Here's part of an email I got from a close friend recently which definitely touched my heart. It seemed important to me, so I wanted to share this snippet here:Hey Daniel,When I read this, I thought to myself that this is really a wonderful question. I'm not sure exactly why I thought that, and I don't think I have any good answers, but there was something very human about it, and so I thought it was worthy of attention.
Good to hear from you and it's even better to know your happy...
... Why am I so unhappy with my current life? Does meditation really help? check my astrology sign and let me know when it's gonna get better please!
Why am "I" so unhappy with my current life? Or you, or me, or us, or whomever... Why are we unhappy with our lives? What's up with this? Why do we do this?
And we don't just get unhappy with our life, we then project it out onto others through blame, leading to hatred, resentment, and ill-will, and then further into rage, violence, war, etc. Or, we may do the opposite and project it inward into self-blame, self-hatred, and even further into depression and suicide.
Why do we do this? Doesn't it seem a little silly?
Here we are, human beings, finding ourselves on this, the Planet Earth. We eat, sleep, breathe, and generally take on the functions and processes of being human. And, there we are... we find ourselves in this curious situation called "my current life." Whoa! There it is - smack! It's our life, and it's all around us, and for the most part, it's pretty much inescapable. Well, whadya know!
So what are we to do? We didn't really ask for it. We didn't get a guidebook on it. We're just here, and our life is happening.
And then there's this thing called unhappiness. hmmm... an interesting quirk that one. It's not a pleasant experience - to be unhappy. And yet, there it is. Why do we become unhappy with our life? Well, now...
Does meditation help?
I don't really know the answer to that one either, but here's the easy answer: "try it and find out." It's not such a huge investment of time and resources, and when we think of what's at stake (unhappiness, misery, violence and the vast suffering of the human condition)... then at least it's worth giving it a shot, I think.
And, of course, if you try it, you can report back your findings for the rest of us to learn from.
While I can't say definitively "yes, meditation helps," I can say for sure that meditation does something. That much is very clear. The effect is not insignificant. And, whatever it is that meditation does, I like it. And, so far at least, I think it does lead me to be more happy and harmless in the world. We'll see how it proceeds from here.
So, what do you find? Does it help?
3 comments:
Very interesting post and I am going to respond. Let me say first of all that I'm VERY happy person. Happiness is extremely personal experience. People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weather if you’re fortunate. But happiness is a result of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly. I trust that happiness is truly nothing but a result of personal effort! Remember, happiness doesn’t depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh believed that to define happiness you would have to base your measurement on personal freedom. He said, “The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.”
Aristotle would define happiness as, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
The Dalai Lama would define happiness as, “The purpose of life.”
Princeton University would define happiness as, “A state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.”
Wikipedia would define happiness as, “Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.”
A poetic way to define happiness could be summed up by Nathaniel Hawthorne when he said, “Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Gandhi would define happiness as alignment. He said that, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Happiness can be defined as action. Or moving toward a goal that we’ve set for ourselves. Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. So, what is happiness...? It could be: Happiness=body-mind-spirit alignment, or Complete enlightenment and true authentic power...or, just simply be Happy in your own skin’ and being of service.
Remember, all feelings pass...Everything is changing all the time. When I'm feeling unhappy just remembering that this too shell pass has helped me every time...
Happiness is a choice.
Be Happy!
-Ana
An engaging, intelligent, and highly entertaining comments on happiness, Ana. I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you.
I'm smiling
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