SEEKING HAPPINESS

It is a truism to say that nobody likes suffering and everybody seeks happiness. In this world of ours, human beings are making all possible efforts for prevention and alleviation of suffering and enjoyment of happiness. Nevertheless, their efforts are mainly directed to the physical well-being by material means. Happiness is, after all, conditioned by attitudes of mind, and yet only a few persons give real thought to mental development; fewer still practice mind-training in earnest.

To illustrate this point, attention may be drawn to the commonplace habits of cleaning and tidying up one’s body; the endless pursuits of food, clothing, and shelter; and the tremendous technological progress achieved for raising the material standard of living, for improving the means of transport and communications, and for prevention and cure of diseases and ailments. All these strivings are, in the main, concerned with the care and nourishment of the body. It must be recognized that they are essential. However, these human efforts and achievements cannot possibly bring about the alleviation or eradication of suffering associated with old age and disease, domestic infelicity and economic troubles; in short, with non-satisfaction of wants and desires. Sufferings of this nature are not overcome by material means; they can be overcome only by mind-training and mental development.

Therefore, it becomes clear that the right way must be sought for training, stabilizing, and purifying the mind. This way is found in the Maha Satipatthana Sutta, a well-known discourse of the Buddha, delivered well over twenty-five hundred years ago. The Buddha declared thus:

This is the sole way for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destroying of pain and grief; for reaching the right path, for the realization of Nirvana, namely the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

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The Buddha was like a doctor, treating the spiritual ills of the human race. The path of practice he taught was like a course of therapy for suffering hearts and minds. This way of understanding the Buddha and his teachings dates back to the earliest texts, and yet is also very current. Buddhist meditation practice is often advertised as a form of healing, and quite a few psychotherapists now recommend that their patients try meditation as part of their treatment.

After several years of teaching and practicing meditation as therapy, however, many of us have found that meditation on its own is not enough. In my own experience, I have found that Western meditators tend to be afflicted more with a certain grimness and lack of self-esteem than any Asians I have ever taught. Their psyches are so wounded by modern civilization that they lack the resilience and persistence needed before concentration and insight practices can be genuinely therapeutic. Other teachers have noted this problem as well and, as a result, many of them have decided that the Buddhist path is insufficient for our particular needs. To make up for this insufficiency they have experimented with ways of supplementing meditation practice, combining it with such things as myth, poetry, psychotherapy, social activism, sweat lodges, mourning rituals, and even drumming. The problem, though, may not be that there is anything lacking in the Buddhist path, but that we simply haven’t been following the Buddha’s full course of therapy.

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Translated by Chantaporn Gomutputra
Edited by June Gibb

Attahi attano nadho, we are our own refuge is the central theme of Buddhist teaching. The Buddha teaches us to rely only on ourselves because we are the creator of good and evil, and the one who will reap their corresponding results of happiness and pain. The creating mechanism of good and evil, joy and sorrow, heaven and hell are inside our mind. Mind is the principal architect. The Buddha therefore concludes that the mind is the chief, the forerunner of all things. It is both a doer and a receiver of its own actions. The mind is the master who gives order to his servant, the body, to do and say things.

There are three kinds of actions or kamma namely physical, verbal and mental. When we do good kamma, happiness, progress and heaven will be the results that follow. On the other hand when we do evil kamma, then pain, worry, anxiety and degradation will follow. After death, the mind will go to one of the four states of deprivation (apaya-bhumi) such as hell for example. Therefore, the Buddha insists that we must rely only on ourselves. We shouldn’t wait for someone else to create happiness and prosperity, heaven and nibbana for us. We must do it ourselves. To pray to Buddha images or to ask monks for blessings of success and prosperity is not the Dhamma teaching of the Buddha because he can only point the way to peace, happiness, and prosperity, and the way to suffering and deterioration. His teaching can be summarized as follows: avoid doing evil, do good and cleanse the mind of all impurities.

Doing good kamma or making merits such as giving to charity is like depositing money in a bank. The more we deposit the more money we will have accumulated. The interest will also increase and soon we will be rich. On the other hand, doing evil kamma is like borrowing money from the bank in which we would have to pay back the loan plus the interest as well. It can become a heavy burden to bear. People in debt are always anxious and worried, unlike those who have money in the bank, who are always smiling because their money keeps growing all the time. It is the same with making merits. It gives us peace of mind; make us feel happy and content. But when we do bad kamma, our mind would be set on fire. We become worried and restless. This we can see because it’s happening in our mind instantaneously, here and now, not in the next life. Therefore, if we want to be happy and prosperous, to sleep well and suffer no pain, then we must do only good kamma and avoid doing bad kamma.

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