Right, LearnedHand
I can very much emphasize with what you're saying!
It's no surprise that you find some of the teachings of Sikh overlapping with Buddhism. Before deciding to listen to Buddhist teachings, I did an overview of most esoteric (or esoteric-inspired) religions and philosophies, and found an incredibly vast amount of common ground, which, however, was utterly and unexpectedly radically different from what exoteric religions were proclaiming.
Interestingly enough, though, all major religions in the world have an esoteric aspect, which is not "secret" or "hidden" but known and accepted — it's just a more advanced and more profound view than what the exoteric aspect teaches. Thus, Islam has Sikh, Judaism has the cabalistic teachings (not to confuse with the "Kabbalah" professed by starlets like Madonna!), Hinduism and Buddhism have Tantra (even though they use the same name, it's quite different!), and so forth. Christianism also had esoteric teachings, but they were repressed and eradicated in the 6th century CE. But some of it has still been (fragmentarily) preserved.
If you take any text from these esoteric traditions, you will see that they have similar visions. They sound much more closer to each other than the respective exoteric traditions.
Nevertheless, there are still quite different from each other. What actually drove me to Buddhism, as opposed to other views, were the
techniques. Esoteric Christianism, for instance, professes some similar goals — but when it comes to explaining how to achieve them, they're lost. Or rather, if there was ever a practical tradition with actual realisation of those goals, that tradition is now lost. We only know what the goals are but there is no guaranteed mechanism to achieve them — just vague guidelines and ideas, most of them intellectual (not all!), but there is not much more than that.
Buddhism, by contrast, establishes road maps — plural, because there is not One Way, but Several Ways, according to the level of the practitioner. All of them accomplish the same vision, but they can take more or less time, be more or less difficult, and most certainly they will not be appealing to everybody — this is one of the major advantages of the Buddhist teachings: its multiplicity of possible paths that lead to the ultimate result. But it's not merely cheap talk or philosophy; it's a rigorous, very exact and precise set of techniques. And we know they work: people still achieve realisation in our times, using those very same techniques, and are happy to explain others what to do to "get there".
There is a problem with saying "all teachings are the same", though, because it tends to make people believe they can mix and match things together according to their preferences. For instance, in the West, there are lots of people who like the Buddhist techniques, but dislike the idea that there is no Creator God to "serve" and grant them blessings, so they mix up Christianity or Islam with Buddhism. This won't work! That's why people like the Dalai Lama are very open when they say: "We don't need more Buddhists, but we need more people with a good heart. So stick to your own religion and be a good practitioner!"
This is certainly what you should do as a Sikhi
Fulfill the Sikh vision in yourself; follow its teachings and use its methods to become a better person; from your examples I can perfectly see that you have definitely achieved that, by taking things less serious, being more open towards others, being more understanding of what ails them, but also being able to act in their interest in a more detached way: you can truly tell them not to worry so much about their "external needs" and don't let them control their lives, since you can give yourself as an example — by relying less and less on those common expectations and not taking them so seriously, you're far more flexible and easy-going, worry less, take less anti-depressants, and so forth.
And that's happiness — the happiness that comes from contentment and the realisation that it comes from within, not from external events. This happines sis something people always confuse with euphoria!
