To be Happy or not to be Happy

[Risho]

Damn Kyonin - well said

Gassho

Rish
-stlah

[Kyonin]

Hi Seiryu,

What I am about to say is by no means an official Zen statement, just a personal comment. I might be totally wrong.

For what I have learned all this years of practice is that happiness as we know it, is a concept that we have created out of ego. We measure happiness in terms of what we get out of the universe for us. So happiness is about how secure you think you are, how many cars, relationships, collections, titles and money. The more we have of these, the more happy we think we are.

I think to have stuff surrounding us is important. We need stuff to have a comfortable life. But the thing is we have to practice daily and each and every moment to cultivate equanimity. When you do this you are ready to enjoy pleasant things, but also you are ready to accept conditions you may not like.

Happiness, joy, fear, anger and sadness may come, but we are able to get back to equanimity.

Zen practice allows us to be right in the middle of the turmoil of the mind, a demanding society and our needs. Not sure if this is enlightenment but it sure happens naturally after some time practicing.

Gassho,

Kyonin
sat/LAH

[Onka]

Antidepressants and other pain meds keep me functional. Constant pain keeps me present and grounded. I'm happy with that.
Gassho
Anna
st

[Risho]

Always seeking a blissful state seems dangerous and perhaps what the precept on avoiding intoxicants is pointing toward. I mean humans fall for all sorts of tall tales, but there isn't any single state that is permanent; is there a state beyond calm and stressed where we can taste the CALM despite the storm clouds?

Gassho

Rish
-stlah

[Horin]

I remember Abbot Muho saying "true happiness is the ability also to allow not to be happy"
All conditions change sooner or later, so does happiness, in the sense of feeling good, change. When we accept the pain, the discomfort, the age, the sickness and all the conditions in life, our resistance against the conditions will become lesser and also the suffering becomes lesser.

I don't know, but I cannot imagine always to be in bliss..I don't know if it's possible, but when I see my family, my wife, my kids or my friends, but also other people that are not so close to me suffering, there is no bliss. Yet, I try to accept "bad" circumstances that I cannot change, even if it's more or less hard to do so.
When a child of me is in hospital, I am concerned for it. Can I drop all the concerns and just be in bliss? I don't think so. But when I accept all the sorrows, the concerns as they appear, it's ok.

Gassho
Ben

Stlah

Enviado desde mi PLK-L01 mediante Tapatalk

[Seiryu]

Some years ago, I was at a Kwan Um center sitting. There was also an independent Korean school that many of the Kwan Um members would visit as that teacher was once a student of Seung Sahn Sunim before he passed. The teacher of the independent school was (is) a student of the current head of the Jogye Order; Zen Master Jinje

I remember over hearing some of the members at the Kwan Um school speaking down about ZM Jinje saying statements such as “ahhh, that guy thinks enlightenment is all about being happy…”


It was such an interesting thing for me to hear. Because I get their point. A focus solely on happiness and trying to achieve it can lead to a denial of what's happening in this very moment, right here, right now. Also, it can lead to chasing after an experience of happiness…..

But at the same time ...that mentality can also allow for a rejection of happiness all together….
Justifying a sense that not only is happiness not what it is about, but I shouldn’t even try to seek out happiness at all and just be ok with my crappy existence.


What do you guys think?

The search for happiness and contentment is as old as humanity itself, and it is as part of Bubddhist history as anything else….

How much happiness is too much?

How much striving is too much?


SAT

Seiryu

P.S
Here is a quote I found from ZM Jinje

“If you realize the truth, you will live in bliss every day. There will be nothing more special than drinking tea when you’re thirsty, resting when you’re tired, or greeting guests when they visit. These everyday acts will be enough.”