The Sadness of Happiness

If you are like me, any moment of deep happiness is followed by a moment of deep sadness. Why is that? I think it has to do with the Second Noble Truth of Zen Buddhism: "The origin of suffering is attachment", which tells us that the root of all suffering is attachment to the desire to have (craving) and the desire not to have (aversion), accentuated by the essential fact that we can never satisfy *all* of our desires. According to Buddha, this applies to those that 'have not' and those that 'have but continually want more', so it is not a phenomenon that can be resolved through the attainment of the object of one's desire. The only way to avoid this suffering of attachment is to rise above it. Denying it is just the flip side of 'craving' - i.e. 'aversion' - which is just a different form of desire. I am nowhere near living an attachment free life, but I do have a specific focus on simplicity, and I try to remain in a constant state of satisfaction, which does afford a bit of comfort at the idea that life is short and can be cut short at any time - this is especially useful for frequent air travel ;-) But a moment of deep happiness disrupts this mode of living. All of a sudden, there is attachment and craving, satisfaction is compromised by the desire for more, and now it is no longer acceptable for the plane to go down, so to speak. All of a sudden, there is a recognition that nothing in life lasts forever, even in the face of our desire for permanence. That, in my opinion, is the root for those moments of deep sadness that closely follow even a second of deep happiness. For me, anyway.