For happiness or happiness itself?

There are many books on happiness. Generally it goes like: The key to happiness is to be ... ... . On the surface it looks fine. But every description requires an opposite side to stand. Its thus also implying: You are not happy unless you ... ... .

Thus every HOW of happiness imply some kind of unpleasantness.

I prefer some expressions of happiness itself. Here's one:

This morning I woke up a five after a very sound sleep and listened to a most gorgeous feast of sounds. What woke me up were the factory whistles of a great variety of pitch and force. After a while, I heard a distant clatter of horse's hoofs; it must have been cavalry passing down Yuyuen Road; and in that quiet dawn it gave me more aesthetic delight than a Brahms symphony. Then came a few early chirps from some kind of birds. I am sorry I am not proficient in birdlore, but I enjoyed them all the same. Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living