By Jill Suttie — 2020
Our emotional well-being can benefit the people around us.
Read on greatergood.berkeley.edu
CLEAR ALL
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”?
Many Euro-American Buddhists seek diversity in their sanghas and make efforts to reach out to minority groups, often with negligible results.
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.
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The ultimate goal of Buddhist practice isn’t about achieving mental health.
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.