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Is contentment a good thing?
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
I'm beginning to think its not. What we should really seek to learn are the true sources of happiness.
In our daily lives discontentment leads to craving for more money, sex, entertainment, etc. and if we're content with what we have then we don't stive after these things so much. But at the same time if we're content with what we have we won't strive for the things that can make life better. Not just materialistically but spiritually as well. If we're in a difficult situation practicing contentment can help us deal with it, but most of the time in todays day and age we have the opportunity to change it. There's a good quote by Shantideva that relates to what I'm trying to get at:
If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?
Having contentment only really seems applicable in situations we have no control over. The serenity prayer adds another caveat that I think is missing from the Shantideva quote:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
The wisdom to know the difference. I think in our stressed out world we can become too focused on being content because we can see so clearly the negative consequences of discontentment.
This is also the first time Buddhism has been practiced in a democracy where speaking up and making a stand can actually change things externally and improve peoples lives. Getting involved in politics can be a thorny issue though.
This is where my opening statement about seeking the true sources of happiness comes in I think. We can have discontentment about our lives but if we understand that the true sources of happiness don't come from money, sex, praise, etc. but instead come from love and compassion towards others and purifying our minds then we won't be content to live in misery and instead will work to free ourselves from it but in the correct way.
This is mostly off the top of my head and so is pretty rambling, disjointed and incomplete. But I hope the basic idea comes across and I'd like to hear what others have to say.
In our daily lives discontentment leads to craving for more money, sex, entertainment, etc. and if we're content with what we have then we don't stive after these things so much. But at the same time if we're content with what we have we won't strive for the things that can make life better. Not just materialistically but spiritually as well. If we're in a difficult situation practicing contentment can help us deal with it, but most of the time in todays day and age we have the opportunity to change it. There's a good quote by Shantideva that relates to what I'm trying to get at:
If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?
Having contentment only really seems applicable in situations we have no control over. The serenity prayer adds another caveat that I think is missing from the Shantideva quote:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
The wisdom to know the difference. I think in our stressed out world we can become too focused on being content because we can see so clearly the negative consequences of discontentment.
This is also the first time Buddhism has been practiced in a democracy where speaking up and making a stand can actually change things externally and improve peoples lives. Getting involved in politics can be a thorny issue though.
This is where my opening statement about seeking the true sources of happiness comes in I think. We can have discontentment about our lives but if we understand that the true sources of happiness don't come from money, sex, praise, etc. but instead come from love and compassion towards others and purifying our minds then we won't be content to live in misery and instead will work to free ourselves from it but in the correct way.
This is mostly off the top of my head and so is pretty rambling, disjointed and incomplete. But I hope the basic idea comes across and I'd like to hear what others have to say.
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Comments
Contentment can help reduce our craving towards the causes of our suffering, however contentment towards spiritual goals and the true causes of our happiness can be a hindrance. So I think rather than trying to cultivate contentment we'd be better off trying to understand and adopt the true causes of happiness and focus on moving our minds towards those and actually cultivate discontentment at our suffering states of mind.
everything else = conditioned = brief moments of freedom = samsara
you cannot force contentment. when you are tired and sick of playing the game over and over and over again you can settle down and just accept what is. then bam contentment.
if you're content in hell then nothing can touch you.
nothing can lead to contentment. being a murder cannot lead to contentment. contentment is unconditional. thus it is just a natural outpour of a great acceptance. it doesn't mean you don't take action to benefit others or yourself, it just means your inner world is complete. if you are complete then there is an out pour to help others or yourself.
but people can hide in their contentment and just be completely passive. so just like anything else you have to learn how contentment functions. contentment by itself is empty. how do you use your contentment? for the benefit of others? or for the benefit of yourself?
all up to you.
Contentment can only be contentment when all sentient beings are content!
All of them.... every last one!
Otherwise contentment is just a pretty room with a view...
of hell.
The Secret of Happiness
One day, a man asked a Venerable,
"How is it that you are always so happy?
You have so much energy,
and you never seem to get down."
With his eyes smiling, he said,
"I know the Secret.
I'll tell you all about it,
but you have to promise to
share the Secret with others."
"The Secret is this:
All I do is live a very simple life,
keeping to the Precepts,
have some wise friends and teachers,
and enjoy nature.
A simple walk in the forest,
a simple meal,
a quiet place, that's all I need.
And yet, I have learned THAT most of the time
I don't need even half of what I think I do.
Be content, for Greed only brings PAIN.
Whether someone praise me or censure me, I am equanimous, for such is life,
we can never ever please everyone,
so just BE!
With the above thoughts,
I learned that the 'Secret' to a happy life
is NO SECRET at all.
Someone called the Buddha taught us all these 2600 years ago"
If "I WANT HAPPINESS",
JUST DROP THE "I",
THEN CEASE THE "WANT",
WHAT IS LEFT IS "HAPPINESS".
The questioner's first thought was,
"That's too simple!"
But upon reflecting over his own life,
he recalled how he thought a bigger house
would make him happy, but it didn't.
Instead it brought more payments,
more stress,
more maintainance.
He thought a better paying job
would make him happy, but it hadn't.
Instead it brought more stress.
When WAS he happy?
Sitting on the floor with family and friends,
just talking,
sharing the Dhamma,
or playing games,
eating yiu tiow or reading a story
That's happiness,
a happiness from contentment,
from having NO WANTS.
IT IS NOT THE HAPPINESS OF THE SATISFACTION OF WANTS,
BUT THE HAPPINESS OF NOT WANTING ANYTHING.
Now you know it too!
And now THAT YOU HAVE THE SECRET,
Once you get it, what will you do?
Please tell someone the Secret too.
Help a friend be happy.
sexy thang.
When there is no self, contentment constitutes the release of all sentient beings from suffering, and contentment is the contentment of all.
Also contentment is the key to deeper meditation. You can't force yourself to go deep, it comes naturally.
It's something that goes both ways. Contentment brings wisdom, wisdom brings contentment. So contentment is good, but I think we should be content about the right things. For example one could be content with meditating 5 minutes a day or whatever. Well, that won't really do much.
how does ones truth nature function? yes, one can hide in inner stillness and peace as the world crumbles around them.
but is that correct function of emptiness?
aura i understand what you are saying, but one must first find their "true nature". then out of that inner contentment compassion will automatically function (if one allows it to).
This sounds like something the Buddha might have said - without the "God" bit ;-)
Spiny
–noun, plural -cies.
1. a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.
con·tent [kuhn-tent]
–adjective
1. satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.
Yeah, I may be confusing the two. Complacency looks like contentment tainted by ignorance and a good helping of pride.
If one becomes to content in anything, then they stop growing. If it's your career and you are totally content, you are almost certainly doing less than you are capable of. If you are content in your relationship, then it's probable your relationship could be even better. And, if you're content in your spiritual life, then you probably aren't exploring and growing in it.
But you have to balance that with discontent. You don't want to be discontent all the time. Perhaps its like two steps forward and one step back. Push the envelop, but not to the point where you have pushed it too far.
Meanwhile, I can just sit outside and daydream for a few hours then go about my day feeling very happy, almost giddy.
Although helping lil old lady across the street, donatin ta temples etc can be done at this very moment know wat im sayin?
This is how to try to face all areas of my life, it leaves me content with what I have however motivated to continue.
but at the end of the day, whatever happens to my child good or bad, I will still have confidence in them.
what makes good or bad?
Things are neither bad or good. How can we possibly determine whether something is good or bad? Reality is empty of any characteristics other than the ones we project onto it. Even a good can turn into a bad and vice versa.
So while I do agree with you when it comes down to language that "attachment" is bad and that love is "good". are they really these labels? and you can just say assert that it all comes down to language and it's conventional.
But isn't that the point? As soon as we define something as such, isn't that seeing a finite representation of our minds? When
in reality there is only emptiness. If something is bad, then it is inherently bad. If it is inherently bad then it cannot change and become something else. But things do change.
Thus asserting bad or good is irrelevant unless one understands that the underlying reality is neither.
and this relates directly to contentment. with inner contentment one is just right in the middle.
if i am content, why should i care about the world? I am free! many people do hide/stay in this inner contentment, which is completely free from suffering/non suffering. but this inner contentment if we allow it overflows and because we are so full we automatically want to give it out to others. thus compassion is born. thus we can look past all the stories we have about ourselves and about other people. i am utterly complete and content, there is nothing they can do to harm this unconditional contentment. thus the bodhisattva can run into hell and be totally fine with it. the bodhisattva can hold all the worlds suffering in his/her heart and transform such suffering into compassion and love.
so it is through contentment, one can do all these great actions for the world.
we come to meditation to save ourselves from ourselves. we leave meditation wanting to save the world from themselves.
"And what is the purpose of disenchantment? What is its reward?"
"Disenchantment has dispassion as its purpose, dispassion as its reward."
"And what is the purpose of dispassion? What is its reward?"
"Dispassion has knowledge & vision of release as its purpose, knowledge & vision of release as its reward.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an11/an11.001.than.html