Happiness

The ramification of your happiness and how it effects yourself and others is truly infinite. Thus happiness becomes an ethical duty. But if one were to truly cultivate happiness it is not a duty but truly a joy. Happiness is cultivated so that happiness is attained. The path, means and goal are the same.

Happiness is a choice.

The ramification of your happiness and how it effects yourself and others is truly infinite. Thus happiness becomes an ethical duty. But if one were to truly cultivate happiness it is not a duty but truly a joy. Happiness is cultivated so that happiness is attained. The path, means and goal are the same.

Happiness is a choice.

Choose wisely

feels like if i choose happiness I'm forcing it... but I will choose happiness today :D:D

Force it. It is the most compassionate thing you can do for yourself and everyone around you.

Fake it till you make. It is the only way. If we wait for conditions to arise we will wait forever and drown in samsara.

Peace is happiness. Find peace and you will find happiness. Peace can't be found with force though. Just my opinion.

There was a study in which they found that people who read a specific comic holding a pen between their teeth (somewhat in the fashion of a smile) laughed more than people who pursed their lips around the pen, like a frown. They concluded that when you're smiling, your brain understands that as you being happy and searches out the reason for the stimulus, effectively actually making you feel happy... In other words...

"You often do act as observer of your actions, a witness to your thoughts, and you form beliefs about your self based on those observations. Psychologist Fritz Strack devised a simple experiment in 1988 in which he had subjects hold a pen straight out between their incisors and bare their teeth as they read cartoon strips. The subjects tended to find the cartoons funnier than when they held the pen between their lips instead. Between the teeth, some of the muscles used for smiling were contracted, and between the lips they contracted some of the muscles used for frowning. He concluded the subjects felt themselves smiling and decided somewhere deep in their minds they must be enjoying the comics. When they felt themselves frowning, they assumed they thought the comics were dull. In a similar experiment in 1980 by Gary Wells and Richard Petty at the University of Alberta subjects were asked to test out headphones by either nodding or shaking their heads while listening to a pundit delivering an editorial. Sure enough, when questioned later the nodders tended to agree with the opinion of the speaker more than the shakers. In 2003, Jens Förster at International University Bremen asked volunteers to rate food items as they moved across a large screen. Sometimes the food names moved up and down, and sometimes side to side, thus producing unconscious nodding or head shaking. As in the pundit study, people tended to say they preferred the foods which made them nod unless they were gross."

from: Youarenotsosmart.com

So... smile!

When you smile you give those around you permission to smile.

Its always fun to smile at strangers and they can't help but smile back.

What gift you are bringing to this world. Just fucking smile. =]

forcing happiness is a ridicilous thing to do...
Ups and downs are part of reality. No matter how much you force it, suffering will come eventually. Why avoid the inevitable?
Alchemy of emotions is certainly possible but the real salvation or liberation comes when one achieves a trancendental mind. A true Buddhist practioner sees the truth as plain as it is and seek for liberation without manipulating reality including the state of emotions.

"Sometimes my joy is the source of my smile. Sometimes my smile is the source of my joy."
Thich Nhat Hanh

I've always had a problem with the term happiness. It seems that happiness is something we make and while joy and similar feelings are satisfying emotions, the real thing to me is simple contentment. Content with the way things are right now. Happiness, to me, is not part of the equation.

Gui said:

I've always had a problem with the term happiness. It seems that happiness is something we make and while joy and similar feelings are satisfying emotions, the real thing to me is simple contentment. Content with the way things are right now. Happiness, to me, is not part of the equation.

agree....happiness and suffering are the two parts of the coin...can't seperate it..
contentment is more stable and realiable...

@Gui

"Joy at last to know there is no happiness in the world!"

Seeking happiness is like saying that you are without it... that it is not integral to your life and being... but when you no longer seek it, there it is... joy at last to know that there is no happiness in the world. :)

Human mind is really interesting...
It takes something pure and joyful and turn it into somethingelse by labeling it with imaginery concepts.
In its basic form, all emotions are actually 'extacy'...if you carefully analyze all emotions, at the subtlest level they are all the same thing.
I know it sounds very hard to accept but it is..
Fear, anger, jealousy, happiness, sorrow etc...if you can catch them with single point concentration and analyze it, they all turn into extacy.
I couldn't seperate any feeling from another. The only difference is my labeling or naming..This is hate, this is jealousy etc...They have different intensity but the basic nature of all emotions is bliss...Just like the basic nature of all matter is light.

When suffering suffer.

But when not suffering that is when joy should be cultivated.

Why not? You are not suffering.

Contentment turns to joy turns to happiness then to bliss.

joy, happiness, bliss are emotions
contentment is acceptance
why make anything?
making turns into suffering - when not suffering, why cultivate?

lol...no emotion is superior to any other...
you need all of it...
if today I give you happiness that lasts more than months, you will get tired of it...
its freaking true...
all these emotions manifest itself just because we cannot live in one particular feeling...we need variety and the ups and downs...so it becomes meaningful..

trying to be happy or joyful or blissful is meaningless...its attachment to emotions...they are not liberation , another prison...
and you won't be free...

it's important to reflect on what true happiness is and where it can be found. A moment's reflection will show that you can't find it in the past or the future. The past is gone and your memory of it is undependable. The future is a blank uncertainty. So the only place we can really find happiness is in the present. But even here you have to know where to look. If you try to base your happiness on things that change — sights, sounds, sensations in general, people and things outside — you're setting yourself up for disappointment, like building your house on a cliff where there have been repeated landslides in the past. So true happiness has to be sought within. Meditation is thus like a treasure hunt: to find what has solid and unchanging worth in the mind, something that even death cannot touch.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/breathmed.html

lol just because you cultivate it. or enjoy it. or create the causes/conditions for it.

does not mean you attach to it. cling to it. crave it.

true contentment automatically leads to joy. joy automatically leads to happiness. happiness automatically leads to bliss. they condition each other and are interdependent.

ALL is the unborn. everything is of nature of shunya and luminosity.

The suffering you feel conditions compassionate action.

The joy you feel conditions more joy and happiness and contentment.

The contentment you feel conditions more joy and happiness.

Do you see how EVERYTHING can be used for the sake of happiness for yourself and in turn allowing you to ACTUALLY help others.

Anyone automatically is GOOD at destroying things, getting angry, being ignorant, being prideful, becoming sad. ALREADY the seeds are there.

But if you cannot use those negative things for GOOD then why cultivate them?

just being content is a way to not cultivate them. Or BRING the same vigor. PATIENCE TO ANGER. WISDOM TO IGNORANCE. HAPPINESS TO SADNESS.

you are not going to beat your past karma by staying passive.

Cling to your happiness, cling to your suffering. Everything can be used to help sentient beings.

It is through suffering we feel pain. By feeling pain all compassion arises.

It is through joy that we can dance around and be light and help others.

It is through love that we can be in true communion with others.

SURE these are ALL qualities of the awakened ONE. And are innate to US.

But fuck it. Cultivate the hell out of them.

We have been too NEUTRAL. and Neutral always breeds neutral.

Cut that shit out and just cultivate the positive. I am not saying to DENY the rest. They have their uses. But happiness is NO trivial GOAL.

And yes it all starts with contentment.

Wisdom and meditation are means to happiness and the open heart.

"All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy. All misery comes from the desire for oneself to be happy." -Shantideva

If you cannot hold the bliss of the buddha and the suffering of the buddha in one heart.

what use are you? how are you going to help people?

abide in samsara and nirvana but realize that you are beyond and in both at the same time.

thus everything is used as skillful means to the benefit of all sentient beings.

eat your fucking cake FOR the sake of ALL OF US.

you cannot just keep conditioning taiyaki...conditioning has its unknowns and unexpected states and its own limits. You cannot reach liberation through conditioning joy or whatever...
and it is not practical....

Buddhist approach is scientific approach, it is not alchemy of reality...
We say, you can only help others when you truly liberated...In order to be liberated, you have to understand what this reality is all about and realize the true liberation.

Fake emotions and happiness can only take you so far but then reality hits...
Be wise my friend...salvation is not on the tips of emotions including bliss...its wisdom that liberates, not emotions...

'wisdom' - has many levels ...

don't develop wisdom, become the wisdom...

the conditioned is the unconditioned.
wisdoms natural consequence is bliss, happiness, joy, love, compassion, contentment, etc.

cultivation is necessary for wisdom to arise, which in turn allows wisdom to bloom.

wisdom also cultivates allows to positive states of mind to manifest.

i'm not saying DROP wisdom and only cultivate positivity.

The positivity can only be sustained when wisdom has penetrated the depths of consciousness. but still it should be cultivated because it conditions wisdom to arise.

What I am advocating is a form of Tantra.

Instead of waiting for future ENLIGHTENMENT.

Just actively pretend. For a moment pretend that you are utterly happy and content. And everything is perfection. If you can do it and touch that spot. Then keep cultivating that.

Just like love. If you can create love whether it is object focused or not, cultivate it.

These are all tools for liberation.

One of the greatest things is to realize total destruction. From that comes release and dispassion, from that tranquility. From that concentration and then insight.. {its in the Pali Canon somewhere so I couldn't find it and might have some bits wrong.. YMMV)

The eight fold path isn't linear, it is circular and interdependent.

Each part conditions every other part which in turn conditions everything else.

When insight is realized, the eight fold path is the natural outflow even though it was cultivated previously.

conditions will forever arise and fall, but that doesn't mean there is personal suffering.

suffering is just one way to look at the world. whereas total liberation is another.

essence and nature are obvious. but what is function?

whatever arises is used for the sake of sentient beings.

Just let samsara go for a minute, and you will have a minute of peace. It isn't that hard to do. This is what needs cultivation.

I'm happy God damn it!

taiyaki said:

the conditioned is the unconditioned.
wisdoms natural consequence is bliss, happiness, joy, love, compassion, contentment, etc.

cultivation is necessary for wisdom to arise, which in turn allows wisdom to bloom.

wisdom also cultivates allows to positive states of mind to manifest.

i'm not saying DROP wisdom and only cultivate positivity.

The positivity can only be sustained when wisdom has penetrated the depths of consciousness. but still it should be cultivated because it conditions wisdom to arise.

wisdom's natural consequence is not bliss...bliss comes from concentration. Liberation comes from wisdom...
Wisdom follows insight...
wisdom doesn't differentiate positive states of mind so it doesn't manifest either positive or negative.
Positivity is not the condition for wisdom.

See, the thing is you need to experience the final wisdom. The liberating wisdom..
The final wisdom is the end of all suffering which is free from any emotions.
You cannot get there thru alchemy...

To see liberating wisdom, one needs a transandantel mind, and to have transandantel mind, one needs bliss, and to get bliss, one needs to surrounder...not conditioning...

whatever appears is liberation.

i agree with you, but even surrendering is a conditioned action.

Taiyaki, I see what you are trying to do but I wouldn't recommend it...

People do suffer and they have to suffer...
Let them suffer...

What is important is not to cut them slack by creating positive conditioning which will last temporarily.
Positive conditioning works but then people start to think that everything is fine and they ended their suffering.
I gave this example before, let me give it again.
There is a difference between a person who is free falling and who is flying.If you are free falling, you think that things are alright and wonderful until you hit the ground. If you are flying you are putting a lot of effort into it and it is not so pleasent.

Let them suffer, so they learn how to fly...

it is through suffering that i've learned to cultivate the good.

why? it isn't just my suffering that i see. it is the suffering of all those around me.

thus it is my duty to be happy and joyful and content for those people around me.

which in turns allow for myself to be happy, joyful, and ultimately of use. because there is a sense of completion, i am overfilled to help others.

a true understanding/realization of suffering naturally leads to the compassionate life for self and other. thus the only thing worth doing is developing a good heart.

why? because when we are closed off and just focusing on our own suffering we cannot be of any use to ourselves and to others.

by focusing on others we open up the potentiality for happiness to arise. which in turn allows us to feel and be more happy by helping others.

it is a happiness feed back loop.

understanding the nature of suffering and the cause/cessation of suffering brings about the natural result of desiring happiness for self and other. its just how the heart moves.

ultimately both are empty and luminous. both are projections and even that is a projection. all is dependently originated.

this is my opinion after all and so far it has been working greatly.

the mahayana path is the fastest path to enlightenment.

if we start to open our eyes. our personal liberation means absolutely nothing. there are infinite sentient beings. To even help one is more than enough.

its not that we can actually CHANGE them. what we can do is work hard for peace, wisdom, happiness, and joy.

by embodying these they can see the potentiality in themselves.

=]

"our personal liberation means absolutely nothing. "

nevermind about this. personal liberation is top priority because then one can be of full use to others. it just gets better and better.

"Don't worry, be happy" is a good attitude to have. It's about being positive. Whatever motivates us to do our duty.

Our duty is to find true happiness.

taiyaki said:

it is through suffering that i've learned to cultivate the good.

why? it isn't just my suffering that i see. it is the suffering of all those around me.

thus it is my duty to be happy and joyful and content for those people around me.

which in turns allow for myself to be happy, joyful, and ultimately of use. because there is a sense of completion, i am overfilled to help others.

=]

you are too much into 'helping others' stuff...
thats somehow becoming your cage although you think it is helping you....
freedom is your responsibility...
you are playing the game of psyche thru morality...which means you are still in the game...

get out of the game first...then you can become a real boddhissattva...
right now its pretentious - althought with good motivations...
free yorself first and you will have lots of opportunity to help others...

who is there to free?
everything by its nature is liberation.
what is there to do? rigpa is everything, unborn, no reference points.

freedom is the nature of everything, whether we like it or not.

taiyaki said:

who is there to free?
everything by its nature is liberation.

everything but your mind...

the mind by its nature is liberation.

where is the mind? it is unfindable, ungraspable, no reference points. it is only an assumption of condition that mind exists. mind is no mind.

how can something by its nature be liberated if its nature is liberation?

Its nature is contaminated. What happend? We back to the basics now:) anyhow. I am out. Gotta go home.

where is such contamination? is it inherently existing?

we cannot find it because it is a conditional manifestation. because it is condition it is empty of inherent existence.

because it is empty of inherent exists labels such as is, is not, both is & is not, and neither is & is not do not apply.

everything by its nature is empty. not as a metaphysical assertion, but through complete negation we find that dependent origination = emptiness.

how can something that is pure be defiled?

it is only because of ignorance.

ignorance of what? we conditionally assert inherency from what duality. thus we grasp at being, non being, is, isn't, conditioned, unconditioned, movement, non-movement.

there is no end to ignorance, because it is also empty.

there is no end to wisdom, because it is also empty.

everything by its nature is pure. not pure in relation to pure/unpure. but completely untouched. the manifest reality is the unborn reality. movement is non movement.

how can mind be tainted? we cannot even find mind.

Is ignorance another word for stupidity?

no ignorance is to ignore what is obvious.

wisdom is just reality as it is.

because we conditioned already with ignorance we see the world with reference points. we assert me, my, i, mine, you, etc.

the world of this and that is created out of ignorance and grasping.

by wisdom or seeing reality as it is, we learn to let go of our grasping.

ignorance plagues everything whether you are intelligent or stupid.

wisdom is subtle and profound and by its nature liberation.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

~Einstein

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins130982.html#ixzz1lAfhymic

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/bob_thurman_says_we_can_be_buddhas.html

So he was hanging out with the movie star, and of course they were grumbling: "He's supposed to be religious and all this. What's he doing over there at Amrapali's house with all his 500 monks," and so on. They were all grumbling, and so they boycotted him. They wouldn't go listen to him. But the young people all came. And they brought this kind of a jeweled parasol, and they put it on the ground. And as soon as they had laid all these, all their big stack of these jeweled parasols that they used to carry in ancient India, he performed a kind of special effect which made it into a giant planetarium, the wonder of the universe. Everyone looked in that, and they saw in there the total interconnectedness of all life in all universes.

And of course, in the Buddhist cosmos there are millions and billions of planets with human life on it, and enlightened beings can see the life on all the other planets. So they don't -- when they look out and they see those lights that you showed in the sky -- they don't just see sort of pieces of matter burning or rocks or flames or gases exploding. They actually see landscapes and human beings and gods and dragons and serpent beings and goddesses and things like that.

He made that special effect at the beginning to get everyone to think about interconnection and interconnectedness and how everything in life was totally interconnected. And then Leilei -- I know his other name -- told us about interconnection, and how we're all totally interconnected here, and how we've all known each other. And of course in the Buddhist universe, we've already done this already billions of times in many, many lifetimes in the past. And I didn't give the talk always. You did, and we had to watch you, and so forth. And we're all still trying to, I guess we're all trying to become TEDsters, if that's a modern form of enlightenment. I guess so. Because in a way, if a TEDster relates to all the interconnectedness of all the computers and everything, it's the forging of a mass awareness, of where everybody can really know everything that's going on everywhere in the planet.

And therefore it will become intolerable -- what compassion is, is where it will become intolerable for us, totally intolerable that we sit here in comfort and in pleasure and enjoying the life of the mind or whatever it is, and there are people who are absolutely riddled with disease and they cannot have a bite of food and they have no place, or they're being brutalized by some terrible person and so forth. It just becomes intolerable. With all of us knowing everything, we're kind of forced by technology to become Buddhas or something, to become enlightened.

And of course, we all will be deeply disappointed when we do. Because we think that because we are kind of tired of what we do, a little bit tired, we do suffer. We do enjoy our misery in a certain way. We distract ourselves from our misery by running around somewhere, but basically we all have this common misery that we are sort of stuck inside our skins and everyone else is out there. And occasionally we get together with another person stuck in their skin and the two of us enjoy each other, and each one tries to get out of their own, and ultimately it fails of course, and then we're back into this thing.

Because our egocentric perception -- from the Buddha's point of view, misperception -- is that all we are is what is inside our skin. And it's inside and outside, self and other, and other is all very different. And everyone here is unfortunately carrying that habitual perception, a little bit, right? You know, someone sitting next to you in a seat -- that's OK because you're in a theater, but if you were sitting on a park bench and someone came up and sat that close to you, you'd freak out. What do they want from me? Like, who's that? And so you wouldn't sit that close to another person because of your notion that it's you versus the universe -- that's all Buddha discovered. Because that cosmic basic idea that it is us all alone, each of us, and everyone else is different, then that puts us in an impossible situation, doesn't it? Who is it who's going to get enough attention from the world? Who's going to get enough out of the world? Who's not going to be overrun by an infinite number of other beings -- if you're different from all the other beings?

So where compassion comes is where you surprisingly discover you lose yourself in some way: through art, through meditation, through understanding, through knowledge actually, knowing that you have no such boundary, knowing your interconnectedness with other beings. You can experience yourself as the other beings when you see through the delusion of being separated from them. When you do that, you're forced to feel what they feel. Luckily, they say -- I still am not sure -- but luckily, they say that when you reach that point because some people have said in the Buddhist literature, they say, "Oh who would really want to be compassionate? How awful! I'm so miserable on my own. My head is aching. My bones are aching. I go from birth to death. I'm never satisfied. I never have enough, even if I'm a billionaire, I don't have enough. I need a hundred billion." So I'm like that. Imagine if I had to feel even a hundred other people's suffering. It would be terrible.

But apparently, this is a strange paradox of life. When you're no longer locked in yourself, and as the wisdom or the intelligence or the scientific knowledge of the nature of the world, that enables you to let your mind spread out, and empathize, and enhance the basic human ability of empathizing, and realizing that you are the other being, somehow by that opening, you can see the deeper nature of life. And you can, you get away from this terrible iron circle of I, me, me, mine, like the Beatles used to sing.

You know, we really learned everything in the '60s. Too bad nobody ever woke up to it, and they've been trying to suppress it since then. I, me, me, mine. It's like a perfect song, that song. A perfect teaching. But when we're relieved from that, we somehow then become interested in all the other beings. And we feel ourselves differently. It's totally strange. It's totally strange. The Dalai Lama always likes to say -- he says that when you give birth in your mind to the idea of compassion, it's because you realize that you yourself and your pains and pleasures are finally too small a theater for your intelligence. It's really too boring whether you feel like this or like that, or what, you know -- and the more you focus on how you feel, by the way, the worse it gets. Like, even when you're having a good time, when is the good time over? The good time is over when you think, how good is it? And then it's never good enough.

I love that Leilei said that the way of helping those who are suffering badly on the physical plane or on other planes is having a good time, doing it by having a good time. I think the Dalai Lama should have heard that. I wish he'd been there to hear that. He once told me -- he looked kind of sad; he worries very much about the haves and have-nots. He looked a little sad, because he said, well, a hundred years ago, they went and took everything away from the haves. You know, the big communist revolutions, Russia and China and so forth. They took it all away by violence, saying they were going to give it to everyone, and then they were even worse. They didn't help at all.

So what could possibly change this terrible gap that has opened up in the world today? And so then he looks at me. So I said, "Well, you know, you're all in this yourself. You teach: it's generosity," was all I could think of. What is virtue? But of course, what you said, I think the key to saving the world, the key to compassion is that it is more fun. It should be done by fun. Generosity is more fun. That's the key. Everybody has the wrong idea. They think Buddha was so boring, and they're so surprised when they meet Dalai Lama and he's fairly jolly. Even though his people are being genocided -- and believe me, he feels every blow on every old nun's head, in every Chinese prison. He feels it. He feels the way they are harvesting yaks nowadays. I won't even say what they do. But he feels it. And yet he's very jolly. He's extremely jolly.

Because when you open up like that, then you can't just -- what good does it do to add being miserable with others' misery? You have to find some vision where you see how hopeful it is, how it can be changed. Look at that beautiful thing Chiho showed us. She scared us with the lava man. She scared us with the lava man is coming, then the tsunami is coming, but then finally there were flowers and trees, and it was very beautiful. It's really lovely.

So, compassion means to feel the feelings of others, and the human being actually is compassion. The human being is almost out of time. The human being is compassion because what is our brain for? Now, Jim's brain is memorizing the almanac. But he could memorize all the needs of all the beings that he is, he will, he did. He could memorize all kinds of fantastic things to help many beings. And he would have tremendous fun doing that.

Ultimately, happiness is the same as suffering... there is no way around it - nothing to ponder beyond it - YMMV or not... illusion is illusion. (yep... thats a fullstop)

Everyone's road is different - in my mind, direct experience of suffering and the intimate examination of suffering is the quickest route.

That said, not for some - there are 3 types I've found:
1) Those who see the hole and still fall in - they fall in a lot of holes - one day they'll associate the pain and the falling with the hole... they'll get there.
2) Those who did fall in a hole a few times but now they're wary of the hole and avoid it - they could fall in a few still as they still havent worked out all the holes.
3) Those who heard about the holes and learnt to avoid them from others' experience.

I think cultivating happiness as Taiyaki suggets is good / useful progression method for 3, alright / maybe not for 2 but there is a risk of it being forced and failure etc but not good for 1.

taiyaki said:

the mind by its nature is liberation.

where is the mind? it is unfindable, ungraspable, no reference points. it is only an assumption of condition that mind exists. mind is no mind.

how can something by its nature be liberated if its nature is liberation?

Should we call a caterpillar a butterfly? Wouldn't that cause confusion?

Okay taiyaki...are you saying that if you are suffering from depression that the cure would be to step outside yourself and find someone which is suffering of the same thing and comfort them. That would ease your suffering and theirs...then atleast feelings of peace or joy would naturally arise...?

Loneliness with trying to be there for someonewho is also suffering from loneliness.

Cancer survivor comforting chemo patients.

Recovering alcoholics, sponsoring new AA members.

Is this correct?

An unhappy person will feel stuck, and a happy person will feel free (boundless).
IMO you cannot cultivate happiness, because you cannot cultivate freedom.
However, you can cultivate a state of mind that breaks down the habits that kept you stuck.

In depression some of the life energy is not manifesting in a playful opening way. It can also be helpful to cultivate in our lives things that help us feel that 'good' energy. Which probably isn't indulgence rather a more pragmatic outlook. Trying things out. I always try to create little activities. And be vigilant of my thinking. Keep a corner of my mind that knows the negativity is just a passing season.

sure that works.

but its more about focusing on other people. if you have depression, the best thing to do is to help others. karmically it will imprint on your mind that you are helping others. this will create good seeds for the future. at the same time helping others does bring a natural sense of joy. so it is beneficial for both the present and future.

loneliness arises when focusing on self.

if you were to watch a good movie, you become literally absorbed into the movie. at certain points there is no you, because you have become the movie itself.

those are times when we are most happiest.

so when we absorb completely in action or helping others, we in turn lose ourselves and get happy.

happiness is the natural consequence of the lack of suffering and help others.