Happiness
The usual happiness that common people are interested in is when a particular hunger or want is satisfied. This is the typical understanding of happiness (Happiness of slavery). In the Dhamma sense, however, happiness is when there is no hunger or want at all, when we’re completely free of all hunger, desire, and want. (Happiness of Freedom)
Our sense of happiness is so brittle, it can be destroyed simply by asking whether or not it exists.
Happiness
The 2 happiness
Imagine, if you can, that you are the sole owner of the world, of the universe, of the entire cosmos. Now that you’re the owner of everything, does hunger stop? Can it stop? Would you please examine this carefully with and in your own mind. If you were to get everything that you could possibly desire, to the point that you owned the whole world, would your hunger cease? Or would you hunger for a second universe? Would you want a third?
Consider the fact that hunger never ends by our attempts to satisfy it. In spite of this, the world today continues to develop the kind of education and evolution that seek merely to produce things which are more lovely and satisfying. Modern technology and science are slaves of hunger. Our world is falling into this deep hole of endlessly producing increasingly seductive things to try to satisfy hunger. But where are you going to find happiness in such a world?
Example:
The new-born infant is happy when it is cuddled in its mother's arms and sucks milk from her breast. This satisfies the infant until it grows a little older, a little bigger. Then the mother's arms and breast arenât enough. It learns about other foods and delights. Now its happiness depends on ice cream, candy, and junk food, on playing little games and running around the house. Then it grows older and those games don't satisfy the child any more. It wants to play football or play with dolls. These two are outgrown eventually and the teenager's interests and happiness revolve around sex. The previous kinds of satisfaction are of no more interest. When they become young men and women, don't expect them to be satisfied with the old types of happiness. Now, all they think about is sex and dates. Finally, the human being marries, becomes a wife or husband, and has hopes and wishes tied up in a house, money, and possessions. There's no way they can be satisfied with childish happiness (unless they haven't really grown up) The human being changes from stage to stage, and happiness also changes from stage to stage. It is continuous and endless. Hunger develops from stage to stage until death. After that, many believe, there is rebirth as a deva (celestial being, like angels): and still there's hunger, heavenly hunger for the happiness of devas. It never stops. Even in heaven with the gods or in the kingdom of God, should such things exist, hunger doesn't stop. In Buddhism these all are considered to be examples of worldly happiness that only deceives and confuses.
When does hunger stop?
We must take this other path where there is no hunger. The essence of this path is the absence of the feeling of self, of “I” and “mine”.
It is necessary to realize this connection between the end of hunger and the cessation of the self illusion.
Hunger persists as this self seeks to acquire things for itself without ever truly succeeding.
We desire one kind of ’the best’, but as soon as we get it our hunger reaches after a better ’the best’. This has no end as long as there’s self that wants ’the bestâ. Through our grasping at “the best” we’re burdened also with “the worst”.
To be free of all dukkha, the mind must be beyond good and evil, above best and worst-that is , it must dwell in voidness. In voidness hunger stops and there is true happiness.
The Tree of Knowledge
Those of you who are Christians or who have read the Bible will be familiar with the story of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that appears at the beginning of Genesis. It tells how God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warned them that they would die if they did not obey. If you understand the meaning of this passage, you will understand the core of Buddhism. When there is no knowledge of good and evil, we can’t attach to them, we’re void and free of dukkha. Once we know about good and evil, we attach to them and must suffer dukkha. The fruit of that tree is this attachment to good and evil. This causes dukkha and dukkha is death, spiritual death.
We identify things as good and attach to them. We identify things as bad and detach from them. We are trapped in worldly conditions by our dualistic obsession with good and bad. This is the death of which God warned. Will you heed his warning?
The Buddhist solution is to be above good and evil to be void.
Don’t attach to good and evil because they are impermanent (anicca), unsatisfactory (dukkha), and not-self (anatta). Good and evil are anicca, dukkha, anatta.
If we grasp and cling to “good”, we are hungry for good. If we have what is the best, we hunger for the best. No matter how “best” something is, it still causes hunger.
Natural vs Unnecessary Hunger
The body instinctually feels hunger regarding its natural needs: clothing, food, shelter, medicine, exercise. This kind of hunger is no problem. It doesn’t cause dukkha and can be satisfied without causing dukkha.
Then, there is the second kind of hunger, which is mental, that we call “spiritual hunger”. This is the hunger of thinking born out of attachment. Spiritual hunger, being tied up with ignorance (avijja) and attachment (upadana), destroys the coolness and calm of the mind, which is true happiness and peace, thus bringing dukkha.
Through attachment the human mind knows spiritual hunger.
The body has a nervous system. When it lacks something that it needs there arises a certain activity which we call “hunger”. That’s all there is to it – tathata. Don’t let it cook up into spiritual hunger by attaching to it as “my hunger” or the “I who hunger”.
When the body is hungry, eat mindfully and wisely. Then physical hunger won’t disturb the mind.
Emptiness
We cannot get rid of suffering by saying, “I will not suffer.” We cannot eliminate attachment by saying, “I will not be attached to anything,” nor eliminate aggression by saying, “I will never become angry.” Yet, we do want to get rid of suffering and the disturbing emotions that are the immediate cause of suffering. The Buddha taught that to eliminate these states, which are really the results of the primary confusion of our belief in a personal self, we must get rid of the fundamental cause. But we cannot simply say, “I will not believe in the personal self.” The only way to eliminate suffering is to actually recognize the experience of a self as a misconception, which we do by proving directly to ourselves that there is no such personal self. We must actually realise this. Once we do, then automatically the misconception of a self and our fixation on that “self” will disappear. Only by directly experiencing selflessness can we end the process of confused projection. This is why the Buddha emphasized meditation on selflessness or egolessness (emptiness). However, to meditate on egolessness, we must undertake a process that begins with a conceptual understanding of egolessness; then, based on that understanding, there can be meditation, and finally realization.
Instead of focusing on differences and individuality, the realisation of emptiness is about realising that nothing exists by itself alone, but depends on other things. Just as all living beings rely on other living beings - at least their ancestors, so do even inanimate objects depend on other objects, conditions, parts and processes to arise and disappear.
To put it simple, our perception of the world is only possible because of interaction, interrelation, dependence and exchange of information.
Perception
When we perceive an object, we automatically tend to label it (like nice, bad, wet, dry, light, dark, etc.). As soon as our mind puts a label on an object, the label takes the place of the actual object in our mental processes. As our mental image or label can never represent all the different qualities and characteristics of any object, it is always just a simplified, usually exaggerated, subjective snap shot. However, our mind reacts on the basis of our own mental label of an object. No wonder we tend to react simplistic, exaggerated and subjective in many situations. All perceived objects are conditioned by our senses and our own mind. This leads to the dramatic conclusion that we are not and by definition can never be objective!
Stop insisting on one-sided positions
The world nowadays is so overwhelmed by the power of advertising and propaganda that most people have become slaves to it. They can make people pull out their wallets without even thinking in order to buy things they donât need to eat, donât need to have, and donât need to use. This is so commonplace that we absolutely must offer the principle of the Kalama Sutta to our human comrades of this era. (file:///Users/macuser/Dropbox/Bhikkhu%20Buddhadasa/Help,%20Kalama%20Sutta,%20Help!.htm)
Determinism
Yes, everything happens by itself, in the sense that there is no “doer” independent of the process. However, this absolutely does not mean that things are deterministic. The world as shown by a century of explorations in physical science is probablistic, not deterministic. Everything preceding the present moment is at least to our knowledge unchangeable. However, the present moment is a moment of uncertainty, in which the “transient self” that comes into being in this present moment is operating from a place of uncertainty, which gives them the lattitude to make choices that alter the future. And the way we pull ourself up by our bootstraps is to take advantage of that. We do our best as we gain knowledge and understanding in every moment to steer the probabilities in the direction of wisdom, virtue, awakening and compassion.
As a result one develops the clear seeing that the observed phenomena is pervaded by the three âmarks of existenceâ: impermanence (annica), insatisfactoriness (dukkha) and emptiness of self (annata). As a result, equanimity, peace and inner freedom is developed in relation to these inputs.
There is a general distinction between Buddhism brought to the West by Asian immigrants, which may be Mahayana, Theravada or a traditional East Asian mix, and Buddhism as practiced by converts, which is often Zen, Pure Land, Vipassana or Tibetan Buddhism. Some Western Buddhists are actually non-denominational and accept teachings from a variety of different sects, which is far less frequent in Asia.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_West
The MahÄyÄna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism#Nomenclature
Awakening among the overachievers
https://alohadharma.com/2015/08/23/awakening-among-the-overachievers/
Imagine a future where meditation has its own Elon Musk or Bill Gates. Imagine foundations dedicated to supporting stream entry for people in âdharma desertsâ (far from meditation centers), global insight initiatives, X prizes for the best technique to attain first jhana, research on what jhanas and nanas do to the brain, and genius grants for talented meditation teachers. Imagine what it would be like if the overachievers began to experience awakening. If they unyoked meditation from the worship of productivity and began seeing it as a good in and of itself that deserves time, resources, and public support. Imagine the way such a change would effect the lives of ordinary people. Imagine what it would be like if taking time off from work to meditate was no more unusual than going to a conference or getting specialized training in your field â and if it were considered just as important. Imagine if meditation teachers were covered by your insurance company, just like dentists or psychologists.