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"I Want Happiness"
Toraldris
-`-,-{@ Zen Nud... Buddhist @}-,-`- East Coast, USA Veteran
Ran across this image I saved on my hard drive, and thought I'd mess around since I've been learning Java programming. This is just a little thing I threw together for apparently NO good reason:
/* Nothing fancy, just named it Happiness.java... (Aldris Torvalds) */
class Man {
private String text;
public String getText() { return this.text; }
public void setText(String input) { this.text = input; }
public Man() { this.text = ""; }
}
public class Happiness {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Man johnDoe = new Man();
// A man once told The Buddha "I Want Happiness".
johnDoe.setText("I Want Happiness");
System.out.println(johnDoe.getText());
// The Buddha replied, "First remove 'I', that's ego."
johnDoe.setText(johnDoe.getText().replace("I ", ""));
System.out.println(johnDoe.getText());
// "Then remove 'want', that's desire."
johnDoe.setText(johnDoe.getText().replace("Want ", ""));
// "And now all you're left with is Happiness."
System.out.println(johnDoe.getText());
}
}
3
Comments
But the question arises - if there is no 'I' in the end, then whether in the end remains happiness or sadness, what difference does it make - after all, there is no 'I' in the end to be happy with happiness or to be sad with sadness?
Reside in a blissful state no matter what.
We look for happiness in all the wrong places, aka outside, and fail to realize that we are already happiness.
That doesn't seem to be the question. All this "I" stuff is just metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. The fact is that there's suffering... that much we've agreed upon or we wouldn't be here... and the question is "can that suffering be alleviated?". And, again, I think we've agreed on the answer!
You already have it...
Light switch.
Bravo on the coding. I hope this won't make you unhappy but I think that may be a pseudo quote outside the official dogma. Not that it matters.
An easy thing to do with programming is similar to cyber prayer wheels. For example the java equivalent of this in BASIC:
. . . who said GOTO is bad programming style . . . pah!
. . . m m m I have a JavaScript (not the same as Java) implementation on my ipad . . . I have a use for it . . . H a p p i n e s s here comes Nothing . . .
@lobster Like the Buddha said: "don't believe everything you read on the internet". I just thought it was a good quote!
The coding is really simple/basic, the kinda stuff you'd know after reading a couple chapters in a beginner's Java programming book (which happens to be exactly what I've done, HA!). All it does is create a "Man" object, assign to it the text "I Want Happiness" (and print), and then modify the string in the same order the "Buddha" advises, printing out the new value each time.
This is the simple output of the compiled/run program:
Here's a couple useful resources:
Learn Java -- https://www.udacity.com/course/cs046
Learn JavaScript -- http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/javascript
@AldrisTorvalds understood
wrote, well modified some code, however not able to test without an FTP Account or maybe when I use my real computer.
Here is my untested web page, with code . . . theoretically should print mantra 108 times
<!DOCTYPE html>
<
script>
while (i<109)
{
x=x + "OM MANI PEME HUM" + i + "
";
i++;
}
(I'm in a fog again.... said the world's worst techno-fudge-wit....and then some...)
@federica I'm so sorry I'll probably be putting you in the fog a lot, ever since I started learning programming I've just fallen in love with it. This surely won't be the only general banter post where I throw up some code, and then other people throw code in too!
@lobster I basically would do this for the same effect, though I'm not far along in my JavaScript:
<script>var i = 0;
while(i < 109) { document.write("OM MANI PEME HUM<br>"); i += 1; }
</script>
I'm not even far enough in my JavaScript to know that var++ works to increment the same as in C++! I'll be concentrating more on Java so I may never finish the JavaScript stuff.
apologies to federica . . . this is what 'dharma dogma' sounds like to beginners . . .
@AldrisTorvalds I tried to use the Markdown button and used the code display option but did not work/display too well . . . we needs help from our resident vanilla forum coder . . .
Will load a Linux machine and see if my code and yours works later. I am sure yours does.
I am a lousy programmer but love programming. Strange eh. Ah of course, we can provide as pic - not ideal as no access to text . . . even so . . . enclosed code within HTML
@lobster I tested mine by throwing it in an HTML file (tried testing yours, but something didn't work, EDIT: fixed in next post!).
When you need to show greater-than and less-than signs to show up right when you post code (<code> btw), I found that you need to use "<" and ">" each followed by a semicolon to do it. Thank goodness for Google, that's all I can say.
Also found out all you need is the <html> at the beginning and </html> at the end (and of course the script tags), without all the head/title/body stuff or even the DOCTYPE thing, and it still works.
So something simple like this would work:
<html><script>
document.write("Hello World!");
</script>
</html>
@lobster Managed to get your code working, with a couple fixes.
First declare and initialize your variables before the loop:
var i = 0;var x = "";
Then print after the loop:
document.write(x);...and this is your output:
you are ahead of me, the inability to just add text without modifying code was too much.
I got the code working a different way, part of which might display below.
Many thanks
var i=1 while (i<=108) { document.write("OM MANI PEME HUM may all at NewBuddhisst Be Well and Happy" + i) document.write("<br />") i=i+1 }Well Java-loop this, smart-ass;
phukk off.
(I'm kidding.
...)
nice work on the coding. Personnaly i found that quote a bit quizicle. To remove 'want' seems obvious because wanting something doesn't necessarily bring the deep satisfaction of having something. And only makes sure that the person finds himself in a constant spiral of greed and wanting. But removing the 'I'...if you remove that how can you speak of happiness on your person if your let go of the idea of a self, then how are you happy if there is no you anymore? Are you 'happiness' embodied? is that what it means, and you shine happiness outwards without knowing that you actually are happy?
of couse i understand to let go of the 'want' you need to let go of the 'i', but it would seem if you let go of the 'i'. How or when can you say: I am happy?
@Cobaltsword It means letting go of the false conception of "I", obviously "you" (whatever you are) would still exist. I don't know why people get all metaphysical about it and turn it into paradoxes...
Maybe people just need longer exposure to Buddhist ideas before it clicks for everyone.
Fair enough. Maybe it's just me overthinking stuff like this. Perhaps i do need to delve more into buddhism before it clicks ^^ that's what i'm here for.
@lobster You can compress it even further by including the increment as an "i++" while concatenating the strings, and also add the line-break.
<html><source>
var i=1;
while(i<=108) {document.write(i++ +" OM MANI PEME HUM may all at NewBuddhist Be Well and Happy<br>");
</source>
</html>
It ain't exactly pretty, but it works! Here's the output:
Oooor you could make it a countdown, and get rid of one of the numbers entirely, by changing those two lines:
var i=108;while(i>0) {document.write(i-- +" OM MANI PEME HUM may all at NewBuddhist Be Well and Happy<br>");}
Which would give you:
ANYWAY, I'M GOING TO SLEEP NOW! GOOD NIGHT NB AND @lobster!
@Cobaltsword, There's a concept of duality....
Some people refer to it as Self/Not-Self.
The simplest way I can explain it, is for you to look at your armchair.
What is it?
Well, it's a damn armchair, of course.
Ok. carefully remove the cover/fabric.
Put it on the floor.
There may be a second layer of fabric, known as ticking. This is to contain all the stuffing.
Remove that, and put it on the floor.
Now, carry on, removing each component of the arm chair until you have several piles of different materials; floral cover, ticking, stuffing, springs, and every different piece of the wooden frame.
Now?
Jumble them all up together into a mess, in your huge, giant sized blender.
Tip the mixture out.
Is it still an armchair?
No.
All the components are still there.
But even though you can identify wood, stuffing, ticking... they're all separate entities....
So it is with you.
You are your 'Self'.
But you're also not-self.
If (heaven forbid) you lose an arm in an accident - are you any the less 'Cobaltsword'...?
Ok, hopefully we've scratched the surface there, but there's more depth to it than that. (Of course there is, you didn't really think it would be that simple, do you?? There's also the matter of the separate senses, how they interact, what 'arises' first, and so on. Don't worry about that for now....!)
There's also the minor matter of 'Co-Dependent Arising, or Dependent Origination.
Put very simply, it's a question asked in Zen (called a Koan):
"If a tree falls in a forest, and there is no-one there to witness it, does it still make a noise?"
This is a question some might interpret as a teaching of Dependent Origination.
For something to be evident, there has to be someone there to see the evidence.
It cannot 'be' unless you make it 'be'. And if you do not make it 'be', then it isn't.
This is particularly good when wondering how emotions can arise and overwhelm 'you'. (You generic, not you specific).
If you feel anger, do not permit anger to arise, if you refuse to be present to the anger.
Maybe that's labouring the point....
my thinking says: when 'I' is gone, then other is gone, so samsara is gone, so nirvana is also gone - what is there left can't be said, because to say something, needs 'I' at the first place.
@AldrisTorvalds many thanks for code improvements.
You seem to have the programming bug
I have booted up Puppy Linux to play with the code a little
I am unable to comment re Java script @ArvisTorvalds..but I guarantee you 100% that those words attributed to the Buddha are completely bogus.
How do you view those codes? Nice quote.. I question the author though.
@Citta Of course they are, as I've said earlier in the thread. It's the content that I found useful, not the author (and it hardly matters if someone did say the Buddha said it... every single Buddhist tradition says their texts came from the Buddha, no matter how varied).
Also that's not JavaScript (the bits that @lobster and I were working on were... but the initial program is just Java). You'd need the Java Development Kit installed (and added to your PATH) in order to put that text in "Happiness.java", compile with "javac Happiness.java", and run with "java Happiness", which is a lot of work to go to since all the program does is print these three lines:
I Want Happiness
Want Happiness
Happiness
It's the internal process of removing "I" and then "Want" that was following along with the meme.
If I had uploaded Man.class and Happiness.class, the compiled "bytecode" files, you could've put them in a directory and run (java Happiness), since most computers have Java already installed (just not the JDK for compiling).
@wangchuey It would be a bit of trouble for no appreciable return (see above post). However if you wanted to learn Java programming, then it might be worth getting the JDK and also following one of the links I provided earlier in this discussion...
Here's where to download the Java Development Kit (currently 8u55): http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=otnjp
Optionally at the same site, you can get JDK bundled with "NetBeans", a popular IDE/GUI that helps you write, compile and test more efficiently.
Elsewhere, you can get the JDK bundled with "BlueJ", a more beginner-friendly IDE that goes along with the Java programming course from my earlier post: http://www.bluej.org/
I don't know much about it, but there's also a program called "Greenfoot" that might make learning Java even easier for anyone completely new to programming (it's a graphical approach): http://www.greenfoot.org/overview
You're welcome. Yeah I do seem to have the bug...
"I Want Happiness"
@AldrisTorvalds
A small submission from Howard's heresies.
I think** wanting** happiness is either an oxymoron or the evidence of how different each of our definitions of happiness probably are.
Because In my world where I have yet to see a "want" that doesn't eventually feed sufferings cause, real happiness is better defined as the transcendence of wants.
I think that the teachers who recommend the fostering of a "want" towards happiness are really offering comfort & hope in the place of happiness..
@how Or more simply, the wanting itself is the cause of unhappiness. A void to be filled. Happiness is the state of temporarily filling that void... but it never lasts. So happiness, thus defined, isn't the solution. That's where the Four Noble Truths come in.
We turn our mind's eye to the real problem, desire/thirst, and see why it keeps pestering us and making us feel unfulfilled and frustrated with life. There's nothing wrong with life, only how we respond to it.
@AldrisTorvalds Thank for all that info, and the links..
metta
xx you guys
I think I am being reprogrammed . . .
The I is not the skhandas and it is ungraspable. It is mirror like awareness where everything appears in it without affecting the mirror.
The yoga cara has 8 level of consiousness. The six senses including mind. That is traditional of the early Buddhism.
The 7th level is the manos consciousness and it causes all the problems with the constructed I.
The 8th level I think is what is reborn and it is the seeds from which all beings arise.
The 7th level is transformed during practice. The 7th level does not disappear rather it is transformed into something else.
Ok now time to make a video game of Buddhism.. "Level Up" "more powers
"