In several early posts, I discussed taking joy in each moment, in everything you do. I discussed the meaning of joy or happiness in the Buddhist context, how feeling the pain of others impacts taking joy in each moment, and how our past, our subconscious can impact our ability to experience joy. In these posts, joy was derived either from the task you were doing or what you were seeing/experiencing.
In a later post, I related how I came to realize that all I needed to be happy was to follow my purpose in life, which is to offer others joy and help relieve the suffering of others; be in contact with loved ones and friends; respect my body; respect my mind; be in contact with nature; and live within my means. (Not all have to be present at the same time.) And that those were things that everyone could experience regardless of the circumstance they were in if they were present free of the intervention of their thinking mind. This is generating your own happiness.
Recently while meditating, I realized further that experiencing happiness like experiencing peace and contentment is thus a choice we make, or don’t. If we are present, and if we are aware of our ego-mind arising ... two not inconsequential “if’s” ... we have a choice either to engage in its dance of death with the turmoil and suffering that inevitably will follow or allow it to subside and follow instead the teaching of the Buddha
Aware of the emptiness of all five skandhas and experiencing all things directly, with dispassion, free of labels, free of the intervention of our thinking mind, we are then in a spiritual space where we can experience the happiness that is our birthright, because we can do the things that bring us happiness free of taint.
And actually, even if you do not believe that our thoughts are all empty of intrinsic existence, that there is some reality there ... even in that circumstance ... there still is only one way to experience happiness, as there is only one way to experience peace and contentment; it's just more difficult. It is to be present and experience all things directly, free of the intervention of our thinking mind. Unless we are free of the intervention of our thinking mind, there is no end but suffering.
In a later post, I related how I came to realize that all I needed to be happy was to follow my purpose in life, which is to offer others joy and help relieve the suffering of others; be in contact with loved ones and friends; respect my body; respect my mind; be in contact with nature; and live within my means. (Not all have to be present at the same time.) And that those were things that everyone could experience regardless of the circumstance they were in if they were present free of the intervention of their thinking mind. This is generating your own happiness.
Recently while meditating, I realized further that experiencing happiness like experiencing peace and contentment is thus a choice we make, or don’t. If we are present, and if we are aware of our ego-mind arising ... two not inconsequential “if’s” ... we have a choice either to engage in its dance of death with the turmoil and suffering that inevitably will follow or allow it to subside and follow instead the teaching of the Buddha
Aware of the emptiness of all five skandhas and experiencing all things directly, with dispassion, free of labels, free of the intervention of our thinking mind, we are then in a spiritual space where we can experience the happiness that is our birthright, because we can do the things that bring us happiness free of taint.
And actually, even if you do not believe that our thoughts are all empty of intrinsic existence, that there is some reality there ... even in that circumstance ... there still is only one way to experience happiness, as there is only one way to experience peace and contentment; it's just more difficult. It is to be present and experience all things directly, free of the intervention of our thinking mind. Unless we are free of the intervention of our thinking mind, there is no end but suffering.
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