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If emotions can be preconditioned, how real is happiness?

mossmoss
edited May 2011 in Buddhism Basics
Hi, total beginner here, what I want to know is, if emotions can be preconditioned, if they are conditioned responses, how real is happiness?

Comments

  • TiaPTiaP
    Define what you mean by "real"? The chair I'm sitting on right now feels pretty real, but at some point in time it'll be a pile of dust. Doesn't make it any less real (and useful, and comfortable too) right now :)

  • SpinyNorman2SpinyNorman2
    Hi, total beginner here, what I want to know is, if emotions can be preconditioned, if they are conditioned responses, how real is happiness?
    I think happiness is often a very fragile experience because it IS so conditioned.

    Spiny
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Happiness is a fundamental state.
    you can still know "Happiness" even though you are experiencing a sad situation.
    You can still entertain anger, while residing in a Happy condition.

    In other words, my PoV is that we need to cultivate Good Emotions until they become nature.
    We need to regard the negative emotions as those we need to disperse and eventually transcend.
  • SpinyNorman2SpinyNorman2
    In other words, my PoV is that we need to cultivate Good Emotions until they become nature.
    It feels more complicated than that to me. Isn't one of these good emotions acceptance and compassion towards ourselves? And if this is the case, don't we also need to accept the negative emotions we experience?

    Spiny

  • santhisouksanthisouk Veteran
    Happiness is part of life, and life is ever-changing, thus happiness will change. When we are lost and in search for it, we are not realizing that its within us, and with us all the time. We need not search for it too hard. When it comes to us, we have a tendency to cling on to it, and its this clinging that makes us long for it and in search for it, when actually, all we have to do is find peace within our self. Once we do that, we can be happy every time we reflect on our "self". I hope this is not too confusing.

    with metta
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    .....Isn't one of these good emotions acceptance and compassion towards ourselves? And if this is the case, don't we also need to accept the negative emotions we experience?
    Yes.... We can accept that we experience negative emotions.

    We don't have to accept that we will always have to experience them wholeheartedly, and in an unchanged way.

    That I have a limp, is inevitable.
    That I let it tarnish my attitude to my leg, my ability to move freely, and my limited choice of foot apparel, is changeable.

  • EpicurusEpicurus
    edited May 2011
    It's all in the definition of happiness. Buddhism aims for Inner Peace.

    Everything in this world is conditioned. Even Nirvana. The sustainability (which I'm assuming is what you mean by real) of such a state is not a linear exercise. It's done on several fronts inside your mind. Your mind is a system, and it takes a lot of conditions to make a whole system change. But at a fundamental level it's still done through conditioning. It still obeys the laws of cause and effect.

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    moss, you can un-condition yourself, and re-condition yourself. That's how Buddhism works, it's a method for doing that. That's what mindfulness and meditation are for, the 8fold path, and the rest of the teachings. You de-condition your negative emotions and reactions, and cultivate wisdom and compassion. That works to gradually turn you into a happy person.
  • 10jellis10jellis
    Agreed.
  • mossmoss
    If emotions can be preconditioned, how real is happiness?
    I suppose what I mean by real is, it seems that the conditioning of emotions is done by yourself, the witness of those emotions. That the emotions are a chemical part of your bodily make up. I guess I find the split confusing. Is the mind the witness and can the mind have happiness without the chemical bodily reactions?
    I've been thinking about this because I have suffered from depression, and one of the ways that I've been taught to deal with it is to look clinically and dispassionately at the emotion so as to remove yourself from it - it works. That has made me wonder how "real" happiness is, or maybe more to the point what is actual happiness? Is there another level.
  • mossmoss
    Sorry, specifically "is to look clinically and dispassionately at the emotion", it was to look at the thoughts that create the emotions... not the emotions themselves, but the seperation is still there.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    They may not be anymore "real" than any of our negative emotions, Nirvana is described as peace not happiness, but until we reach Nirvana wouldn't it be better to be happy?

    The methods we use to escape from our negative emotions are said to be just as illusion like as the rest of samsara but they still lead us to the peace of liberation.

    So I guess its an interesting intellectual question but does it really matter for our experience of life?
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