Dalai Lama

[ayadew]

This man is a fine soul which decided to stay on this planet on the first harvest 75'000 years ago I'm sure.

I'm currently reading the book called "Happiness!" (or somesuch in english). Dalai Lama claims, in contradiction to the western popular belief that the human nature is destructive and selfish, that human nature is compassionate, caring and loving. The destructive and selfish nature is only produced through encouraging through society.
He is convinced that finding happiness is our purpose in life, and promoting integrating, compassionate and good feelings will achieve this as one also eliminates that which causes hate, anger etc.

I find this to be very true... what you give out is what you get back. Both physically and mentally. When I do kind things and try to focus on positive sides of my fellow humans and appreciate them I feel close to them and thus not alone. If I dislike and hate them I feel lonely.

Dalai Lama also speaks of mental discipline. It's like training yourself to be positive. The more you try to see the good in all, the easier it will be. You will change your own reality. The more you want what you have the less greed is within you.

I have found myself to feel better everytime I successfully transmute anger within myself to something compassionate. Then I have elimitated a negative feeling and produced a positive.

He also claims that you should not confuse Happiness with Pleasure. There is great confusing in the western world about this, where we are fed endless temptations of "pleasure" but none about lasting, eternal "happiness".

His first and last advice is, to find happiness, is to ask yourself when at any decision: "Does this make me happy?". So simple and effective. Does being angry make you happy? Buying those shoes? Going for that walk? ("Act on your excitement"). This applies both mentally and physically.

Everything is really congruent with LOO... I recommend reading some about him!

[Ashim]

The Dalai Lama provided my introduction to spirituality. Excellent post ayadew, I share in your gratitude for this beautiful Soul.

[Lorna]

i've only read one of the dalai lama's books but i found it full of wisdom and very helpful in dealing with 3d life
personally i found his most impactful statement was that happiness is a choice - it's as simple as that - for me concepts of happiness and contentment are very closely intertwined

[ayadew]

This man may be my first idol..

[Questioner]

Thank you for the book suggestion, Ayadew.

I've read other excellent books by other Buddhists. I've seen excerpts of the Dalai Lama's books. However, I don't remember that I've read any of his books.

Amazon.com shows many books from him with happiness in the title. That seems to be a major theme for him. There's something I can learn from him just from the titles.

The destructive and selfish nature is only produced through encouraging through society.

Does he discuss how that comes about? Is it important or even possible to counteract these effects in society? Or do we best serve society by focusing on our own happiness?

He is convinced that finding happiness is our purpose in life, and promoting integrating, compassionate and good feelings will achieve this as one also eliminates that which causes hate, anger etc.

I knew this innately from my youth. But I was uninformed and misinformed about how to go about it. I thought that the most important thing was to try to relieve others around me of their unhappiness, before I had any right to be happy while they were unhappy. I also felt that the way to provide that relief was to change the circumstance that they claimed caused their unhappiness. I felt this as an obligation, even if doing so was unhappy for me or beyond my ability to achieve. This was compassionate, but very ignorant and unskilled. I was unaware that happiness or unhappiness has as much to do with a person's own interpretations and beliefs inside their own mind as with any outward circumstances.

I have found myself to feel better everytime I successfully transmute anger within myself to something compassionate. Then I have elimitated a negative feeling and produced a positive.

I'd like to learn more about how to do that.

He also claims that you should not confuse Happiness with Pleasure. There is great confusing in the western world about this, where we are fed endless temptations of "pleasure" but none about lasting, eternal "happiness".

Maybe he's using it in the sense that other people would use words like "joy" or "peace" or "contentment."

His first and last advice is, to find happiness, is to ask yourself when at any decision: "Does this make me happy?". So simple and effective.

I'm happy to write back to you about this happy man's book.

Everything is really congruent with LOO... I recommend reading some about him!

Much of Buddhism resonates with me in the same way as the Law of One material: deep, ancient wisdom with applications for each moment of life.