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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: sonamdhargey on November 25, 2012, 11:41:28 AM

Title: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: sonamdhargey on November 25, 2012, 11:41:28 AM
Very Beautifully written. How such beings can think and act based upon the following words are really inspiring. Such selflessness and without resistance and just accept it all and be happy.

If this illusory body, which I cling to as mine, is sick—let it be sick!
This sickness enables me to exhaust
The bad karma I have accumulated in the past,
And the spiritual deeds I can then perform
Help me purify the two kinds of veils.

If I am in good health, I am happy,
Because when my body and mind are well
I can enhance my spiritual practice,
And give real meaning to human existence
By turning my body, speech and mind to virtue.

If I am poor, I am happy,
Because I’ve no wealth to protect,
And I know that all feuds and animosity
Sprout from the seeds of greed and attachment.

If I am rich, I am happy,
Because with my wealth I can do more positive actions,
And both temporal and ultimate happiness
Are the result of meritorious deeds.

If I die soon, that’s excellent,
Because, assisted by some good potential, I am confident that
I shall enter the unmistaken path
Before any obstacle can intervene.

If I live long, I am happy,
Because without parting from the warm beneficial rain of spiritual instructions
I can, over a long time, fully ripen
The crop of inner experiences.

Therefore, whatever happens, I shall be happy!

-Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme (1295-1369)
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: bambi on November 25, 2012, 12:05:23 PM
Such a beautiful poem! Coincidentally, I am having a very painful gastric attack and the first verse is about being sick. How appropriate! ;D

I remember one time I was so in pain, it was intolerable. And my Dharma sister told me to endure the pain happily. Think of all those who are suffering more than me. To be able to absorb their pain at the same time with the motivation of me suffering for them. How kind of her to have reminded me of that! May I always be happy in any conditions that arises from my negative karma and accept it joyfully come rain or shine!
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: RedLantern on November 25, 2012, 12:39:59 PM
Happiness is achieved,therefore,not when we fulfill all of our desires for material goods.Rather,contentment is possible when we reduce our wants and needs,meditate develop our minds,think of others,pursue wisdom and control our desires.This does not mean that we all have to become a Buddhist monk.It means that our lives become meaningful(in whatever we do)as they are guided by Buddhist principal.
We simply have to get on with the rest of our lives and try to compensate for our introduction of bad karma to the universe.We are free to advance spiritually in everything we do,we decide our fates,no one else to blame!.
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: vajrastorm on November 25, 2012, 04:07:05 PM
This lovely and inspiring poem shows me how I can embrace all that life brings with a mind of equanimity, thus attaining peace and happiness whatever happens:
- sickness is an opportunity for me to purify and exhaust all my negative karma accumulated over time.
-good health is a means for me to enhance my spiritual practice and to give optimum meaning to my precious human life.
-poverty allows peace of mind and freedom from suffering arising from greed and attachment.
-with wealth I can do more meritorious deeds and build up my accumulation of merits.
- with early death, a good seed or imprint ripens to enable me to continue  practicing the unmistaken path, before any obstacle arises to prevent this.
- a long healthy life will ensure I receive an abundance of spiritual instructions to enable full ripening of inner experiences. 


Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: Midakpa on November 26, 2012, 02:08:48 AM
Happiness is achieved when craving stops. Craving or desire, one of the root delusions, is what keeps us in samsara and comes in many forms. Even the desire for enlightenment can be a type of craving if we don't watch our mind. This is called spiritual materialism. This poem, with its positive attitude to life, is very inspiring and should be taken as a personal instruction. It emphasizes acceptance of one's situation in life. Whatever experiences one has in life is the result of causes and conditions created in this life and in past lives. Reacting positively towards one's situation is the proper attitude to have. It helps us overcome our suffering, and focus our mind towards dharma practice.
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: Jessie Fong on November 26, 2012, 12:11:10 PM
This beautiful poem is also about sickness and health, poverty and wealth, ageing and death.

It teaches us to contemplate on all the stages of life that we would have to go through before we reach the final days.  Knowing what we need to experience will prepare us for the road ahead.

It reminds me of this song:

Don't Worry, Be Happy
From the Movie "Cocktails"
Performed by Bobby McFerrin

Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy
The land lord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don't worry, be happy
Look at me I am happy
Don't worry, be happy
Here I give you my phone number
When you worry call me
I make you happy
Don't worry, be happy
Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got no girl to make you smile
But don't worry be happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
So don't worry, be happy (now).....

There is this little song I wrote
I hope you learn it note for note
Like good little children
Don't worry, be happy
Listen to what I say
In your life expect some trouble
But when you worry
You make it double
Don't worry, be happy......
Don't worry don't do it, be happy
Put a smile on your face
Don't bring everybody down like this
Don't worry, it will soon past
Whatever it is
Don't worry, be happy

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/dontworrybehappylyrics.html (http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/dontworrybehappylyrics.html)
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: Tenzin K on November 26, 2012, 06:14:43 PM
What is happiness? You may think it’s how you feel when you get what you want. Someone says something you like to hear, and you feel happy. Someone does something you approve of, and you feel happy. The sun shines and you feel happy. Someone makes nice food and serves it to you, and you’re happy. But how long can you stay happy? Do we always have to depend on the sun shining? In England, the weather is very changeable: the happiness about the sun shining in England is obviously very impermanent and unsatisfactory.

Unhappiness is not getting what we want: wanting it to be sunny when it’s cold, wet and rainy; people doing things that we don’t approve of; having food that isn’t delicious and so on. Life gets boring and tedious when we’re unhappy with it. So happiness and unhappiness are very dependent on getting what we want, and having to get what we don’t want.

But happiness is the goal of most people’s lives; in the American constitution, I think, they speak of ‘the right to the pursuit of happiness’. Get-ting what we want, what we think we deserve, be-comes our goal in life. But happiness always leads to unhappiness, because it’s impermanent. How long can you really be happy? Trying to arrange, control and manipulate conditions so as to always get what we want, always hear what we want to hear, always see what we want to see, so that we never have to experience unhappiness or despair, is a hopeless task. It’s impossible, isn’t it? Happiness is unsatisfactory, it’s dukkha. It’s not something to depend on or make the goal of life. Happiness will always be disappointing because it lasts so briefly and then is succeeded by unhappiness. It is always dependent on so many other things. We feel happy when we’re healthy but our human bodies are subject to rapid changes and we can lose that health very quickly. Then we feel terribly unhappy at being sick, at losing the pleasure of feeling energetic and vigorous.

Thus the goal for the Buddhist is not happiness, because we realize that happiness is unsatisfactory. The goal lies away from the sensual world. It is not rejection of the sensual world, but understanding it so well that we no longer seek it as an end in itself. We no longer expect the sensory world to satisfy us. We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can skilfully use according to time and place. We no longer attach to it, or demand that the sense impingement be always pleasant, or feel despair and sorrow when it’s unpleasant. Nibbana isn’t a state of blankness, a trance where you’re totally wiped out. It’s not nothingness or an annihilation: it’s like a space. It’s going into the space of your mind where you no longer attach, where you’re no longer deluded by the appearance of things. You are no longer demanding anything from the sensory world. You are just recognizing it as it arises and passes away.

We’re not being pessimistic about the way things are, but we’re observing, so we don’t expect life to be other than it is. Then we can cope with life and endure it when it’s difficult, and delight when it’s delightful. If we understand it, we can enjoy life without being its helpless victims. How much mis-ery there is in human existence because we expect life to be other than what it is! We have these romantic ideas that we’ll meet the right person, fall in love and live happily ever after, that we’ll never fight, have a wonderful relationship. But what about death! ? So you think, ‘Well, maybe we’ll die at the same time.’ That’s hope, isn’t it? There’s hope, and then despair when your loved one dies before you do, or runs away with the dustman or the travelling salesman.

So the path of the Buddhist is a letting go, rath-er than trying to find anything. The problem is the blind attachment, the blind identification with the appearance of the sensory world. You needn’t get rid of the sensory world but learn from it, watch it, no longer allow yourselves to be deluded by it. Keep penetrating it with Buddha-wisdom, keep using this Buddha-wisdom so that you become more at ease with being wise, rather that making yourself become wise. Just by listening, observing, being awake, being aware, the wisdom will become clear. You’ll be using wisdom in regard to your body, in regard to your thoughts, feelings, memories, emotion, all of these things. You’ll see and witness, allowing them to pass by and let them go.
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: DS Star on November 26, 2012, 08:23:46 PM
Jessie Fong, here is a video of the song:

http://youtu.be/d-diB65scQU (http://youtu.be/d-diB65scQU)

The great Indian Buddhist master Shantideva wrote in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (Skt. Bodhicharyavatara):

Although having the mind that wishes to shun suffering,
They rush headlong into suffering itself.
Although wishing for happiness, yet out of naivety (Skt. moha),
They destroy their own happiness as if it were a foe.


Due to our ignorance, when we wish for happiness, we are depending on wrong object as the sources of achieving it; we place our happiness on conditioned and transient objects, then we are creating more unhappiness and sorrow instead of creating more happiness for ourselves.

Ultimate happiness is of course when we can eliminate the cause of all sufferings and having the wisdom to see and to understand fully the meaning of the nature of things. As for ordinary happiness in samsara, it is actually a state of mind. Though outer factors do play a role in term of satisfying our 5 senses, the actual 'happiness' in ordinary people is determined by the mind.

Buddhism provides two definitions for happiness. One is defined in terms of our relation to an object, while the other is defined in terms of our relation with the state of mind of the feeling itself.

"The first defines happiness as the experiencing of something in a satisfying manner, based on believing that it is of benefit to ourselves, whether or not it actually is. Unhappiness is the experiencing of something in an unsatisfying, tormenting way. We experience something neutrally when it is in neither a satisfying nor a tormenting way.

The second defines happiness as that feeling which, when it has ended, we wish to meet with it once more. Unhappiness as that feeling which, when it arises, we wish to be parted from it. While a neutral feeling is that feeling which, when it arises or ends, we have neither of the two wishes.
The two definitions are related. "



The key point here is 'Why worry?"

"If it can be remedied,
Why get into a foul mood over something?
And if it can’t be remedied,
What help is it to get into a foul mood over it?"
  - Shantideva
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: brian on December 01, 2012, 03:46:30 AM
I like these quotes. One can imagine how peaceful this world can be if everyone think like that. The last one by Shantideva is really helpful for people who have constant anger and it is particularly useful for anger management therapy. We often feel the quotes are nice and logical and feel inspired by it but how often do we really practised the verses above? I think if we can cope with the sort of sufferings, we can at least attained some merits to become enlightened in future because our mind has become stronger and becoming less selfish.
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: Dorje Pakmo on December 02, 2012, 02:04:27 PM
Very true and wise words written by Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme.

As I read the words I come to understand that no matter during good or bad times we should accept it as is with a happy heart. Whatever Karma we have accumulated we may have forgotten and when it comes back as sickness or misfortunes one often laments forgetting the good times that we are blessed with.

Hence, during good or bad times, we should happily receive and go with it and through it. I believe that every good or bad experience allows one to learn something. So do not be dejected when things get hard in life. There is definitely something to learn from the experience be it good or bad, to prepare one for something bigger later in life.
:) 
Title: Re: Whatever happens i shall be happy
Post by: dondrup on December 02, 2012, 08:14:48 PM
Truly inspiring poem to motivate the practitioners on the path to liberation and enlightenment.  What’s the point of being unhappy knowing that we have found Dharma and Dharma is the medicine that will cure us of our illness! The Buddhas cannot be wrong become their function is to help sentient beings to liberation and enlightenment.  The buddhas have proven the path.  All we need to do is to have faith and perservere until we complete the journey.  It will be very unfortunate if we don't apply the Dharma and feel unhappy about everything that hinders our spiritual progress.