By Emiliana Simon-Thomas — 2018
Research reveals the steps you can take toward greater well-being, health, and productivity at work.
Read on greatergood.berkeley.edu
CLEAR ALL
In The Zen of Therapy, Mark Epstein weaves together two ways of understanding how humans can feel more settled in their lives.
A calm mind and even temper can help make peace with life’s difficulties.
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Question: Buddhist teachers, including the Dalai Lama, often speak of happiness as a goal (if not the goal) of Buddhist practice. I don’t begrudge anyone happiness, but making it so central to spiritual life feels self-serving. Am I misunderstanding what’s meant by “happiness”?
It’s surprisingly easy to achieve lasting happiness — we just have to understand our own basic nature. The hard part, says Mingyur Rinpoche, is getting over our bad habit of seeking happiness in transient experiences.
The ultimate goal of Buddhist practice isn’t about achieving mental health.
Mindfulness experts Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter show, by way of the Buddhist parable of the second arrow, how the mind’s response to crisis is a choice we can control.
The biggest mistake we can make, according to the Buddha, is to discount or minimize our suffering. Why? Because it is the fiery gate through which we must pass to engage the spiritual path.
In this essay, I discuss what enduring happiness means according to the Buddhist perspective and the ways in which the Dalai Lama embodies this enduring happiness.
As Buddhist teaching says, suffering has the potential to deepen our compassion and understanding of the human condition. And in so doing, it can lead us to even greater faith, joy and well-being.