There's a lot of rhetoric about Buddhism and happiness that doesn't sit well with me. I find Buddhism being marketed (not necessarily by Buddhists) as a way to achieve happiness. I suppose that's an improvement on the old rap, which was that Buddhism was all about having to suffer, but it's still mighty glib.
This is not to say that I'm against happiness, or that I'm not generally a happier person because of practice. But you have to be more specific about what you mean by "happiness." I have observed that what passes for "happiness" most of the time is just another layer of delusion.
If you pay close attention, you might notice that those who most loudly insist they are happy, who habitually make assertively extroverted displays of happiness -- aren't really happy.
Here in the West, happiness -- or an appearance of happiness, anyway -- is such a strong cultural expectation that to admit one is not happy is admitting to a kind of personal failure. So people wrap themselves in whatever they think is supposed to bring happiness and then suppress the little voice telling them it's not working.
Of course, it depends on how you define happiness. Come to think of it, it's a tad hard to define. When we say we are happy, do we mean we are satisfied or content? Do we mean we are experiencing pleasurable emotions? Do we mean nothing is hassling us at the moment?
Ken McLeod, a teacher in the Tibetan Kagyu tradition, questions whether happiness is a goal of Buddhism, or of life. "...the desire for happiness itself is a form of suffering," he says, "as it leads us to struggle with experience." Instead of directly and fully experiencing, we filter experiences through the judgment of whether they are making us happy.
Relating to life that way is exactly the opposite of equanimity. The pursuit of happiness makes people slaves to their cravings, chasing one thing after another that promises happiness, unable to be in the moment with what is.
Pema Chodron defines happiness as being "At home with yourself in your world. Not separating yourself from others. Not hardening your heart, or your mind to others, or to the world." This is not the popular understanding of "happiness." It certainly doesn't have anything to do with a "pursuing."
Very nice article. I agree that that many folks are pushing this aspect of Buddhism, probably because of the perception that Buddhism dwells on the negitive. I have a issue of “Buddhadharma” siting in front of me that has an article by Thich Nhat Hanh on “Make this moment the most wonderful experience of your life” that I consider a fine example of this trend.
As I’ve gotten more experience on this path I’ve come to realize how important equanimity is to becoming whole. Without equanimity I have found it impossible to fully have compassion for myself and others. Compassion requires acceptance/love-metta for the world as it is.
I’ve also noticed in my jhana practice that as I grow more experienced and skillful in reaching and staying in these states that the mind now prefers the “higher” jhanas based upon equanimity over the “lower” states based upon sukha/happiness. A constant state of happiness is actually very painful.
Here’s the secular definition of happiness
Happiness is $75K
Spot on. I covered the same topic from a different venue here:
http://mumonno.blogspot.com/2010/08/can-we-be-happy-should-we-be-happy.html
I think the big problem is that people confuse happy with pleasure.
In Kadampa Buddhism happiness is defined as a peaceful state of mind. It resides exclusively in the mind and never in anything or anywhere outside the mind. The latter is subject to decay due to impermanence and hence transitory. If happiness is to be viewed as a permanent state of being, then nothing in the external world can be its cause. How to obtain a peaceful state of mind is what Buddhism is all about. For starters, let’s focus on non-attachment.
When people realised I suffered depression I got frustrated with one loving person who kept saying nobody could be happy all the time. I wanted to explain I didn’t seek gleeful joy, or overtly happy experiences, just freedom from the colourless, drained, disinterested fog of my life – in a sense freedom from worrying about happiness. As well as medication and cognitive behavioural therapy (which you make me realise is at a deeper level about learning to live in the moment)ound huge healing in walking in parks and learning to look at the details of nature around me. I used to think contentment was the closest to describe it, but ‘eqanimity’ is even closer. Thankyou for a beautiful and thoughtful article.
JDownw — I feel for you. I’ve been where you’ve been. I hope you’re staying in the light, so to speak.
I used to look for happiness in sensory pleasure such as music, alcohol, and so forth. It was always a “merry”-go-round of craving and disappointment. I tried to put happy experiences on like a coat but stayed cold and wet no matter what. Now sober, celibate, not listening to music, and only watching educational shows on tv, my practice and study of Dharma keeps me happier than any chasing of external “pleasures”. It’s like finding a crystal clear spring inside that delivers a steady stream of cool refreshing nourishment that is based on freedom of mind instead of chasing the external. — JDownw, I have been through some serious depressive periods. My last episode was this past spring for about 6 weeks, and I needed a good medication change to get out of it. Dharma made it many times more tolerable than when I was younger, at which time medication was not able to overcome my untamed mind. Recovery, as well as Dharma practice itself, is like planting a tree. It really takes a good while to grow and become strong, but keep nourishing it steadily for a good result.
Basically, we say a lot about ‘happiness’ in Nichiren buddhism, as practiced by the SGI. We discuss ‘relative happiness’, which is dependent on others, or financial circumstances, competition, or even amongst competing desires within us and ‘absolute happiness’, which always comes from within and is not dependent on anything but on the state of enlightenment which will never be defeated by anything arising in our environment or within our own capacity to let desires or lower states of life rule our existence.
cheers
Happiness; grief; joy; sorrow; emotions that flow along they come and they go and being content in the midst … equanimity … resting in the midst of it is simple if I am willing.. there is much insight in the words above by everyone…
Nice article.
Our buddha nature is one, not two. Happiness has two side of the coin. It includes the element of differentiation. We need to drop stubborness (clinging), differentiation and wondering mind before we can achieve enlightenment. Even equanmity needs to let go. Letting go is necessary to achieve enlightenment….
I believe this is why Trunpga Rinpoche attempted to teach his students to focus on “cheerful” instead of “happy” (for example, he would use, “Cheerful Birthday!”). You can be cheerful no matter what the circumstance.
Good and bad, happy and sad,
All thoughts vanish into emptiness
Like the imprint of a bird in the sky.
This is the vivid mind of Rangjung Dorje,
Whom now I supplicate.
– from the Sadhana of Mahamudra
If we substitute ‘enlightenment’ for ‘happiness’ in the above piece, do the observations remain valid, and if not, why not?
In Zen, one of the first things you’re taught is not to make “enlightenment” an object to pursue. It’s already here; you just have to get out of its way.
Happiness is simply the satisfaction of a momentary desire, hence the reason no one can be truly happy all the time. The delusion that this can be so is what drags one deeper into suffering and depression. However through dedicated meditation and constant practice of the “dhamma” it is possible to achieve a higher state, a state of bliss that with continued dedication will never abandon you.
Wow! “a state of bliss that with continued dedication will never abandon you…” I remember once early on (maybe a couple of years into training I was just so ‘happy’ ‘blissed out’ regardless of what was going on around me… I told my teacher what great progress I was making … she almost snickered but simply said ‘this to shall pass’ … which i strongly doubted … but alas it passed … thank god.
So with the discourse and reflection can anyone answer ” what is happiness”. I thought I was happy till I read that it’s some blissed out thing to be experienced, something that was to create bad poetry, told that it is momentary and can’t be long lasting, some kind of light to be enveloped in. Am still happy, but now don’t know how to speak of it. Seems like my happiness will leave me in a nanosecond or I’ll have to grasp it for it to be happiness.
After all this nonsense, what is “happiness” and for seekers what should they be searching for?
This is a good article, but it doesn’t have any teeth.
when one asks what is “happiness”. How could any person other than oneself determine what is their happiness! Talking about what dharma says is happiness is a waste of time, as it is just some standard and not some universal understanding. Sure it is meant to be universally benevolent, but not all understand, so I ask again…”what is happiness”. Make it plain and understood by everyone. We say that everyone wants happiness, but we only understand that through our definition of happiness, what do others really want and need? Do they really want a good heart, compassion, patience, loving kindness or is that just our projection on the human condition.
Who determines what happiness is and what is the measure of it ? Is there a gauge for it or some judgemental standard. Can we say we have it, is it debatable ? My questions will say I am not a happy camper, but is that in any way true of my condition ? Does anyone know or like usual is it just projecting ?
What the hell does ” happiness” mean ? It’s almost impossible to explain.
From a Mahayana perspective it is empty, as all phenomena are empty. It has no intrinsic existence; all designations are arbitrary. So, no one can say what it “is.” The question at hand is not so much “what is happiness”? But “how do we relate to it?” with the understanding that to speak of a “relationship” already is a separation. So it’s a clumsy question, but it’s the best I can do.
To respond to another comment about states of perpetual bliss — most schools of Buddhism consider even bliss to be dukkha. The various schools of Buddhism explain “enlightenment” differently, but nobody I know of pushes the idea that to be enlightened means achieving some state of perpetual bliss.
via Zen/Advaita teacher Adyashanti, happiness is not-wanting
I like to enjoy something I might call “clear awareness”. This is just referring to a state of mind which is clear and not so swept away by emotional states, including an “excited” state of happiness. But it’s not dull or boring, just very natural and satisfying, and pleasantly cool like spring water out of the rocks on a hot day.
pete:
very well said..
First, to criticize the goal of happiness as non-Buddhist one must first be able to define happiness.
The fact is that Buddhists throughout the ages have prayed and worked toward qualities expressed in their native languages that can with accuracy be translated as “happiness” in English, especially since “happiness” is not a fixedly defined quality. If happiness is the absense or opposite of suffering, then Shakyamuni himself began his quest for the enlightenment and the salvation of humanity upon his awakening to the a desire to free all people from the shackles of the “four sufferings.” In that sense, couldn’t we say that the Buddha began his quest in the pursuit of happiness.
And while we might point out that many people’s view of what constitutes happiness may be shallow, in doing so are we not hoping to direct them toward a deeper level of happiness? Is there an essential difference between enlightenment, or Nirvana, if you will, and genuine happiness?
Does seeking enlightenemnt fail to qualify as a Buddhist pursuit?
It’s how you seek that makes the difference. Looking for something outside yourself that will fix your life or make you happier is a dead end. Practicing for the benefit of all beings, realizing that enlightenment was never separate from yourself, is entirely different.
I’d like to mention something about Mahasukha, or Great Bliss. It’s not an excited state which we often associate with the word happiness. Such a state of happiness is external, relative, conditioned, and unsatisfying. Perhaps a better correlate would be to refer to its poignancy or depth as complete freedom and relief from dukkha with an important note. This freedom and relief is not a “blank” or neutral state. Neutral is relative to happiness and suffering. Emptiness is empty of neutrality, and its freedom is the Greatest Bliss, without relative reference point or a trace of relative conditionality.
Hi, I made a mistake that I would like to correct. Tantric Bliss is ecstatic as well as non-dual. As I only experience a little bit of meditative bliss, I had to check some books to clarify. While the monk may cool off in serenity, the yogi may be intoxicated with awareness and love (but not out of control like ordinary intoxication).
I think the title reveals the path: Pursuit of Happiness. You go looking for it. And before you do that, you’ve got to figure out what it is. (I’ve suggested three types: http://changestory.com/?p=277).
But I like the question of whether we let this pursuit create disatisfaction. After all, doesn’t every magazine on in the checkout outline offer happiness by implying that we don’t have it: “10 tips to smarter kids, 5 ways to improve your love life”, etc.?
‘There is suffering, there is the arising of suffering, there is the cessation of suffering, there is the path that leads to the cessation of suffering’.Through wisdom, virtue and concentration you will find ‘happiness’, Buddhas words, not mine.You must ‘realise’ through ‘insight’ all four noble truths to achieve Nibanna/enlightenment/happiness/freedom. Buddhism is not a quick fix method of investigation, it can take years of reflection,reading,understanding and meditation. Happiness comes from the heart.Suffering comes from the mind. Realise the noble truths, follow the path, purify the heart and let go of attachment to the world, then you might find happiness.
metta to you all.