Shantideva on Happiness in All Things

Buddhism 1 Response »
Aug 212010

More on the subject of happiness, and more from Shantideva, the 8th century Buddhist poet/scholar.

Little is truly known about Shantideva’s life. His myth is basically the same old story: son of a king, renounces worldly life, becomes awakened, teaches. His renunciation is said to have been the result of having a vision of Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. A follower of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka Philosophy, Shantideva is thought to have spent most of his career at Nalanda University.

Nalanda was a Buddhist center of learning for some 770 years (427 to 1197 CE). In 1193, the university was largely destroyed by forces under the command of Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turkic Muslim. According to Wikepedia, “The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the Moguls set fire to it, sacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site.”

Shantideva wrote the book on Bodhisattvas. His Bodhicaryavatara or “A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way Of Life” is considered the sine qua non of teachings on the Bodhisattva path and is one of the foundational texts of Tibetan Buddhism.

This is from the Siksasamuccaya or “Manual of Wisdom”:

Nothing is difficult after practice. For instance even simple folk, such as porters, fishermen, and ploughmen, do not succumb to depression, though their minds are calloused with the healed scars of the many pains they have learned to bear through the course of earning their modest livings. So much more should one be cheerful in the mission to attain the incomparable state where the happiness of all beings, and the happiness of all the bodhisattvas are found.

So the ignorant attack those who injure them, and who are struck by their own bad actions, and are to die by natural death; how much more should there not be effort and endurance of pain to attack the enemies, that injure for the longest time, pilferers of the good gotten by pain, killing the condemned in hell, jailors of the prison of existence, destroying the realm of the door of exit, who cause more deadly injuries even to those well-disposed towards them, unprovoked enemies, foes firmly fixed through endless ages, sins that are our enemies; especially of those whose flanks are girded, fighting for the emancipation of the world caught prisoner by Mara’s demons.

There by practice, consciousness of sorrow and happiness becomes more and more intense. As the perception of happiness and unhappiness comes by habit; so, in all cases of unhappiness arising, we make it a habit of associating with it a feeling of happiness and the consciousness of happiness arises. The fruit of this is a contemplative mind that that finds happiness in all things.

It is said in the Pitdputra-samdgama (The Meeting of Father and Son): There is a mind of contemplation called ‘That Which Finds Happiness in All Things’; through acquiring this mind the bodhisattva is happy and feels things painful as pleasant, not painful, nor indifferent, even when subject to the tortures of hell, even when suffering a torment in human life . . .’

And why is this? For the resolve of the bodhisattva is thus: ‘May those who feed me obtain the joy of calm and tranquility; may those who protect me, who maintain me, respect me, honor me, revere me, all receive the bliss of tranquility; and may they who curse me, who afflict me, who torment me, tear me with knives until they completely sever me from life, all partake of the happiness of complete enlightenment; may they awaken the incomparable and sublime enlightenment.’

With these thoughts and actions and these aspirations the bodhisattva seeks and ensures, cherishes and multiplies the feeling of happiness in relation to all beings; and by the ripening of this course of action, touches the mind of contemplation that finds happiness in all things.

At the time when the bodhisattva has touched the mind that finds happiness in all things, at that time he becomes equanimous, not to be shaken by all the deeds of Mara. That is the sum of the matter.

Posted by David at 12:10 am Tagged with: , ,

Happy People

Buddhism No Responses »
Aug 192010

The Four Noble Truths are among the very first teachings of the Buddha. The first truth is the Truth of Suffering. However, as Lama Govinda points out “those who like to emphasize this forget that it is only half the truth.” The other half is the antithesis, the Truth of Happiness.

I have the impression that some of us don’t like this word “happiness.” We might question whether happiness is a legitimate Buddhist ideal, or even if happiness isn’t just a myth. Maybe happiness sounds too New Agey, like “feel good” dharma, too sweet and syrupy and when we hear the word happiness we immediately think of Snoopy and warm puppies. Yet, when we look at the word’s origins, we find that it means “good fortune” (1520s), and “pleasant and contented mental state” (1590s), the latter being precisely one of the goals of Buddhist practice.

The word “happiness” is connected with “hale” which in its original sense meant “whole,” “that which has also survived,” “keeping the original sense” (pardon the redundancy), and “to heal.” “Heal” is linked with “weal” and “wealth,” and with “holy,” which meant “health,” “excellent,” and “perfect.” Originally, to be “holy” meant to be whole, healthy, healed, and wealthy – to be happy.

In the Soka Gakkai, they used to talk about creating “indestructible happiness,” a rock solid condition able to withstand any suffering or adversity. “Never let life’s hardships disturb you. After all, no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages,” Nichiren once wrote.

This is not unlike the sentiments we see expressed in Taoism with its ideal of the sage who,  unperturbed and attuned to the natural rhythm and flow of life, “lets all things rise and fall, nurtures, but does not interfere, gives without demanding, and is content.”

The Buddhist term for this state of being is upekkha or equanimity, described by the American Buddhist monk, Bhikkhu Bodhi as “evenness of mind, unshakeable freedom of mind, a state of inner equipoise that cannot be upset by gain and loss, honor and dishonor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain.”

The Abhidharma-samuccaya further explains equanimity as follows:

What is equanimity? It is a mind which abides in the state of non-attachment, non-hatred, and non-deludedness coupled with assiduousness. It is quite dissimilar to a state that gives rise to emotional instability. It is a state where mind remains what is it is – a state of being calm and a spontaneous presence of mind. Its function is not to provide occasions for emotional instability.

This sounds like being healthy, whole, being holy. It sounds like a “pleasant and contented mental state” –  a state of happiness.

Enlightenment comes in many forms. Happiness is one. Enlightened people are happy, with themselves and with others. They don’t blame others when they are unhappy. They are pleasant, and careful about being harsh with their words. They don’t have complaining natures, and are usually at ease and contented, sometimes even when they are in the midst of great suffering. They engage in ethical behavior.  And they probably don’t speculate much about whether they are happy or not, but if you asked them, they’d say “Sure.”

The point is not to turn people into mellowed-out robots, rather it’s about cultivating equanimity, and if you’re working towards that and doing your best to abide in a contented and peaceful frame of mind, then you are not harsh, not arguing, not blaming, complaining and so on.

It is also not the point to turn Westerners into Asians, which I think is in the mind of some people who resist the idea of being pleasant, which is not an Asian thing at all, it is simply being pleasant. We can resist forever, and analyze this stuff to death, and while there are times when critical analysis and investigation are called for, there are also times when we just need to relax, go with the flow, and embrace a thought as simplistic and cutesy as “don’t worry, be happy.” Or “May all beings be happy.”

Earlier I mentioned Snoopy, the dog from the comic strip Peanuts. Some readers may not have been around when Snoopy’s slogan “Happiness is a warm puppy” was popular. Although I suspect that many are familiar with the Beatles’ takeoff, found on the so-called White Album, “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”

Happiness is more than a warm puppy, and yet, we can find a measure of happiness in just such a simple thing. Happiness is more than doing whatever makes us feel good, but if we are not feeling good, then we are probably not happy. Happiness is not a myth or a delusion, but a real possibility. We need a good understanding of what happiness is and what it isn’t and, this is a big one, we should know that happiness will not come unless we make an effort to obtain it. We have a right to be happy, but for some reason, we need to earn it.

Writing this, I am reminded of a guy named Biff Rose from New Orleans, a comedian and singer-songwriter (David Bowie recorded one of his songs, “Fill Your Heart”), and in particular, of a song I used to hear on Radio Free New Orleans back in the day, called “It’s Happening”: “Happy people don’t go around throwing rocks, throwing stones, calling names, breaking bones . . .” That sums up a hell of a lot of dharma.

To hear the immortal Biff Rose sing this little ditty, click on this link:

http://www.dicklecalendars.com/biffrose/itshappening.mp3

Or you can visit this Biff Rose website and look for it there.

Posted by David at 12:09 am Tagged with: , , ,

Living in Samsara

General No Responses »
Jul 162010

The Buddha accepted certain traditional Indian beliefs concerning the nature of reality, the chief one being the notion of a continuum of existence, a cycle of birth, death and rebirth called samsara.

Samsara (“going or wandering through”) was conceived as a three-layered system, consisting of arupa-dhatu (“world of immaterial form”), rupa-dhatu (“the world of form”) and karma-dhatu (“world of feeling”). The three are also referred to as arupa-loka, rupa-loka, and kama-loka – the word loka meaning world or realm as well. In samsara living beings move up and down through vertical realms (human, god-like, and hell realms), and all beings, including devas (gods, celestial beings) are trapped in this world dominated by suffering. Nothing is static – everyone is in a state of constant motion – rebirth is the mechanism of horizontal movement and karmic seeds or imprints help determine vertical movement.

It’s not important whether samsara exists in exactly this way. What is important is that samsara symbolizes the mundane, conventional world, the world of life and death, the world of suffering and problems, where all phenomena, including thoughts and feelings, rise and fall, act and react, according to the law of cause and effect.

The problem the Buddha considered was how to put an end to cyclic existence conditioned by suffering, not an end to cyclic existence itself.  In other words, he wondered if it were possible to rise above suffering. Transcend it.

The Buddha envisioned a state of life in which a person was somewhat impervious to suffering. Suffering will not, go away. Beings will always experience suffering, and yet, he believed there must be a way to minimize the impact of suffering emotionally and psychologically. The gist of the idea, not unique to Buddhism, it can be found in Taoism as well, is to take things in stride.

The 13th century Japanese Buddhist Nichiren once wrote, “Never let life’s hardships disturb you. After all, no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages . . .  Suffer what there is to suffer, enjoy what there is to enjoy. Regard both suffering and joy as facts of life . . .”

Pretty simply stated, but not always so easy to accomplish. Additionally, there is a much deeper and complex underlining system of thought that supports this process. But that’s it in a nutshell.

There are persons in some quarters who feel the concept of rising above suffering, realizing a state of life that we could call “happy”, is somehow trite, watered-down dharma, or that someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes with “feel good” philosophy.

In the Buddha’s time, it was actually a radical statement to make, this idea that one can rise above suffering. Life was hard then. Most people worked from sunup to sundown and in the East, there were no days off. They lived in a hostile environment, permeated with filth and disease, and survival on the most basic level was the major concern.

Most cultures accepted suffering but not in the same way the Buddha did. They rationalized it. You were supposed to suffer in this world and then after you die, then you would have peace, happiness. There was no escape. One of the first persons after Buddha and Lao Tzu who suggested that there was another way to look at it was the same person who wrote these words: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That revolutionary statement was the real shot heard ’round the world.

Some of the individuals who think this is just “feel good” stuff have a better way. Of course. They say, don’t worry about trying to be happy, you can be enlightened instead. They know it can be done because they have attained enlightenment. Naturally. No surprise there.

I am not sure what the difference is between the Buddhist sense of happiness and enlightenment. Classic bait and switch, is what suspect. Don’t be concerned about your problems. Unimportant stuff. Your time would be better spent trying to understand meditation techniques and the teachings as we give them. That way we can impress you with how much we know, how intelligent we are, how enlightened . . .

Look, I am not trying to suggest that there are no wool-pullers out there or folks with watered-down versions of dharma. However, I feel that in some cases they are a picture is being painted with brush strokes much too broad.  Just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it is not good dharma.

I think the key is to be able to develop some radar. Get to the place where you can sense whether it’s a sales job or not. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way, but if you get burned don’t give up on the dharma.

And definitely, absolutely, whenever anyone tells you they have attained enlightenment, run for the hills.

Chinese character for happiness

Chinese character for happiness

What is the nature of this joy? How can we touch true joy every moment of our lives? How can we live in a way that brings a smile, the eyes of love, and happiness to everyone we encounter? Use your talent to find ways to bring happiness to yourself and others—the happiness that arises from meditation and not from the pursuit of fruitless pleasure. Meditative joy has the capacity to nourish our mindfulness, understanding, and love. Try to live in a way that encourages deep happiness in yourself and others. “I vow to bring joy to one person in the morning and to help relieve the suffering of one person in the afternoon.” Ask yourself, “Who can I make smile this morning?” This is the act of creating happiness.  – Thich Nhat Hanh

Posted by David at 12:47 am Tagged with: , , ,