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When it comes to Dharma what is happiness and is it any different from contentment ?

ShoshinShoshin No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
in General Banter

Kia Ora,

When it comes to Dharma what is happiness and is it any different from contentment?

Are they both just byproducts of Dharma practice ?

Metta Shoshin :)

namarupa

Comments

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    While are very appealing, both are best related to as just another phenomena that should be allowed their own birth, life and death, free from our manipulative inclinations.

    Shoshinnamarupayagr
  • 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

    I have always seen it like this:
    Pleasure, Happiness, Contentment, Serenity and finally, Transcendence.
    Like the steps that lead to the podium, each leads to the other. We traverse them, but don't necessarily leave them behind for good....

    ShoshinlobsternamarupaJeffrey
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    @Shoshin said:
    Kia Ora,

    When it comes to Dharma what is happiness and is it any different from contentment?

    Are they both just byproducts of Dharma practice ?

    Metta Shoshin :)

    They are by products. They are different. Contentment is close to equanimity and the Middle way. Happiness is an assessment of a condition. You can be content with unhappiness as a temporary arising just like with happiness.

    namarupaShoshinBuddhadragonJeffrey
  • namarupanamarupa Veteran
    edited June 2014

    There are many forms of happiness. The end of suffering is one. Happiness is subtle in nature, in may exist within contentment and vice-versa. People will often misunderstand what true happiness is, because it can be a part of everything. It is one of the things that is difficult to put in words.

    ShoshinBuddhadragon
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran
    edited June 2014

    @lobster said:
    Contentment is close to equanimity and the Middle way. Happiness is an assessment of a condition. You can be content with unhappiness as a temporary arising just like with happiness.

    The problem with happiness is that, by the natural laws of change and thermodynamics, it will sooner or later turn into its opposite. And viceversa again and again.
    You consider yourself happy until affliction strikes, and then you feel utterly miserable, and you're totally blind to the fact that happiness could or should include acceptance of affliction in order to be a perfectly functional definition.
    That's why I prefer "Contentment." As @lobster said above, it's closer to equanimity and has a more Middle Way ring to it.
    No new-agey artificial paradise, rather a neutral pledge to ourselves, not to let either good fortune or bad fortune disrupt our inner peace.
    And this inner peace is a by-product or rather the result of Dharma.

    howShoshin
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