What does Buddhism teach about the nature of happiness? Human beings can experience two kinds of happiness: that which is dependent upon an external stimulus and that which is not. The first kind of happiness is experienced at its most basic level in sensual pleasure: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching agreeable things. It also includes the positive emotions we experience through personal relationships, worldly accomplishment and social status. The second kind of happiness is known through spiritual development. Meditators experience the zest and bliss that arise in a focused mind as unquestionably superior to pleasures dependent upon the grosser senses. But refined meditative states do not constitute the highest happiness. It is in the gradual abandonment of toxic mental states— the root cause of suffering— that the practitioner discovers a stable and sublime sense of well-being. It is considered a higher kind of happiness in being experienced as a natural expression of the cultivated mind, rather than as a transient experience subject to gain and loss. Lay Buddhists are encouraged to pursue worldly happiness compatible with access to inner happiness in moderation; but to relinquish indulgence in worldly pleasures that turn the mind away from spiritual cultivation. - Ajahn Jayasaro
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 00:37:37 +0000
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