Happiness

Joy

True joy happens when the ego is not involved.

~Steve Thayer

The Five Ethical Precepts

1 To Respect and Protect Life

2 To Respect and Protect the Property of Others

3 To Respect and Protect Sexual Boundaries

4 To Respect and Protect the Truth

5 To Respect and Protect One's Body and Mind

Happiness

The Buddha encouraged us to face the facts of life courageously and to accept the truth whatever and wherever it may be. He taught timeless practical truths that lead to understanding, knowledge, and happiness.

The Perfection of Human Life

Rather than attaining nirvana, I see the aim of Buddhist practice to be the moment-to-moment flourishing of human life within the ethical framework of the eightfold path here on earth.

~Stephen Sampson, in Secular Buddhism

Happiness

Doing the Good

Buddhists are encouraged to do good deeds not for the sake of gaining a place in heaven. They are expected to do good in order to eradicate their selfishness and to experience peace and happiness.

~K. Sri Dhammananda

A More Enlightened World

It is enlightened to abolish slavery. It is enlightened to attend to the welfare of animals. It is enlightened to create the conditions for world peace. It is enlightened to help others in myriad everyday ways. It is enlightened to recognize others as brothers and sisters. It is enlightened to view yourself objectively and not collude with superstition. Basically, it is enlightened to be kind and to stand up against cruelty. Every enlightened action contributes to the emergence of a more enlightened world.

~David Brazier

Think Vegan

Calming Our Emotions and Nourishing Our Joy

Mindfulness is the foundation of happiness. A person who is unhappy cannot make peace. Individual happiness is the foundation for creating peace in the world. To bring about peace, our hearts must be peace.

Mindfulness is the practice of stopping and becoming aware of what we are thinking and doing. The more we are mindful of our thoughts, speech, and actions, the more concentration we develop. With concentration, insight into the nature of our own suffering and the suffering of others arises. we then know what to do and what not to do in order to live joyfully and in peace with our surroundings.

Two important practices that help us cultivate the energy of mindfulness are mindful breathing and mindful walking. Our breath and our steps are always with us, and we can use these simple everyday acts to calm our emotions and nourish our joy.

  ~Thich Nhat Hanh 

Life

The Great Revival

Buddhism has undergone a revival in modern times — in the East as much as in the West. Why has this happened? Because people see a need for a new path to salvation after death? Surely not. Because we need another orderly, conventional, nice, Sunday religion? No. Because we want an exotic pastime pursuing mystic experiences? Perhaps for some this is the answer, but it will not do. No, the real reason is because a wide range of people have begun to suspect and hope that in Buddhism lie things of value for this world: possibilities that restore our faith in life; possibilities of culture without war and intolerance; possibilities of compassion and cooperation in social organisation; possibilities of real community that is not rooted in oppression: possibilities of all the things that people know instinctively are right for this world, but hardly dare risk believing in for fear of yet another disappointment.

~David Brazier, in The New Buddhism

Freedom from Politics and Religion

The world can never be made significantly better through political maneuvering. 

The world can never be made significantly better by religious sectarianism.

True progress comes when both politics and religion are allowed to fade away.

That's where the Buddha-Dharma, the Middle Way, comes into play.

In the Practice of the Middle Way, the Teachings given by Gotama Buddha before people got hold of them and made a religion out of them, the nonsense of religious rules and regulations is allowed to fade away. The nonsense of political expediency and cronyism is allowed to fade away.

In the Middle Way we accept justice, fairness, equality, democracy as they were always meant to be; not the "Animal Farm" approach that religion and politics seems unable to escape.

Within the Practice of the Middle Way, it's not the end of the journey that counts, it's the journey itself.

One trains by being what ones wants to be, what one wants society to be. 

For a peaceful person, a peaceful society, the way there is to be peaceful.

For a just person, a just society, the way there is to be just.

For a person guided by equality, a society guided by equality, the way there is to be guided by equality.

And on, and on, and on. This isn't rocket science. Be nice. Treat everything like you want to be treated. 

Don't be a jerk to anything.

The Sage

(The Blessed One said,)
"Free of craving before [their] death,
   Independent of past and future,
   Not making up anything in the present,
   They revere nothing.

"Free of anger, free of fear,
   Not boasting, not worrying,
   They are sages who, when speaking,
   Teach without agitation.

"Not clinging to the future,
   Nor grieving the past,
   They see seclusion in the midst of sense contacts
   And are not guided by views.

"They are neither clinging nor deceitful,
   Not greedy or stingy,
   Neither impudent nor offensive,
   And don't engage in malicious speech." 

                                                  Purabheda Sutta

Passing

Have you ever known happiness?

Have you ever known sadness?

Have you ever considered which of these is of value?

If happiness were true, it wouldn't dissolve.

If sadness were true, it wouldn't leave?

Each are a product of conditions and circumstances.

Sit with this thought.

Complete

A tree makes no distinction in the shade it gives. Even so, the earnest student of meditation must make no distinction between any beings, but must develop love quite equally towards thieves, murderers, enemies and towards himself, thinking: "How may these beings be without enmity and without harm, how may they be at peace, secure and happy; how may they look after themselves?"

---The Buddha---

Thought Constructions

When the heart is still, it is in its normal condition; when the mind moves, thought is constructed. Happiness and sorrow are part of the movement of mind, this thought construction. So also is restlessness, the desire to go here and there. If you do not understand such movement, you will chase after thought constructions and be at their mercy.

---Achaan Chah---

Happiness

A man said to a Buddhist monk, “I want happiness.”

The monk responded, “First remove 'I', that's ego. Then remove 'want', that's desire. Now, all that's left is happiness.”