The Quest for Happiness - the Good, the Beautiful, and the True

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

All human beings, by their very nature, seek to be free from suffering and to find happiness. This aim, however, proves so elusive because our desire for happiness does not automatically entail knowledge of how to find it. If the knowledge of how to attain happiness automatically came along with the desire to be happy, there would be no need for a Buddha to arise in the world. We would all be able to achieve perfect happiness entirely on our own.

We need the guidance of a Buddha because, though we naturally wish to avoid suffering and to attain happiness, we have no clear conception of the path that can bring this desire to fulfilment. The root of our problem is thus one of knowledge, of clear comprehension. Despite our confidence in our own powers of understanding, our minds are in reality not reliable instruments of knowledge, but are subject to innate distortions that prevent us from gaining the type of knowledge we require. These distortions prevent us from understanding what we must avoid to overcome suffering, and what we must undertake to find true happiness and peace.

This lack of clear understanding is what the Buddhist texts call avijjaa, ignorance or delusion. On account of ignorance we become victims of craving, of obsessive desire, and thus habitually engage in types of behaviour that are superficially pleasant but eventually bring discontent and suffering. There are other types of behaviour that seem to us difficult, painful, and challenging. These courses of action, we sense, might lead to stable happiness, but because they clash with our natural inclinations, because they involve effort, struggle, and inner change, we do not feel attracted to them. In short, we adhere to familiar ways of behaviour that bring immediate pleasure even when they are ultimately self-destructive; and we shun new, wholesome courses of behaviour even though, if we understood them properly, we would see that they ultimately lead to our benefit....(continued)

Click here and then scroll down four paragraphs to read the complete Part 1 article, "The Quest for Happiness," in the December 2008 Vipassana.com Newsletter. Click here and scroll down to read Part 2, "The Good, the Beautiful, and the True," from the January 2009 Newsletter. On this site, if interested, you can subscribe to this monthly newsletter, and you can enroll in an excellent online 90-day course in Buddhist meditation taught by Andrew Quernmore, an experienced meditation teacher based in England.

Meditation & Mindfulness Retreat in Des Moines

When: Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Where: 4211 Grand Ave., Des Moines - Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting House on NW corner of 42nd St. and Grand Ave. Park in lot off 42nd or on Ingersoll Ave.

Teacher: Charlie Day is a retired psychologist who has studied meditation and Buddhism for over 40 years in the US, India, and Thailand. He teaches meditation as a self-help and spiritual growth technique and Buddhism as a way of living and philosophy compatible with all religions. Buddha, he feels, would be considered the founder of psychology, not a religion, if science had been more developed 2600 years ago. Charlie teaches classes, sitting groups, retreats, and guides individuals in their practice.

Retreat: Sponsored by the Des Moines Meditation & Mindfulness Group, this retreat is open to new and experienced meditators. It includes instructions for the sitting, walking, and eating meditations, handouts, and a talk. Paul Lambakis will lead a lovingkindness meditation. Lunch is provided.

Bring a cushion, mat, or meditation bench if you have them. Chairs and a few floor cushions are available. Wear loose fitting, comfortable clothes. Please do not wear scented lotions or perfumes because some persons may be allergic to them.

Donation: Teachers traditionally lead retreats at no cost because they regard Buddha's teachings as priceless. Instead, they gratefully accept donations or Dana, the Pali word for generosity. Dana is a totally voluntary way of expressing your generosity to the teacher.

Register: Leave your name, phone number, and email at charlesday1@mchsi.com or (515) 255-8398. Please register only if you can attend the entire day. Call or email for more information. Feel free to share this information with others.

Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!

Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path (Short Version)

A Guide to Mindful, Harmonious and Peaceful Living

Charles Day*
www.desmoinesmeditation.org

INTRODUCTION

The Eightfold Path is a prescription, a guide, a do-it-yourself instruction manual that outlines eight steps or practices for reducing and ultimately ending suffering and attaining enlightenment. While some parallel the commandments and moral laws of other religious traditions, Buddha repeatedly emphasized that:

1. The practices are guidelines, not commandments;
2. Difficulties in following them reflect ignorance and inexperience, not sin;
3. They are validated by personally experiencing the consequences of practicing them, not by any authority, scriptural edict, consensual agreement, or outside approval.

The Eight Practices are divided into three groups:

1. Wisdom Practices—to attain the transcendental experience of seeing things as they really are and accepting that “what is, is”: Steps 1 & 2: Right or Skillful Understanding and Skillful Thought
2. Morality Practices—to develop virtuous, ethical, and harmonious conduct. Steps 3, 4, & 5: Skillful Speech, Skillful Action, and Skillful Livelihood
3. Mental Practices—to develop mindfulness and tranquility. Steps 6, 7, & 8: Skillful Effort, Skillful Mindfulness, and Skillful Concentration

PRACTICES FOR DEVELOPING WISDOM AND TRANSCENDENTAL INSIGHT

1. SKILLFUL UNDERSTANDING (View or Insight):

a. Of the Four Noble Truths: (1) Suffering is caused by (2) attachment and (3) can be overcome (4) by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path;
b. The Three Characteristics of Reality—(1) the universal suffering or unsatisfactoriness experienced by all living beings, (2) the impermanence of all physical and mental phenomena, and (3) the interdependent, interconnected, selfless nature of everybody and everything throughout time and space;
c. The Law of Karma (Causality) and Intentionality; and
d. The Wheel of Conditioned or Co-dependent Arising.

Buddha described three levels of wisdom or understanding:

a. Inspirational wisdom is acquired by reading or hearing the words of another, such as from scriptures, texts, reports, tradition, popular beliefs, teachers, leaders, or parents. Such wisdom is based on devotion, trust, and blind faith.

b. Intellectual wisdom is based on examining what one has heard or read to evaluate whether it is rational, logical, practical, and beneficial, and whether it has been taught by wise and respected persons across cultures and over time.

c. Experiential wisdom results from personally experiencing, intuiting, and knowing at a transcendental level what is universally and invariably correct, right, truthful, skillful, good, beneficial, and wholesome for all living beings and nature, and what is incorrect, wrong, untruthful, unskillful, bad, harmful, and unwholesome....(continued)

Click here to read about Steps Two through Eight and to print out this complete essay.

The Snowman by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. - Wallace Stevens "And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is." These last two lines of Steven's poem reflect the essence of wisdom expressed in the classic Buddhist statement: "Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form" from The Heart of the Prajna Paramita Sutra. Click here for one translation of the Heart Sutra with commentaries. Thanks to George Day, Santa Cruz, CA, for sending me this poem.

The Mystery of Duality/Creation Explained

Emptied of desire, we see the mystery;

Filled with desire, we see the manifestation of things.

- Lao Tzu, 4th Cent. B.C.E.

I titled this poem "The Mystery of Duality/Creation Explained" because I think it's an exquisite expression of Buddha's teaching on Dependent Origination, which explains how how life evolves and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth continues from moment-to-moment and, metaphysically speaking, from lifetime to lifetime, as the result of our clinging and attachment to physical and mental desires. Click on Dependent Origination to read an excellent article on this subject by Christina Feldman.

Click on ReadMeAPoem to access the website of meditator Gordon Gaippe, Des Moines, IA, who sent me Lao Tzu's poem.

Gross National Happiness in Buddhist Bhutan

Economists Appraise Bhutan's Happiness Model

by Don Duncan, The San Francisco Chronicle, 12/4/08, Reprinted on Truthout.org 12/5/08

Thimphu, Bhutan - In the thick of a global financial crisis, many economists have come to this Himalayan kingdom to study a unique economic policy called Gross National Happiness, based on Buddhist principles.

When considering economic development, policymakers here take into account respect for all living things, nature, community participation and the need for balance between work, sleep and reflection or meditation.

"Happiness is very serious business," Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley said. "The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations." ....

Gross National Happiness is an approach to development unique to Bhutan. While conventional development stresses economic growth (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) as the ultimate objective, GNH is based on the premise that true development takes place only when material and spiritual development occur side by side....

GNH guidelines are being adopted in Brazil, India and Haiti.... (continued)

Click here to read the complete article on Truthout.org. Thanks to Deb Anders-Bond, Ames, IA, for sending this reference.

We Are Einstein's Universe

Albert Einstein: "A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection of a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

This quote appeared on the Zen Calendar, Tuesday, March 15, 2005. Thanks to Paul Lambakis, co-teacher of the Des Moines Meditation and Mindfulness Group, for providing it.

Joe and Kurt

In the May 16, 2005 edition of The New Yorker Magazine, author Kurt Vonnegut told this story of his friend, author Joseph Heller:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel 'Catch-22' has earned in its entire history?" And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have." And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?" And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."

[Thanks to Bob Sutton's Work Matters blog.]

Snow Buddha

Snow falls on the head

Cold white flakes tickle the nose

Winter--What is is.






*********
A 22" Buddha is up to his nose in snow in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Photo by Bob Elko. Thanks to the Daily Green blog. And thanks to meditator Gordon Gaippe, Des Moines, IA, for suggesting this picture and writing the accompanying haiku verse.