inspiring at any season -
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3046&utm_source=15dec08&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9_dalai
In case you want the whole thing up front:
Winter 2009: Sustainable Happiness
This is Your Brain on Bliss
by Matthieu Ricard
var addthis_pub = 'yesmagazine1';
After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness
is simply to put your mind to it.
Matthieu Ricard, left, quit his career as a cellular geneticist nearly 40 years
ago to study Buddhism. He is the French translator for the Dalai Lama, right.
Photo by Pagoda Phat Hue, phathue.com
What is happiness, and how can we achieve it?
Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way
of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses
every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks.
The paths we take in search of happiness often lead us to frustration and
suffering instead. We try to create outer conditions that we believe will make
us happy. But it is the mind itself that translates outer conditions into
happiness or suffering. This is why we can be deeply unhappy even though we
“have it all”—wealth, power, health, a good family, etc.—and, conversely, we
can remain strong and serene in the face of hardship.
Authentic happiness is a way of being and a skill to be cultivated. When we
first begin, the mind is vulnerable and untamed, like that of a monkey or a
restless child. It takes practice to gain inner peace, inner strength,
altruistic love, forbearance, and other qualities that lead to authentic
happiness.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama often teaches that, while there are limitations to
how much information one can learn and to our physical performance, compassion
can be developed boundlessly.
Practicing Happiness
It is not difficult to begin. You just have to sit from time to time, turn your
mind within, and let your thoughts calm down. Focus your attention on a chosen
object. It can be an object in your room, your breath, or your own mind.
Inevitably, your mind will wander as you do this. Each time it does, gently
bring it back to the object of concentration, like a butterfly that returns
again and again to a flower.
In the freshness of the present moment, past is gone, future is not yet born,
and—if one remains in pure mindfulness and freedom—disturbing thoughts arise
and go without leaving a trace. That is basic meditation.
Find out what happens when the meditating mind of a Buddhist monk is examined
by magnetic resonance imaging: Matthieu Ricard’s brain.
Photo by Waisman Brain Imaging Lab, University of Wisconsin
Pure consciousness without content is something all those who meditate
regularly and seriously have experienced—it is not just some sort of Buddhist
theory. And anyone who takes the trouble to stabilize and clarify his or her
mind will be able to experience it, too. It is through this unconditioned
aspect of consciousness that we can transform the content of mind through
training.
But meditation also means to cultivate basic human qualities, such as attention
and compassion, and new ways of experiencing the world. What really matters is
that a person gradually changes. Over months and years, we become less
impatient, less prone to anger, less torn between hopes and fears. It becomes
inconceivable to willingly harm another person. We develop a propensity toward
altruistic behavior and the cluster of qualities that give us the resources to
deal with the ups and downs of life.
The point here is that you can look at your thoughts, including strong
emotions, with a pure mindfulness that is not associated with the contents of
the thoughts.
Take the example of malevolent anger. We usually identify with anger. Anger can
fill our mental landscape and project its distorted reality on people and
events. When we are overwhelmed by anger, we cannot dissociate from it. We
perpetuate a vicious circle of affliction by rekindling anger each time we see
or remember the person who makes us angry. We become addicted to the cause of
suffering.
But if we dissociate from anger and look at it with mindfulness, that which is
aware of anger is not angry, and we can see that anger is just a bunch of
thoughts. Anger doesn’t cut like a knife, burn like a fire, or crush like a
rock; it is nothing more than a product of our mind. Instead of “being” the
anger, we understand that we are not the anger, in the same way that clouds are
not the sky.
So, to deal with anger, we avoid letting our mind jump again and again to the
trigger for our anger. Then we look at anger itself and keep our attention upon
it. If we stop adding wood to a fire and just watch, the fire will die out.
Likewise, anger will vanish away, without being forcibly repressed or allowed
to explode.
There is no question of not experiencing emotions; it’s a question of not being
enslaved by them. Let emotions arise, but let them be freed from their
afflictive components: distortion of reality, mental confusion, clinging, and
suffering for oneself and others.
There is great virtue in resting from time to time in pure awareness of the
present moment, and being able to refer to this state when afflictive emotions
arise so that we do not identify with them and are not swayed by them.
It is difficult in the beginning, but becomes quite natural as you become
increasingly familiar with such an approach. Whenever anger arises, you learn
to recognize it right away. If you know someone to be a pickpocket, even if he
mingles in a crowd, you will spot him right away and keep a careful eye on him.
Interdependence
Just as you can learn to deal with afflictive thoughts, you can learn to
cultivate and enhance wholesome ones. To be filled with love and kindness
brings about an optimal way of being. It is a win-win situation: you will enjoy
lasting well-being for yourself, you’ll act in altruistic ways towards others,
and you’ll be perceived as a good human being.
If altruistic love is based on an understanding of the interdependence of all
beings and of their natural aspiration to happiness, and if this love extends
impartially to all beings, then it is a source of genuine happiness. Acts of
overflowing love, of pure, disinterested generosity—as when you make a child
happy or help someone in need, even if nobody knows what you have done—generate
a deep and heartwarming fulfillment.
The Habits of Happiness
TED TALK: Listen to Matthieu Ricard answer the questions: What is Happiness,
and How Can We All Get Some?
Dalai Lama Renaissance
FILM: Watch the trailer.
Human qualities often come in clusters. Altruism, inner peace, strength,
freedom, and genuine happiness thrive together like the parts of a nourishing
fruit. Likewise, selfishness, animosity, and fear grow together. So, while
helping others may not always be “pleasant,” it leads the mind to a sense of
inner peace, courage, and harmony with the interdependence of all things and
beings.
Afflictive mental states, on the other hand, begin with self-centeredness, with
an increase in the gap between self and others. These states are related to
excessive self-importance and self-cherishing associated with fear or
resentment towards others, and grasping for outer things as part of a hopeless
pursuit of selfish happiness. A selfish pursuit of happiness is a lose-lose
situation: you make yourself miserable and make others miserable as well.
Inner conflicts are often linked with excessive rumination on the past and
anticipation of the future. You are not truly paying attention to the present
moment, but are engrossed in your thoughts, going on and on in a vicious
circle, feeding your ego and self-centeredness.
This is the opposite of bare attention. To turn your attention inside means to
look at pure awareness itself and dwell without distraction, yet effortlessly,
in the present moment.
If you cultivate these mental skills, after a while you won’t need to apply
contrived efforts anymore. You can deal with mental perturbations like the
eagles I see from the window of my hermitage in the Himalayas deal with crows.
The crows often attack them, diving at the eagles from above. But, instead of
doing all kinds of acrobatics, the eagle simply retracts one wing at the last
moment, lets the diving crow pass, and then extends its wing again. The whole
thing requires minimal effort and causes little disturbance.
Being experienced in dealing with the sudden arising of emotions in the mind
works in a similar way.
I have been exposed to the world of humanitarian activities for a number of
years since I decided to dedicate the entire royalties of my books to 30
projects on education and health in Tibet, Nepal, and India, with a group of
dedicated volunteers and generous philanthropists. It is easy to see how
corruption, clashes of ego, weak empathy, discouragement can plague the
humanitarian world. All this stems from a lack of maturity. So the advantages
of spending time to develop human altruism and compassionate courage are
obvious.
The Fragrance of Peace
The most important time to meditate or do other types of spiritual practices is
early in the morning. You set the tone for the day and the “fragrance” of the
meditation will remain and give a particular perfume to the whole day. Another
important time is before falling asleep. If you clearly generate a positive
state of mind, filled with compassion or altruism, this will give a different
quality to the whole night.
When people experience “moments of grace”, or “magical moments” in daily life,
while walking in the snow under the stars or spending a beautiful moment with
dear friends by the seaside, what is really happening? All of a sudden, they
have left their burden of inner conflicts behind. They feel in harmony with
others, with themselves, with the world. It is wonderful to fully enjoy such
magical moments, but it is also revealing to understand why they feel so good:
pacification of inner conflicts; a better sense of interdependence with
everything rather than fragmenting reality; and a respite from the mental
toxins of aggression and obsession. All these qualities can be cultivated
through developing wisdom and inner freedom. This will lead not just to a few
moments of grace but to a lasting state of well-being that we may call genuine
happiness.
In this state, feelings of insecurity gradually give way to a deep confidence
that you can deal with life’s ups and downs. Your equanimity will spare you
from being swayed like mountain grass in the wind by every possible praise and
blame, gain and loss, comfort and discomfort. You can always draw on deep inner
peace, and the waves at the surface will not appear as threatening.
Matthieu Ricard wrote this article as part of Sustainable Happiness, the Winter
2009 issue of YES! Magazine. Matthieu has authored seven books, including
Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. He lives at the
Shechen monastery in Nepal, travels the world for Karuna-shechen
(www.karuna-shechen.org) and does an annual solitary retreat in the Himalayas.
Interested?
The Habits of Happiness: Listen to Matthieu Ricard address the TED conference.
Dalai Lama Renaissance: The Dalai Lama invited the West’s most innovative
thinkers, including YES! Magazine’s Fran Korten, to discuss solutions to the
world’s problems. See the trailer for this film, narrated by Harrison Ford.
LEVEL GREEN - fostering sustainable community through collaborative initiatives
in hospitality, education and the arts, in the 150 year-old democratic spirit
of the Danish Folk School. 1519 Slaterville Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 (607)
339-9472
_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask [email protected]
free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
