing over a nightstand filled with books. “Despite any desire to be happy, every day, to every living creature in every multiverse there is, a lot of stuff happens in one way or another that’s pretty hurtful. From someone who didn’t bother to call; to a project you’ve worked hard on and isn’t going anywhere; to someone saying ‘No.’ And that’s just to name a few examples.”

“Well sure,” Pinkie answered, hopping over. “Even some of this stuff happens to me too. I sometimes feel sad for a bit and that would be it.”

“Sure… if you think that’s how it actually works.” Discord then shook himself like a dog, and whatever leftover water was now being sprayed in every which way direction. Even Pinkie had to borrow an umbrella out of hyperspace in her mane to keep herself dry.

“It’s not?” She questioned.

“As it turns out, all our minds are squeamish by their very design. It frequently shuts down any negative feelings where it goes into a state that psychologists call denial. Where difficult, but true info is often refused access, like a bouncer for a club if you will. Given how societies are structured, this isn’t surprising at all. Many, like yourself, see anything with a hint of sadness as a disorder to be cured, because it goes against the bouncy cheerfulness that nearly all advertisements, shows and movies would want to convince you is the norm.”

“You’re making it sound as if it’s not.”

“Oh Pinkie,” Discord curled around her. “You have so much to learn. Come! We’re going on a field trip!” Suddenly, both of them popped out of the room, outside of space and time for a moment right before Twilight comes walking in, screaming in anger at the state of her bedroom.

As for Discord and Pinkie, just as soon as they popped out of existence that they popped in to someplace else. The first thing the pony noticed was that they were transported to someplace in the wilderness. Someplace quiet warm but humid. Someplace where the dirt was dry, but there is greenery all around. They stood in the thicket of a grove of trees where a sparkling river was nearby.

“Discord?” Pinkie inquired, “Where are we?”

“Northern Manedia, about five or so centuries before Nightmare Moon was Banished.” Discord explained, “and if I’m right, we’re just in time for the first incidencent in history that a pony has reached nirvana.”

“As in elighte-” Pinkie was suddenly cut off when there was a sudden low ring that was heard coming from somewhere within the grove. Not only that, but she noticed a strange warm glow nearby that shone through the branches. “What’s going on there?”

“Let’s take a look.” Discord said, pointing into the grove. While he floated his way, Pinkie followed behind. What they found underneath the tree was a single stallion in an orange robe. A light brown earth pony without a mane whose expression… the only word that comes to the mare’s mind is “peaceful.” Whatever happened before they arrived, it left the stallion in a state of relief, calm, content, tranquility even – all at the same time.

“Hi there!” Pinkie called out, bouncing over to the stranger.

The stranger only smiled back.

She paused for a moment, now on the hill, she noticed how isolated they were. In every direction, she couldn’t see so much as a village in sight among the trees and bushes. It was quiet too. Quickly concluding that whoever this was, the stranger was entirely alone. “So what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“I found what I was looking for.” He replied and Pinkie asked what that was. “Peace.”

“That’s oddly specific.” Pinkie remarked. Just then, she heard the growl of the stranger’s stomach. “How long have you been underneath this tree?”

Blinking, the stranger looked up for a moment at its branches. “I was not counting. But if I have to guess… several, many days at least.”

“And you haven’t had anything to eat?”

“I think it was… a bowl of rice the last time.”

“Oh, you poor thing.” Pinkie said, compassion filling her to reach into her cotton candy mane and pulled out a cupcake. “Here. I was saving it for lunch. You can have it.”

Raising his forehooves up, the stallion humbly accepted it. He thanked her and studied the confection carefully before tasting the frosting.

“While he’s eating that.” Discord said, “Pinkie Pie, allow me to introduce you to the formal prince, genius, and now the enlightened one – Saddlehārtha Gallupama. Or, just the Buddha for short.”

“A prince?” Pinkie questioned, returning her attention towards the stallion. “You’re a prince?”

“Was.” He answered.

“Sorry, I’m super confused. What is an ex-prince like you doing out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat?”

Buddha took a bite of the cake. “It is a long story.”

“Well, we got time.” She answered, “Besides,” Pinkie sat down but bobbed up and down. “I always love a good story.”

“As do I.” Discord said, pulling up a couch when neither of them was looking. “Tell us who you are and why you are glowing.”

“Very well,” he said, gently placing the cupcake down on a rock. “When I was born into the most powerful and wealthy clan in the Himallamas, my father was given a prophecy by a holy creature who said that I would become either a great Emperor or a holy pony. Father wanted me to be the Emperor and ordered that I shall be spared by the unpleasantness of life. From the palace being filled with delicious foods, lotus ponds and dancing mares to the streets surrounding the palace be swept clean. For a long time, I knew not of anything that wasn’t pleasant or pleasurable. Once I concluded that life was nothing but as sweet as this.” He lifted the cupcake before continuing. “Then, one day, my carriage took a wrong turn and I saw something on that day that shook me.”

“What was it?” Pinkie asked.

“The streets became increasingly filthy, and there I saw a sick stallion. I wasn’t aware that anyone’s health could decline. Then I saw an old stallion. I was aghast as I didn’t think that anyone could become like that with time. And then a funeral procession carrying a dead stallion. This most of all shocked me, for I wasn’t aware that ponies could die. On those streets, I saw poverty, hunger, injury, pain, sadness beyond description… Things that I didn’t know were possible outside of the palace. And then, in the midst of all of them, I saw a holy pony, who despite the horrifying setting, was at peace.

“It occurred to me that day that since I’m a pony as well, I too am prone to encounter these things myself. That I was destined to suffer as much as they were. I’ve wondered what the point of living was if there was suffering, even to those who don’t deserve it. So, as a young stallion, I ran away from the palace, only looking back once, with the hope that maybe my wife and son would too find peace as well.

“From that day, I walked along the country roads, encountering many creatures who claimed a way out from suffering. I first went to the priests, but they insisted on blind faith and nothing on what worked through practical reason. Then I turned to the gurus and renouncers who insisted that any attachment binds us to pain. Yet, despite my efforts of meditation and fasting for days, even never moving for months on end, these didn’t bring what I was looking for. If anything, every time I came out of meditation lead me to more suffering. Almost died as a result. So, disgruntled, I reasoned that maybe, there is a middle way between these extremes. Something that I may have overlooked.

“On the way here, this very grove compelled me to meditate, and underneath this very tree, I vowed that I will not move from this spot until I solved the riddle of existence. At first, I struggled a long time, trying to pinpoint a single source of what it was all about. Why is it that we are caught in this cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, that we are caught in a wheel of suffering? What was the point of undergoing utter grief and sadness over and over? I sat here, trying to overcome the dark forces of delusion that clouded my thoughts.”

“Well, what happened?” Pinkie asked.

“I remember when I was a little colt, that I would notice how after the grass was cut, that it would destroy the insects and their eggs. As a child, I felt a deep compassion for these small creatures, how sorry I felt for their loss. This I realized was the key. In all these years of trying to find out what was the cause of suffering, I had realized that I was only looking at this problem through a keyhole. The answer isn’t just about me, nor any single part of me, not even those that have influenced me, or even have created me. Trying to pinpoint the cause of suffering of oneself, is the cause of suffering.”

“So… you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t exist?” Pinkie questioned, scratching her head.

“No. Of course, I exist. Only the very concept of the eternal element in oneself wasn’t the solution, but the heart of the problem. Because it makes one selfish and self-absorbent in earthly concerns. Blinding anyone from learning how to escape from suffering. Once you extinguish the idea of the self, you become free. To know oneself, and the world is yours. You see?”

“I… maybe?”

“Tell us what happened next.” Discord insisted.

“Yes.” The Buddha nodded. “So, once I had these in mind, I then fell into a deeper meditation to look back on my past lives. Of countless rounds of lifetimes in countless points of existence. From being different ponies to wild animals, from demons to gods, from insects to abstract consciousness itself, yet all of these are subjected to the wheel of suffering. Even Gods like your friend here is subjected to die and be reborn as something else. Then, going past these, I extinguish craving, ignorance, insecurity, grudges, attachment, and delusion. And for these efforts, I am now free from suffering and being rewarded with enlightenment.”

“Huh…” Pinkie blinked. “So is this why you’re all glowy?”

He smiled. “How unshakable is my mind now. This is the last birth. For me, there is no renewed existence. For today, I am free.” Then he took a bite of the cupcake.

“So, for sitting underneath a tree,” Discord said, “What did you learn?”

After swallowing the treat, he replied, “There are four truths of existence. Which, I am so happy to share these with you.”

“Really?” Pinkie inquired, her tail moving about like a happy dog. “What is it?”

“The first,” he said, “the baseline for all existence, is at its very core – suffering.”

Pinkie’s tail stopped wagging and went limp.

“The second,” the stallion went on to explain, “is that this eternal suffering is caused by our desires. For attachment is the root of all suffering. This includes greed over very tasty foods, or the desire for more gold and jewels, even fear about dying contributes to attachment.

“The third is to help one become detached from these cravings is to remove or maintain moderation for all things. To do so is to change one’s outlook, not the circumstance. Unhappiness isn't caused by the lack of things such as money, love, or status. Rather, it’s because we are by our nature greedy, vain and insecure. By training one’s mind, anyone can maintain a mindful attitude, and therefore, become better as a whole. You can change this monkey mind by overturning those desires. Turning ignorance into wisdom. Anger into compassion. Greed into generosity.”

“Training?” Pinkie tilted her head. “You mean like doing a million push-ups or running several miles every day?”

The Buddha laughed. “No no, instead of training the body, I found a way to train the mind. One that must be practiced every day to obtain a behavior. To do so, one must have the right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.”

“So let me get this straight,” Pinkie interjected. “That according to you, wisdom is not some realization but a habit?” He nodded. “And the way to get this is to do all that stuff?” He nodded again. “That sounds like a lot of work.”

He chuckled. “Indeed. But if you exercise a limb, what becomes of it?”

“Well… it gets stronger over time.”

The Buddha nodded. “The same for wisdom. The mere moment of understanding for me is only the beginning.”

“Now with that out of the way,” Discord finally said, “and since you seem to be the most qualified here, my friend needs help.”

“Oh?” He tilted his head. “And what is it?”

Pinkie then began to retell what she told Discord, about how Roseluck was feeling down and she tried to cheer her up, but it ended up backfiring. Of how she was confused when her friend told her that she preferred to be sad. When she finished, she added, “I just don’t get it how she would want to be. I thought everypony wants to be happy.”

“I see.” The Buddha nodded. “It would seem to me that your friend has grasped my first truth – that life is suffering. With this realization, it sounds to me that she is in mourning of this fact.”

“Yes exactly!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I just want to know… what do I do when cheering her up doesn’t do a thing?”

Humming in thought, the Buddha turned to Discord, “If it’s not too much trouble, I would need some assistance.”

“Alright,” Discord hopped off his couch and conjuring up a waiter’s outfit, complete with a notepad asked, “So how can I take your order?”

“I suggest, the best way to help her with her question is to remind her of her own sadness.”

“Pfft!” Pinkie laughed, “C’mon? Me? Sad? Since when I have ever been super-duper gloomy?”

Discord raised an eyebrow. “Really now? You’ve never been sad in your whole life? Ever?” Shaking her head, he hummed in thought. “I have an idea for our next stop on our Magical Melancholy Tour.” He turned to the Buddha. “Wanna come along?”

“I will be like water, and flow to wherever nature directs me.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Discord said, snapping a talon.

The next place that was gloomy, cold, and gray. In this landscape, the three of them appear as blue, see-through, and glowy. Pinkie was the first to look at her hoof. “Are we ghosts now?”

“To a degree.” Discord answered. “At this point, we are merely observers.”

“What is this place?” The Buddha asked.

“I know where we are.” Pinkie pointed to a dreadful-looking farmhouse. “This is my home. Well, was my home until I moved out to Ponyville.” She paused, looking up at the Ex-Chaos spirit. “Discord, why are we here?”

“There is something you need to see.” He said, floating over towards the house. The other two followed in the same manner. Going over the rock fields and through the fence, they followed him towards a window. “Look and see.”

Pinkie and the Buddha did. Through the window was a gray living room. There in a rocking chair was Pinkie’s mother, and in her forelegs was a crying Marble, with a piercing scream that was so loud that it was amazing that the window didn’t shatter. What was striking was the look on the mother’s face. It was as if all hints of happiness or joy was gone. There wasn’t a glint in her eye, a smile on her face, she wasn’t even rocking the shrieking foal in her arms.

Then three other very young foals entered into the room. Pinkie immediately recognizes that it was her and her sisters, Maud and Limestone. While there was a look of worry on Limestone’s face, and Maud was emotionless, Pinkie stepped up with a smile – a determination to make both of them happy. Immediately, the very young Pinkie set to work to do everything she could think of to cheer not just her crying sister, but her mother up as well. She tried making weird faces, funny noises, jangling keys, tickling, trying to force a smile even. Yet no matter how hard she tries, Marble continues to cry, and their mother looking as if she was dead inside.

“Do you remember this, Pinkie?” Discord asked.

Pinkie shook her head. “Not really. What’s going on here? Home has always been one of the happiest places in the whole wide world, and now looking at this… How come I didn’t grow up depressed or angry?”

“Perhaps,” the Buddha suggested, “even as a foal, whose parents have given all the happiness in the world, you may have felt an enormous responsibility to maintain that level of joy. That if the parent feels sad, then you try to cheer them up so that order can be maintained.”

“You are onto something my friend.” Discord said. “Maybe at this point, your mother had pushed her stresses beyond her limit and couldn’t cope. So, not knowing what was going on, you took on the role of the manic cheerleader. Not because you wanted to be, but had to.”

“I didn’t want her…” Pinkie started but trailed off. She felt a comforting hoof on her shoulder, turning her head, the Buddha gave her a comforting smile. As if to tell her that it’s alright to share. “I mean, Mom and Dad had done everything they could between the Rock Farm and us. They give us everything and the last thing I wanted was for them to think that everything they did came to nothing. That, and I don’t want Mom to carry any more burdens than she already did. Who wants that? I thought that as long as they’re happy, then they wouldn’t have any need to feel sad about anything.”

“Your heart is in the right place.” The Buddha nodded. “When we see a crying foal, our first instinct is to comfort it. When we find someone alone, we stay with them until we are certain they will be alright. However, this sort of attachment, without being mindful, can be hurtful to the one that you are trying to comfort.”

“What do you mean?”

“He means that what you need to do,” Discord informed her, “is to be sympathetic. Your origin for being so upbeat is that you’ve encountered enough sadness that you’ve wired yourself to not tolerate any hint of depression from others. And why wouldn’t you? Even as a small Pinkie, you believe firmly that if you can make someone crack a smile, it makes their problems go away.”

“But…” Pinkie tried to say, but her mane started to deflate. “I was just trying to help…”

“I believe you did.” The Buddha acknowledged. “But I’m beginning to see that you don’t know fully why we, as living creatures, have sadness. Consider the Rainy Season. It is a gloomy time when the sky sheds many, many tears. It is as if nature itself is in deep mourning for the loss of the countless trees, the countless animals, and the countless creatures who had perished. But yet, all those tears that come down from the heavens, they bring forth the fertility of Spring. No harvest is possible without this critical season.”

“So, you’re saying that to be sad is just as important as to be happy?”

“Something else to consider,” Discord said, changing the scene once more.

While they were still blue and see-through, this time they were inside the ruins of a great palace, and before them crying in a throne that had a crescent moon, was Celestia.

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” Discord told them. “The happiest ponies that you’ll encounter are often the ones who have suffered the most. Celestia at this point, just after banishing her sister, began to develop a more humorous side. Of course, not right away, but her pranks, her stand-up comedy period, and even the parades of clowns are the result of this.”

“But… how?” Pinkie questioned. “I thought she would be all grim and gloomy all the time. Yet… Celestia? She’s one of the funniest ponies out there.”

“It’s because she understood something that our friend did. In fact, at this point, we should ask him one important question.” Discord floated over next to the Buddha. “For someone that said all life is about suffering, why are you smiling?”

He smiled again. “Because since I realized how dark existence can be, and how horrifying the ways so much can go wrong, that I no longer have to focus these constantly at the front of my mind. As suffering is the baseline of existence itself, anything that stands out, such this cake,” he held his partially eaten cupcake up, “or being in the company of compassionate creatures like yourself is a bonus to me.”

Since the crying Celestia was becoming a little too distracting, Discord changed the scene again to that of a sandy desert in which they were no longer blue ghosts.

“We’re a bonus?” Pinkie inquired.

“You especially.” He went on. “From my point of view, you have no reason to ask me how I was doing not too long ago. Nor did you have compassion towards me when I said that I haven’t eaten for a long time. And yet, you went out of the way to set aside any selfish desires to give me this sweet thing to eat. Your kindness is never compensation for any dashed hopes, but I see them as genuine gifts from an already bleak existence.”

“Wow… you really see it like that?”

The Buddha turned to face the sandy desert. “Consider this landscape. Life is much like this desert. It is unforgiving, hot, and deadly that stretches further than the eye can see. Yet, any happiness is like an oasis. Unlikely, but welcomed with gratitude when it makes itself known for a time.”

“Ah,” Discord smirked, “similar to what another philosopher said, ‘A life without festivities is a long road without an inn.’”

“If you would like to think it like so.” The Buddha nodded. “The reason why I am smiling, isn’t so much that I have to be sad to acknowledge life to be sad, rather, it is a rightful confidence that I already have done justice and would in the future again do justice to the sadness of things. This happiness that admits the despairing truths to serve as a vehicle towards the beautiful moments that deserves a smile. To savor, even the smallest moment like how one would be finding a drop of water in a desert. For every pain free day is a blessing.”

“Yes, but what am I going to do with Roseluck?” Pinkie asked.

“Well,” Discord said in a thick winter coat, “before the word Depression had a word, there was another to describe it – mourning. The best way, perhaps, is to treat her sadness as if she was in mourning over something. It doesn’t matter what it’s over, but rather to show a sober sympathy. Where she doesn’t want quick answers or solutions, just someone to be there with her.”

“I agree.” The Buddha said, “In life, what most want isn’t happiness, but compassion. Just as you gave me this cake, so too would your friend would like to be with someone in their grief.”

Pinkie slumped her flank into the sand. Not out of being downtrodden by this information, but thoughtful. After a long moment she looked up at Discord, “Can I go home now? I think I know what I’m going to do today.”

With a snap, Pinkie had gone back to Ponyville.

“Thanks for helping me out.”

The Buddha nodded. “And thank you for bringing her and this thing. Whatever this is, this sweet cake is wonderful. Although, I have something that I need to do as well. Can you return me to my place?”

---

Roseluck raised her head when she heard a knock on her door. As much as she didn’t feel like getting out of bed, she rose with barely enough energy to do so. Entering the hall and down the stairs just in time for the second round of knocks. She opened it to find something that she didn’t expect to see. There was Pinkie. Only she wasn’t smiling and being bombastic. In one hoof was a few dark blue balloons. On the other was a small cake that had the words “I’m sorry” written in frosting.

“I know you don’t want to see me.” Pinkie said. “But I want to come by and say I’m sorry for what I did the other day. I really didn’t mean to make it worse for you. But I didn’t know how to act when ponies are feeling down very well. And I don’t feel right about leaving you alone to be sad so… can I stay awhile?”

After a moment of judging whether or not Pinkie was being sincere, Roseluck let her in.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

I think that a particular issue people have, especially in these days, is an over-focus on happiness. there is an assumption that life exists in a binary state, either you are happy, or you are sad. Of course, no one wishes to be miserable, so they strive for happiness. But glee is not a 24/7 state of existence, it comes and goes with circumstance. How often do you hear people say "I just don't feel as happy as I should"? This is because lack of happiness is assumed to be synonymous with unhappiness.

What I do is make an effort to stay in the middle. I don't dwell on misfortune, and I enjoy particularly excellent moments as they come. I am content, I have what I need and don't really desire anything else, aside perhaps more sleep. I find that satisfaction is the key to a peaceful mind.

[ShadwSonic]

It's odd... when Buddha talked about the problem he was trying to solve, it all made perfect sense... but the moment he started going over the solution, it felt like he'd lost his mind. It still does actually. And yet, somehow, it circled back around to a couple rather profound bits of wisdom:
Treasure each moment of happiness.
Empathy means more than inspiring cheerfulness.

[CrackedInkWell]

10052262 I know for some, what Buddha taught isn’t something that everyone can do. However, by lowering all expectations to something bleak and yet, still taught to always be compassionate, forgiving and kind is still enduring.

“In life, what most want isn’t happiness, but compassion. Just as you gave me this cake, so too would your friend would like to be with someone in their grief.”

[Julian the Dreamer]

You know, stories like these truly help people. Thank you for writing them.

[KnightMysterio]

I'm reminded of Joy's dilemma in Inside Out now.

[tzening]

Weird. I thought in the Smile song, Pinkie already knows that not everyday is going to be a happy day and acknowledges that being sad is a part of life.

[Dan]

One little nitpick, Pinkie and Marble were twins. Pinkie only called her her younger sister because Pinkie was the first one out, so to speak.