Spirit Online

June 7, 2009

Quote

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost. ~Dalai Lama

Thoughts

          On a scale of 1 to10, how happy are you? What would it take for you to feel happier than you are feeling right now? Buddhists believe that every living creature has the same basic wish – to be happy and to avoid suffering.  The very mission, purpose and movement of life is that we are all seeking happiness.  Since the beginning of time, every human being has been searching, knocking, hunting, asking and looking for happiness.  But Buddhists also believes that many of the ways we go about looking for happiness are flawed.  Happiness is so often fleeting because it’s like the old country song: we’re “looking for love (and happiness) in all the wrong places.” 

          His holiness, the Dalai Lama says in his book The Art of Happiness, “You do not need any more money; you do not need great success or fame.  You do not need a perfect body or a perfect partner to be happy.  At this very moment, we all possess a mind, which is the basic equipment we all need to experience complete and total happiness.” 

          Buddhists say that we are each born with a certain base level of happiness and certain successes or tragedies will elevate or depress our happiness for a while, but eventually, we return to that level of happiness we were born with.  Moment by moment happiness is largely determined by our attitude.  Our happiness is not based on our conditions, but rather on how we perceive our situation and how satisfied we are with what we have.  Buddhists believe that we can all transform our lives and the key lies in training our minds.  Quality of life does not depend on outer development or material progress, but our inner development of peace and happiness.  Without inner peace, our peace is not possible.  The mind is the key.  And in learning how to train our minds, we learn to achieve a greater sense of peace, happiness and contentment.

          This is the second week of our four week series, “Many Paths, One God.” No one religion has a full comprehension of the awe, the mystery and the magnificence of God. God is bigger than any one religion: bigger that Christianity, bigger than Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam.   The different religions can be thought of as being like the five blind men who examined and reached conclusions about five different parts of an elephant; each religion has a different understanding of an aspect of God. If we desire a fuller experience of God, if we want to get closer to the answers to our many questions about God, we listen to and learn from other religions.  This week we’re looking at the truths and wisdom of Buddhism.

          Buddhism has its roots in the life of Siddhartha Gautama, born in the 6th century BCE in southern Nepal. The Buddha-to-be had a pampered existence, but at the age of 29, had a strong desire to experience enlightenment and so went out to live a life of self-denial, discipline and meditation, during which he did achieve enlightenment and freedom from suffering.  After his enlightenment, the Buddha, “the Awakened One” wanted others to experience what he had; the Buddha wanted others to be liberated from lives of suffering.  The two doctrines Buddha taught were:

 The Four Noble Truths

1.      Life is suffering (life is full of the pleasures and pains of the body and mind – pleasures do not represent lasting happiness)

2.      Suffering is caused by craving (for sense pleasures and for things to be as they are not.  We don’t want what is and we crave what we don’t have)

3.      Suffering can end (mind can liberate us)

4.      There is a means to that end (the eight-fold path)...

The Eightfold Path(the Wheel of Dharma)

1.      Right views (the Four Noble Truths)

2.      Right intention

3.      Right speech

4.      Right action

5.      Right livelihood

6.      Right endeavor

7.      Right mindfulness (Total Concentration in Activity)

8.      Right concentration (Meditation) 

          By following the Eight-fold Path, Buddhists believe that anyone is capable of achieving enlightenment or Nirvana.  The way to follow the Path is to practice. The two principles of the practice are first: a motivation to do your best.  Wake up every day saying, “I know this life won’t last so I am going to make the best of it - I am going to live each and every day in a meaningful way.”  Second is discipline: learn what to do and then do it every day---you don’t just brush your teeth one morning and then you’re good to go for the rest of the year. Our spiritual development is an unfoldment, a long-term project.

          With motivation and discipline in mind, there are three broad categories of practice in Buddhism to train our mind.  First, is the need to develop a daily pattern and practice of quieting the mind.  When you have a stable, positive and calm mind, all the situations of your life will be better handled.  The first part of the daily practice of quieting the mind is being more aware of your thoughts.  With daily practice, you get two minds: the thinker and the observer.  Most of us have a mind that wanders during meditation: we think about our hurting back, what we’ll have for dinner, that our boss was such a jerk last Friday.  When the thinker is in full swing, the way to bring the observer in is to just allow the thoughts; don’t resist, label or judge them.  Observe your thoughts, then let them go.  After a while, through observation, you will understand what thoughts increase your peace and happiness and which thoughts do not.  You will learn to give more energy to the thoughts that increase the peace and to starve the thoughts that do not.  A daily practice of quieting the mind can be as simple as observing the breath, body or emotions.  Online, under “Buddhist Meditations,” there are literally hundreds of great meditations to quiet the mind.

          The second part of training the mind is cognitive intervention. Cognitive intervention is when we challenge someone in order to call them higher. In Buddhist practice we do this cognitive intervention on ourselves.  When we’re running through our whole crazy litany of wrong-headed, negative thoughts, we catch ourselves, stop the thought, put a higher thought in its place—change the channel, if you will.  If you find yourself stewing about this and that, ask yourself, “Are these thoughts helping me to experience peace and happiness?”  Ask, “Are these thoughts true or are they just a story I’m telling myself? Do I need to be thinking these thoughts or are there others that would be a better choice?” Call yourself on your “stinkin’ thinkin.’”  God wants you to think better, worthier thoughts.

          The final part of Buddhist practice to train the mind is to cultivate compassion.  Buddhists believe that cultivating compassion makes you less fearful, opens you to feel more connected, creates more intimacy and expands your awareness and your consciousness.  When people look at films of Mother Theresa, their immune factor increases significantly---people become healthier just by watching others be compassionate.  We might think that looking out for our own happiness is selfish, but being happy makes you more generous, compassionate and forgiving.  Your being happy is an important spiritual practice, and the inverse is true too: cultivating compassion makes you more happy.  Buddhists have a word, sutwa, which means wishing good upon one’s self.  To cultivate compassion, we first wish good upon ourselves, then our loved ones and then expand those wishes for good to every living thing.  If there is anyone with whom you’re presently challenged, ask yourself, “Do I have the courage to wish that person well in their lives and to release them from their suffering?”  When we open our hearts, we also open our minds.

          This week consider: How happy am I?  How happy am I willing to be?

          Buddhism offers practical steps to help us help ourselves in transforming our minds and our lives if we have the discipline and the willingness to do the work.  Applying the incredible spiritual insights of Buddhism:  1. Take time each day to quiet your mind and develop the observer and its awareness. 2. Use cognitive intervention to turn around your stinking thinking.  3. Cultivate compassion; think good things about yourself, then expand it to your loved ones, then to every living thing.  With the motivation to live life to its fullest every day and the discipline to practice every day, we can master the “art of happiness.” 

          God bless you all!   

Prayer

(from a Buddhist prayer):

May I become a bridge and a ship for all those who want to cross the water.  May I become an island for all those who seek one.  May I become a lamp for all those desiring light.  May I be a bed for all those seek rest and may I be a hand for all those who need help. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, and so it is,
Amen and Amen.

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