What does the Dalai Lama have to say about happiness? He says it is our purpose in life and that attaining it lies in learning how to train our minds.
What does the Dalai Lama have to say about happiness? In a recent book by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., a Western psychiatrist, the two explore "The Art of Happiness" in this Handbook for Living.
The book is broken into five parts: The Purpose of Life, Human Warmth and Compassion, Transforming Suffering, Self-Created Suffering, Overcoming Obstacles, and Reflections on Living a Spiritual Life.
On the Purpose of Life, the Dalia Lama cites The Right to Happiness, The Sources of Happiness, Training the Mind for Happiness, and Reclaiming Our Innate State of Happiness. His first advice is to identify the factors that lead to happiness and those which lead to suffering. Afterwards, on can begin the task of eliminating the factors which cause suffering and building those which result in happiness. This simple guideline could be said to be the basis of the Dalai Lama's philosophy.
As a Tibetan Buddhist, the Dalai Lama of course teaches spirituality but says one does not absolutely have to follow the rules of his religion. However, maintaining spiritual awareness and growth is in fact the cornerstone to his idea of leading a happy life. He also remarks on the importance of experiencing all of life's emotions: triumph, despair, joy, hatred, and love. But he says the purpose of our existence is to seek happiness. In fact many great philosophers, Eastern and Western, have agreed with him throughout history.
The Dalai Lama identifies the characteristics of a happy person as being sociable, creative, flexible, loving, and forgiving - contrasted by the unhappy person's tendency to be withdrawn, self-absorbed, moody, and antagonistic. Seeking personal happiness doesn't have to equal being self-centered he says.
On the Sources of Happiness, His Holiness cites the four factors of fulfillment: wealth, worldly satisfaction, spirituality, and enlightenment. He reminds us that wealth alone will not fulfill us. That we can only find joy in material possessions when we are surrounded by a loving circle of friends and/or family to share them with. He speaks of attaining a sense of peace and calmness as the cornerstone to happiness - these reached through our spiritual practices. He also notes the tendency of finding fulfillment through spiritual practices and work to bring about material wealth. He goes on to explain how to identify positive or negative desires and actions by evaluating their long-term consequences. And of course he remarks on the method of learning to appreciate what we have rather than constantly yearning for more in our search for contentment.
Our sense of self-worth is also key to being able to appreciate the other factors of fulfillment. Interestingly, feeling compassion for others is the most reliable way to increase our own self-worth. He advises that before each action we ask ourselves, "Will this bring me happiness?" making it easier to make right decisions.
On Training the Mind for Happiness, the Dalai Lama explores the mind's capacity to be happy at any given moment - by totally immersing itself in that moment. He says that as long as our basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing are met we have everything we need to achieve complete happiness. He says the first step to happiness is learning - learning how to use our minds or consciousness. We must learn to identify negative emotions and learn to cultivate positive ones. He is convinced that the secret to our happiness lies within our own hands and minds. He goes on to speak of cause and effect and how this determines our state of being. It's all a matter of learning mental discipline. In fact, he says this is the essence of the Buddha's teachings.
