Buddha teaches us that all of our suffering and negativity comes from our mind and not our external world. Although we typically agree with this point of view we continue to search for happiness outside ourselves, thinking if I had the right job, the right car, the right relationship, then I will be happy. We try to change all of our external conditions but we remain unhappy. Buddha taught us that we need to train our mind to be happy until we have reached the full enlightened state of Buddhahood. This paper will explore what Buddha taught is the source of all happiness and what we can to do cultivate it. We will also look into the counter argument of there is no happiness without suffering. It is through a method practice of removing our
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In this paper we will be relying heavily on Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyato’s books as well Mathieu Ricard and a few others sources. Venerable Kelsang Gyatso was a student alongside the Dali Lama before coming to the West to spread Buddhist teachings. He is an accomplished meditation and Buddhist master and has been a monk since the age of 6. The West has seen a rise in meditation and Buddhist related philosophies over the recent years. Meditation is now being recommended to prisoners as well as CEOs. Such famous celebrities as Richard Gere, Jackie Chan, and Kate Hudson among others are Buddhist. Like us, each one of these actors is searching for the same thing, to free themselves from pain and negativity. This paper will address the nature of man’s suffering and the Buddhist solution to freeing ourselves from all suffering now and in the future. This will bring us to the question: Is Buddhist enlightenment the source of all …show more content…
A famous French scientist turned ordained Buddhist monk Mathieu Ricard gave a speech at TED in 2007. He spoke of a recent essay he wrote on happiness at that time for a French paper. There was a counter article written named "Don 't impose on us the dirty work of happiness." Matthew paraphrases the article by citing- "We don 't care about being happy. We need to live with passion. We like the ups and downs of life. We like our suffering because it 's so good when it ceases for a while." From this point of view we can see that it is normal to think that we cannot have happiness without suffering. It is this same logic that says we need the bitter-sweetness of life to make us happy. As a counter argument I would lean on the logic that we constantly avoid suffering and want positivity, so why do we want more suffering? True happiness does not leave us feeling bored. When we are happy we don’t want anything to interrupt it. It is this happiness that we want to have all the time. We don’t need the roller coaster of life to make us happy. We just need to remove all our negative feelings and cultivate our good
In this paper we will be relying heavily on Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyato’s books as well Mathieu Ricard and a few others sources. Venerable Kelsang Gyatso was a student alongside the Dali Lama before coming to the West to spread Buddhist teachings. He is an accomplished meditation and Buddhist master and has been a monk since the age of 6. The West has seen a rise in meditation and Buddhist related philosophies over the recent years. Meditation is now being recommended to prisoners as well as CEOs. Such famous celebrities as Richard Gere, Jackie Chan, and Kate Hudson among others are Buddhist. Like us, each one of these actors is searching for the same thing, to free themselves from pain and negativity. This paper will address the nature of man’s suffering and the Buddhist solution to freeing ourselves from all suffering now and in the future. This will bring us to the question: Is Buddhist enlightenment the source of all …show more content…
A famous French scientist turned ordained Buddhist monk Mathieu Ricard gave a speech at TED in 2007. He spoke of a recent essay he wrote on happiness at that time for a French paper. There was a counter article written named "Don 't impose on us the dirty work of happiness." Matthew paraphrases the article by citing- "We don 't care about being happy. We need to live with passion. We like the ups and downs of life. We like our suffering because it 's so good when it ceases for a while." From this point of view we can see that it is normal to think that we cannot have happiness without suffering. It is this same logic that says we need the bitter-sweetness of life to make us happy. As a counter argument I would lean on the logic that we constantly avoid suffering and want positivity, so why do we want more suffering? True happiness does not leave us feeling bored. When we are happy we don’t want anything to interrupt it. It is this happiness that we want to have all the time. We don’t need the roller coaster of life to make us happy. We just need to remove all our negative feelings and cultivate our good