As part of my personal "happiness project", I have identified the Dalai Lama as my spiritual leader and am reading The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. I am almost finished with it and recommend it to my blog followers. I like the book, in part, because, in addition to the words from the Dalai Lama, the other author, a psychologist, asks questions Western thinkers/seekers would ask and interprets many of the Buddhist principles through a Western mind-science lens. In light of what happened in Colorado this Friday, it's important to take time to slow down and embrace the life we have, right now.
I just opened the book to a random page (p. 39) and so I will share this with you: "...for instance, in the case of everyday experiences, if there are experiences you do not desire, then the best method for ensuring that the event does not take place is to make sure that the casual conditions that normally give rise to the event no longer arise. Similary, if you want a particular event or experience to occur, then the logical thing to do is to seek and accumulate the causes and conditions that give rise to it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dalai_Lama_1430_Luca_Galuzzi_2007crop.jpg
So, for this week, are you willing to think about the events you want to occur and how to cultivate the circumstances for them to happen? And conversely, are you willing to weed out the conditions that cause things that happen which cause you stress or unhappiness?
For me, I am making a conscious choice to compliment a stranger each day: today, at Starbucks, I told a woman I liked the color of her hair. She smiled, surprised and I smiled back. Also for today, with so much grey outside (ongoing rain showers) and inside (ongoing news of the Colorado shootings), I did not buy a NY Times and limited CNN time to right now: waiting to hear our President speak wise words to the nation.
The Dalai Lama believes that "the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness." Do you share that belief, and if not (yet), can you be willing to act as if you do? Not easy, but worth trying, I am learning.
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2 comments:
Hi Anita, I like your post today. I shall put that book on my reading list. I like to think that happiness is the purpose of this life. This subject of course could be followed with hours of discussion. Take care then...onward towards happiness!
Thanks for the thoughtful post, Anita. Yesterday, the BBC reported that gun permit applications exceeded 3,000 in Colorado since the weekend. Such is the impact of fear.
I recently took a wonderful workshop with Frank Jude Boccio and Bruce Bowditch. He has a different take on happiness that made a lot of sense to me...a snippet from his blog:
"And, to rectify mis-understandings, duhkha is NOT "suffering" and the Buddha did not say "Life is suffering." He said "there is duhkha." Face it! Though mental anguish is duhkha, that is not all it is! Duhkha is the fact that sometimes you lose what you like; you get what you don't like. Duhkha is the simply fact that happiness is not to be found in circumstances!"
Looking forward to more posts! g
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