No idea.
Just a feeling I have sometimes felt that hasn't lasted long in the end.
Same as wanting to cry, or feeling aroused. It's just a a passing moment that hits me when I don't expect it and then fades away again.
It's like being on drugs, heady and exciting, you feel joy for everything, and pretty much everyone, because you're happy. Everything looks different. Dramas that seem insurmountable suddenly become something you can handle because "it's not that bad really", because you're happy. You're on that rush of chemicals in your brain that feels like the greatest high you can ever have.
The things that trigger it can vary, sometimes nothing needs to trigger it. It's just a mood you wake up to in the morning. Happiness.
But like all feelings it will pass. It never lasts and the withdrawl is a bitch. Because then you must talk about what it is to be sad.
Or maybe my view of happiness is wrong. maybe what I describe isn't happiness, but rather the mirror to lust vs love. For like lust, my feelings of happiness can be extra intense, but like lust, they mean nothing because they fade.
I don't think your view of happiness is wrong. You're talking about ecstatic happiness, like momentary happiness. Like finding out you've won 50 million dollars in the Lottomax
(
one day). It's a high that goes away. Then there's being content and happy in general. A feeling that's supposed to be there most of the time. Being generally happy with your life and self and whatever...or something. Like the difference between honeymoon love and whatever's there when it's gone. Of course, I'm speaking theoretically. The fuck would I know about this stuff?
Didn't Jeremy Bentham write about this?