The real source of happiness is inner peace.

According to Buddhist traditions, all living things in this world desire to be happy and without any suffering. Though very few are knowledgeable of the causes of happiness and suffering That’s why most people resort to obtain happiness from material things. But if we will understand it logically, these things causes the sufferings and problems and not the happiness we are pursuing.

Buddhists believe that we cannot find the causes of suffering in external sources as our mind controls it. Therefore, we must get happiness from inner peace, the peaceful state of our mind. With inner peace, we are not disturbed by external conditions and our tolerance to be unhappy decreases tremendously. But external conditions are not necessarily the culprit.

The teachings always implies that when one have inner peace, the peaceful mind can literally filter the external conditions and absorb only the things which can make us happy. It is something like having an optimistic attitude, when one thinks positively, everything will be positive to him even though some causes feelings of extreme pain or suffering.

According to Dhammapada 1,

“Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, mind is their maker. If one speaks or does a deed with a mind that is pure within, happiness then follows along like a never departing shadow.”

But how can we achieve inner peace?

Buddha says meditation. It is a method where we will bombard our minds with thoughts and feelings that causes happiness. It is also the time wherein we will just let our mind do the job and talk to us. With this, our mind becomes peaceful, when our mind is peaceful, worries or any suffering are taken aside, paving the way for the happiness to fill our minds.

Scientifically, meditation can be done almost everywhere. One of the most convenient and practical is the breathing meditation. This kind of meditation just takes the pleasure of breathing as the subject of meditation.

But take note that meditation is not the only way to be happy. Meditation can only help us gain not only inner peace but to overcome delusions, anger, ignorance and attachment to earthly things which leads us to nirvana, or the extinction of desire and sufferings: eternal happiness which no external condition can destroy!

Sources: www.parami.org, www.aboutbuddhist.org

No one want to be unhappy, well of course, some people want but just for a short time. Sadness is vital to happiness as it creates contrast.The World Health Organization predicted that in a few years, depression will be a great problem worldwide and can extend to the increase of mortality rate. The culprit here is depression; intense sadness.

Common sense dictates that the enemy is someone opposite of him: goodness is the enemy of evil and vice versa. Meanwhile, Sadness’ enemy is of course Happiness!

So we have a solution to the imposing global problem of widespread unhappiness. Unfortunately, happiness is not a pill that can be taken orally with the effect felt immediately. It is also not a book that can be read and understood. Happiness is an emotion and emotion has no definite meaning. We can say we are happy, very happy, a little happy but unlike the English lexicon where everything has a word, happiness is felt and is very hard to define.

This leaves us to this question: Can Happiness be Learned?

Journalist Henry Anatole Grunwald once said that

“Everything can be learned, including, to a very large extent, to be what you are not…”

He has a point there. Through years of rote memorization, analytical thinking, and curiosity, who would have thought that we are formerly cave dwellers who survive by eating anything that moves and breathe? Amazing how we discovered fire, built buildings, learned how to fish and now, trying to be immortals. We learned to be what we are today and it is very far from where we began.

Buddhists believe that everything is controlled by the mind. The mind has the power to change ourselves immediately and that when we train our minds properly, we can be happier. For them, happiness and sorrow are our own responsibility. From the own words of Buddha:

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

In addition, they believe that negative emotions bother us and causes all our suffering and unhappiness. This includes anger and desire. What they do is to meditate and they are freed from the harmful emotions.

The psychologists agree. They discovered that by meditating – a practice of Buddhist monks in attaining a state where they are not distracted by things around them, emotions or thoughts – is beneficial to the body as it reduces stress, depression, insomnia and even physical pains.

All one needs to learn happiness is by learning to control our emotions; avoiding negative thoughts which causes the problem, hence the culprit. Fears, anger, and depression can be controlled just by learning saying no to them.

Unfortunately, learning happiness is not an easy road. As with all learnings, one needs to understand themselves to locate the problem. This may take quite a while. Research shows that it takes 21 days to hardwire our brains to the new attitude and up to 63 days to eventually solidify it.

But it is not necessarily hard for us to be happy. Dalai Lama says that in order to be a happy person, one must be good to others. There’s is no need to practice Buddhism to do this, all we need to do it to make a habit of kindness to others, spreading love, respect and a sense of gratitude.

So, can happiness be learned? Yes. After all, Harvard University’s most attended course is about Happiness.

Let me leave you with words from Robert Louis Stevenson, a neo-romanticist writer:

“…Ultimately, genuine happiness can only be realized once we commit to making it a personal priority in our lives. This may be new behavior for some of us and a bit intimidating. Be gentle with yourself. It will all unfold. Today you may not be familiar with the happiness habit. But like any new behavior, happiness can be learned.”

Have fun being happy!

Dalai Lama, the world-revered spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism recently went to Toronto – the place with the largest concentration of Tiberans outside India and Nepal – to share to 16,000 people the “Art of Happiness.”

For him, happiness is available to human beings both as individuals and as communities and science proves that happiness is the optimal and normal state of human existence.

During his talk, he frequently cites medical references and research which he links to a healthy immune system and a greater peace of mind. He then told the audience that his philosophical approach is based on “secular ethics.” He then explained that secularism is not a form of rejection of religion. He cited Mahatma Ghandi to further accentuate his point: “Secularism – respect for all religions. All religions equally respected.” He said that once religious people accept secularism and participate fully, they are making contributions to the secular ethics for society on the basis of our common existence.

As for the Art of Happiness, he said that based on the law of causality – the relation between causes and effects – everyone has the right to live happily, without suffering. “we need to think seriously about the causes of happiness. Good result, happy result, entirely depends on good action, constructive action.”

He also stated that compassion – humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it – begins when a baby receives nourishment from his mother’s milk. “When warm-heartedness takes seed, it can transform to unlimited, unbiased compassion, not based on other’s attitudes. That feeling can even extend toward one’s enemy.” He continued “Loving kindness is the strongest antidote to anger.”

To sum it up, he had a practical advice to everyone: get enough sleep. At 73-years old, he has still a good physical health which he credits to his peace of mind and the way to achieve it is by having adequate sleep. “Peace of mind brings nice sleep,” he said.

Whenever we are down and want to feel better, we always seek an outlet to release our emotions: talking to a friend or family member, or writing in the diary. “Putting our feelings into words helps us heal better. If a friend is sad and we can get them to talk about it, that probably will make them feel better.” said Matthew D. Lieberman, associate professor of psychology at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) who conducted a study that reveals why expressing our feelings makes our gloominess, anger and anguish less.

The study explains that one can benefit from the ancient Buddhist teaching of “mindfullness meditation,” a technique in which an individual focuses to his present emotions, thoughts and body sensations, such as breathing, without passing judgment or reaction. A person simply releases his thoughts and “lets it go.”

David Creswell, a research scientist from the UCLA said Lieberman has now shown in a series of studies that simply labeling emotions turns down the amygdala – a region in the brain which serves as an alarm to activate a series of biological systems to protect the body in times of danger -a response in the brain that triggers negative feelings.

Creswell said.”We found the more mindful you are, the more activation you have in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the less activation you have in the amygdala. We also saw activation in widespread centers of the prefrontal cortex for people who are high in mindfulness. This suggests people who are more mindful bring all sorts of prefrontal resources to turn down the amygdala. These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health.”

How is it done? Creswell said that one way to practice mindfulness meditation and paying attention to present-moment experiences is by labeling the emotions verbally. “for example, ‘I’m feeling angry right now’ or ‘I’m feeling a lot of stress right now’ or ‘this is joy’ or whatever the emotion is,” he said Creswell felt excited in the study because it brings a connection between the ancient Buddhist teachings and modern neuroscience.

“more than 2,500 years ago, [Buddha] talked about the benefits of labeling your experience. Now, for the first time since those teachings, we have shown there is actually a neurological reason for doing mindfulness meditation. Our findings are consistent with what mindfulness meditation teachers have taught for thousands of years.”

Source: Science Daily