What Is the Good Life According to Siddhartha?

If you desire others to be happy, do compassion. If you want to be happy, practice pity.

Dalai Lama

Buddha - An Introduction

For Buddha, the path to happiness starts from an understanding of the root causes of suffering. Those who consider Buddha a pessimist considering of his concern with suffering take missed the point. In fact, he is a expert doctor — he may break the bad news of our suffering, but he also prescribes a proactive course of treatment. In this metaphor, the medicine is the Buddha's teachings of wisdom and pity known as Dharma, and the nurses that encourage usa and show us how to take the medicine are the Buddhist community or Sangha. The illness however, tin can just be cured if the patient follows the doctor'due south advice and follows the grade of treatment — the Eightfold Path, the core of which involves command of the mind.

In Buddhism, this handling is non a simple medicine to exist swallowed, only a daily practice of mindful thought and activeness that we ourselves can test scientifically through our own experience. Meditation is, of class, the nigh well known tool of this exercise, just contrary to popular conventionalities, it is not near detaching from the globe. Rather it is a tool to railroad train the listen not to dwell in the past or the future, but to live in the hither and now, the realm in which we can experience peace most readily.

All that we are is the result of what nosotros have thought. It is founded on our thoughts. It is made up of our thoughts. If one speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows ane, as the wheel follows the pes of the ox that draws the wagon.

All that we are is the effect of what we have idea. It is founded on our thoughts. Information technology is fabricated up of our thoughts. If one speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows one, similar a shadow that never leaves.

(Dhammapada i-2 / Müller & Maguire, 2002.)

Buddhism & Happiness

The get-go and second verses (higher up) of the Dhammapada, the earliest known collection of Buddha'due south sayings, talk well-nigh suffering and happiness. So it's not surprising to discover that Buddhism has a lot to offer on the topic of happiness. Buddha'due south contemporaries described him equally "ever-grin" and portrayals of Buddha virtually always depict him with a smiling on his face. But rather than the smile of a self-satisfied, materially-rich or historic man, Buddha's smile comes from a deep equanimity from within.

Buddha: A Little Groundwork

An early Gandharan statue of Buddha, 1st-2d centuries CE, in the Tokyo National Museum.

During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, Siddhartha Gautama of Shakya, who later became known as the Buddha, was born in modern-mean solar day Nepal near the Indian border. While there are several mythical stories surrounding his conception and birth, the basic facts of his life are mostly agreed upon. Built-in into a wealthy royal family, the Buddha was built-in and raised in worldly luxury. Despite his father'south attempts to shield him from the ugliness of life, one day he ventured out across the castle walls and encountered iii aspects of life: the quondam, the sick and the dead. Each of these experiences troubled him and made him question the significant and transience of life and its pleasures.

Later on this, he encountered an ascetic who, past choice, lived a life renouncing the pleasures of the world. Fifty-fifty while he was completely deprived of life's comforts, his eyes shined with contentment. These shocking experiences moved Buddha to renounce his comfortable lifestyle in search of greater meaning in life. It was during his time practicing extreme forms of cocky-denial that Buddha discovered the "Middle Path" of moderation — an idea that closely resembles Aristotle'due south "Golden Hateful."

During his life, he had experienced intensive pleasure and extreme deprivation but he found that neither extreme brought i to true agreement. He so practiced meditation through deep concentration (Dhyana) under a bodhi tree and found Enlightenment. He began pedagogy the 4 Noble Truths to others in order to help them reach transcendent happiness and peace of mind through the knowledge and practice that is known today equally Buddhism.

The Problem & The Solution: The 4 Noble Truths
& The Eightfold Path to Happiness

These Four Noble Truths, monks, are bodily, unerring, non otherwise. Therefore, they are chosen noble truths.  (Samyutta Nikaya 56.27)

Buddha taught his followers the
Four Noble Truths equally follows:

1. Life is/means
Dukkha (mental dysfunction or suffering).

two. Dukkha arises
from craving.

3. Dukkha tin be eliminated.

4. The way to the elimination of dukkha is the Eightfold Path.

Buddha believed that dukkha ultimately arose from ignorance and false knowledge. While dukkha is ordinarily defined equally suffering, "mental dysfunction" is closer to the original meaning. In a like vein, Huston Smith explains dukkha by using the metaphor of a shopping cart that we "try to steer from the wrong end" or bones that accept gone "out of joint" (Smith, 1991, p. 101). Considering of such a mental misalignment, all motility, thoughts and creation that flow out tin never be wholly satisfactory. In brusque, we can never be completely happy.

Buddha: The Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path is often divided into the three categories

 of wisdom (correct view/agreement,
right intention),

ethical behave (right speech, correct activity, right livelihood)

mental tillage (right
effort, right mindfulness,
correct concentration).

Right View/ agreement	Wisdom
Correct Intention/ idea	Wisdom
Right Speech	Ethical Conduct
Right Activity	Upstanding Deport
Right Livelihood	Ethical Conduct
Right Effort	Mental Cultivation
Correct Mindfulness	Mental Tillage
Correct Concentration	Mental Cultivation

The Eightfold Path is a practical and systematic manner out of ignorance, eliminating dukkha from our minds and our lifestyle through mindful thoughts and actions. It is presented as a whole system, just the three paths associated with the surface area of mental cultivation are peculiarly relevant to the happiness that we can find in equanimity, or peace of mind.

Equanimity: Peace of Mind & Happiness

If by leaving a modest pleasure one sees a neat pleasance, let a wise person leave the small-scale pleasure and expect to the great.  (Dhammapada 290 / Müller & Maguire, 2002.)

Buddhism pursues happiness by using knowledge and exercise to achieve mental equanimity. In Buddhism, self-possession, or peace of mind, is achieved by detaching oneself from the wheel of craving that produces dukkha. And so by achieving a mental land where you lot tin disassemble from all the passions, needs and wants of life, you lot gratuitous yourself and achieve a land of transcendent elation and well-being.

Every bit described in the kickoff poetry of the Dhammapada, for Buddha, mental dysfunction begins in the heed. The Buddha encouraged his followers to pursue "serenity" and "insight" as the mental qualities that would lead to Nirvana, the Ultimate Reality. As mentioned earlier, the Eightfold Path every bit a whole is said to help i reach these qualities. In particular, the areas of mental tillage, which include right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, are the mental skills and tools used for achieving happiness.

Buddha: Right Try

The Buddha once described the mind equally a wild horse. In the Eightfold Path, he recommends practicing "right effort" by outset fugitive and then immigration our minds of negative, unwholesome thoughts. One time that is achieved, one perfects a wholesome, tranquil state of heed through the practice of positive thinking. This ongoing effort promotes a country of mind that is conducive to the practice of mindfulness and concentration (meditation).

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the almost influential teachings of Buddhism and has filtered into popular culture as well as mod psychotherapy. The Buddha felt that information technology was imperative to cultivate right mindfulness for all aspects of life in order to see things as they actually are, or in other words, to "stop and smell the roses." He encouraged groovy attention and awareness of all things through the iv foundations of mindfulness:

1. Contemplation of the body

2. Contemplation of feelings

3. Contemplation of states of mind

4. Contemplation of phenomena

In a word, mindfulness is about experiencing the moment with an attitude of openness and freshness to all and every experience. Through correct mindfulness, ane can costless oneself from passions and cravings, which so often make u.s.a. prisoners of past regrets or futurity preoccupations.

Correct Concentration and Meditation

A monk who with tranquil mind has chosen to live in a bare cell knows an unearthly delight in gaining a clearer and clearer perception of the true constabulary.

(Dhammapada 373 / Müller & Maguire, 2002.)

Right Concentration is a mental discipline that aims to transform your heed. Equally the core practice of "meditation," correct concentration is a foundational activeness inside Buddhist thought and do.

According to Buddha, there are four stages
of deeper concentration called Dhyana:

1. The start stage of concentration is 1 in which mental hindrances and impure intentions disappear and a sense of elation is achieved.

2. In the second phase, activities of the mind come to an finish and simply bliss remains.

iii. In the third stage, elation itself begins to disappear.

four. In the concluding stage, all sensations including bliss disappear and are replaced by a total peace of mind, which Buddha described every bit a deeper sense of happiness.

Pity

The disciples of Gautama are always well awake, and their minds day and night e'er delight in compassion.

(Dhammapada 300 / Müller & Maguire, 2002.)

Stories of Buddha'south compassion and consideration for all life abound. He taught truth and he too taught compassion because he saw personal happiness every bit related to the happiness of others, humans and otherwise. Such a lesson is reflected in both the fashion he lived and the way he died. In life, information technology was said that the Buddha forewent Nirvana in social club to teach others the keys to transcendence. In expiry, the story goes that a follower accidentally poisoned Buddha. As he was dying, he comforted this follower by assuring him that the repast he had just eaten was one of his two most blessed meals: the start meal was the ane he had to intermission his fast under the bodhi tree, and this 2nd meal of rotten mushrooms was the meal that would bring him to Nirvana.

Conclusion

The journey to attain a deeper class of happiness requires an unflinching look into the face of a reality where all life is seen equally dukkha or mental dysfunction. Buddhism is a philosophy and practice that is extremely concerned with the mind and its various delusions, misunderstandings and cravings only, happily for us, sees a style out through higher consciousness and mindful practice.

Perhaps it is because of this seemingly dim view of reality that happiness in Buddhism is so tremendously full; the ideas contained in Buddha's teachings point to a thorough engagement with lived reality. Ironically, it is through such an engagement with one's cocky, the world and reality that i is able to achieve a transcendent happiness. Equanimity, a deep sense of well-being and happiness, is attainable through proper knowledge and exercise in everyday life.

Works Cited

Müller, Thousand., & Maguire, J. (2002). Dhammapada: Annotated & Explained. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing. (Translation by Max Müller, annotations and revisions past Jack Maguire.)

Smith, H. (1991). The World's Religions. New York, NY: HarperCollins, Inc.

Video:

Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard talks most happiness (TED Talks)

Recommended reading:

Bodhi, B. (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha). Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Picture show credits: Zen garden by dlee / SXC.hu; View from hilltop by white_lion / SXC.hu.

gasconthwifer.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/buddha/

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