What Causes Happiness and Joy?

[RedLantern]

When we put others in the center,tenderness wells up from within, we feel grateful to others  witnessing their suffering brings us out of the cocoon we sleep in.It makes us a little bit  but willing to let go of constricted sense of self we hold on to.This kind of empathy changes the whole atmosphere of mind.
it is the purest form of happiness.The sutras ask, where do the Buddhas come from? And the answer in the sutras is, they come from ego.What does this mean?This means that realization comes from our ability and longing for happiness to include others.

[yontenjamyang]

The view of happiness and joy on a conventional level is tainted but it is still something that is better than sadness and suffering. It is this that may perhaps drive one out of samsara because it is a positive point of reference of the enlightened mind.
However, conventional happiness and joy from the framework of the ultimate is tainted and is classified in the pervasive suffering of samsara among the 3 types of suffering and in the respect, happiness and joy is the cause for attachment to the unwholesome and is the main cause of of one constantly generating the negative karmas that keep us in samsara.
Hence, happiness and joy is double edge sword. When the basis is self than, it is mostly negative. When the basis is on others than it is mostly positive. I said "mostly" because, motivations, view/intent also plays a big part and can be complex.

[pinecone]

For Buddha, the path to happiness starts from an understanding of the root causes of suffering. Some people may consider Buddha a pessimist because of his concern with suffering. In fact, he is a skillful doctor — he may break the bad news of our suffering, but at the same time he prescribes an antidote to it. Buddhism pursues happiness by using knowledge and practice to achieve mental equanimity. In Buddhism, equanimity, or peace of mind, is achieved by detaching from the cycle of craving that produces suffering. Therefore,  by achieving a mental state where you can omit  passions, self-grasping and desires, you free yourself and achieve a state of transcendent bliss and well-being.