“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.”
— The Dalai Lama .
Every human being on the planet wants to be Happy.
Anything that anyone desires is because they think their desire will make them Happy.
Whether it is better Health, more Money, a Loving Relationship, Material Things, or Accomplishments.
The Desire for Happiness is the bottom line of all of those wishes.
Permanent happiness is a State of Mind or better said - a State of Being that is the product of making a conscious CHOICE to be permanently happy.
When you choose happiness, then you attract all the ‘HAPPY THINGS’ as well.
The ‘happy things’ are the ‘icing on the cake’.
But the ‘cake’ is HAPPINESS at All Times.
Following this premise many varied teachings and accompanying techniques have been suggested in order to reach this place of personal Bliss.
Here, I will present but a brief overview on the subject as to just point out the basics of that which will later be discussed and further practised in Part II of this book.
I ask you not to be neither deterred nor overwhelmed by the impact of these teachings.
They serve only as a Bridge of sorts which purpose is to transport us to the next conceptual level.
Also, as you will soon discover, there are easily applicable Methods to overcome these hurdles.
This will be made even clearer through the unveiling of the ‘Glad Game Revisited’ Modalities soon enough.
In Buddhism causality is accepted as natural law.
Therefore, if there are certain types of events that we do not desire, then the best way of safeguarding against those events taking place is to make sure that the causal conditions that normally give rise to those events do not arise.
Similarly, if there is an event that we would like to take place, then we should seek the causes and conditions that give rise to that event.
This same principle of causality can be applied to our mental states.
If we desire happiness, we should identify those factors which lead to happiness and those factors which lead to suffering.
Having done that, we can gradually do the following:
Eliminate those factors which lead to suffering from our life.
Cultivate those factors which lead to happiness.
In other words, one achieves happiness through learning which mental states to cultivate and which to eliminate, and then making a sustained effort to implement this knowledge.
Positive mental states which lead to happiness include - Love, Compassion, Patience, Generosity.
Negative mental states which lead to suffering include -
Hatred, Greed, Envy, Frustration.
Deliberately selecting and focusing on positive mental states which lead to happiness, and challenging negative mental states which lead to suffering, requires a systematic training of the mind.
This approach of focusing on our mental outlook, places the secret to happiness within our own hands,
Instead of leaving it at the mercy of external factors, most of which are not within our control.
The Dalai Lama summarizes his point as follows:
“As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking.
On the other hand, if you possess this inner quality, a calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life.”
The ability to shift perspective is one of the most powerful and effective tools we have to help us cope with life’s challenges.
Researchers have conducted a number of experiments which demonstrate that one’s level of life satisfaction can be enhanced simply by shifting one’s perspective and contemplating on how things could be worse.
When problems arise, our outlook often becomes very narrow, because we normally tend to focus all of our attention on worrying about the problem.
However, what we should do is shift our perspective by doing the following:
Looking for opportunities which could arise from the situation.
Taking a wider perspective.
Thinking of how things could be worse.
Thus, Realize that difficult situations are often opportunities for Growth, As Shifting our perspective can make the problem seem smaller and more manageable.
How we feel at any given moment has little to do with the conditions themselves, but is rather a function of how we perceive the situation and how satisfied we are with what we have.
When a situation is causing negative emotions, we should spend some time seriously searching for a different perspective on the situation.
A key component to happiness is adopting a flexible, malleable approach to life.