Dichotomies of Pleasure and Happiness

Humanity has always had a love-hate relationship with pleasure, especially "fleshy" pleasures, or pleasures of the body. On the one hand, pleasure is enjoyable and sought after, and for good reason. Every pleasure that the human body has comes with advantages, within reason. On the other hand, though, is the problem that pleasure, in and of itself, does nothing. It is an end, as opposed to happiness, which is more often a product of life.

Pleasure and happiness are often confused, considered similar if not the same thing. But pleasure is like a paper: thrown into our Flame, it gives a great flash of warmth, but is then gone, leaving us colder than before. Happiness is a log, placed carefully in our Flame. No great heat, no moment of astonished warmth, but a long growth of warmth that lasts as long as it is nurtured.

Of course, the flash of pleasure is more dramatic, more noticeable. It's much easier to seek, and indeed a search for pleasure may well be genetic, as well as the desire for happiness. But pleasure is easy, too easy. When sweets were hard to come by, sugar was a pleasure that could be safely indulged in, were there enough money to afford it. But over-saturation cheapens pleasure, like taking an occasional piece of chocolate and making it a daily habit makes that chocolate taste not nearly as good. As one becomes accustomed to pleasure, old pleasures become boring, no longer enough. So one must seek new pleasures, casting old ones aside in the heedless search for stimulation.

One might ask, so what? What difference does it make if we need to seek new pleasures? If it makes us happy, what's the problem? The problem is, pleasure doesn't lead to happiness. Pleasure leads to desire, and desire leads more often to sorrow than happiness, because everything is wanted and not had. Pleasure and desire are not wrong, but they must be understood for what they are, and weighed against long-term happiness, when one desires what is not had.

In many ways, happiness is learning to desire what it is we already have, as opposed to focusing on that which is out of reach. We consider ourselves happy when we have what we desire, and unhappy when our minds are occupied by thoughts of those things we lack.

Isn't happiness selfish, one might ask? By what right do I have to seek happiness, when I could be doing things, making things, creating wealth, whatever the excuse is. In truth, however, happiness is our gift to the Divine, as well as our gift from the Divine, if we are capable of simply grasping it. What we do and who we are reflects and changes the Divine. When we are happy, when we live simply, having good relations to those around us and the world we live on, we better the world around us and the Divine. Instead of happiness being selfish, it can be the most unselfish thing one can do.

Happiness is not easy, however. It must be maintained, must be nurtured, must be cared for. It is easy for desire to blow through the mind, a mental wind that carries beliefs of inadequacy and false needs, and such winds are hard to dispel. As long as we hold to happiness, however, as our goal, we can help ourselves, and slowly bring this concept to those around us as well, bettering their lives.

Questions:
How does pleasure differ from happiness? How can the desire for both be balanced?
How do we overcome our desire for pleasure?
Why is happiness unselfish? How would you define being truly happy?