Ask any one what he wants out of life, and he will say 'happiness' some will say 'peace'. Unfortunately we mortals spend a lifetime searching for both. Actually there is no such thing as happiness or peace. They are simply absences.
That sentence has grammatical errors I know, but there is no other way to express it clearly. One thinks of happiness as a state of being.
"I will be happy if I get a good job".
"I will be happy if I am not broke every 27th of the month" (Which I am always, and which mostly caused this essay).
Will I find happiness if I get cash enough to sustain me through all 30 days? May be I will be less unhappy. I will devise new things to become unhappy. Yes. We devise ways to be come unhappy. That is somewhat perplexing, but then we go on from unhappiness - A to unhappiness -B if the unhappiness A gets removed.
We expect happiness to be something that is pleasure. Unfortunately even if you indulge in a pleasure thing for a time you get dissatisfied and become unhappy. When he found out about this, Buddha declared that the whole world and our living is all unhappiness and made a religion out of it.
This is where the optimists get out their keyboards and tap in scathing criticism both against the great man, and poor me for being a pessimist. I am not an optimist or pessimist. Happiness is simply the absence of sorrow, just as pleasure is the absence of pain. Peace is the absence of tumult.
Let the friendly neighborhood tea shop set up a blaring public address system and play the most favorite music non stop at high decibels and let you get a million in lotteries and have the best mansion by the side of this tea stall. Your life will be hell. The noise outside have robbed you of your peace. The same can be said about your inside. Let you be the most accomplished, most beautiful or richest or what ever you desire to be in the world, let there be a single nagging worry (You can replace it with a nagging wife if you like) and all those riches and accomplishments are nothing, because of the cacophony in the mind.
I recall a story from my childhood.
King Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar and his minister, were walking the streets in plainclothes. The king noticed a young man holding a huge tusker (elephant) by it's tusk and pushing it back. The young man it appeared was as strong as the elephant!
The king was taken by surprise and commented that man can become stronger than the elephant if he chose to.
The Minister replied that the man was not strong, but did not have a care in the world, was not worried about anything and therefore peaceful. His peaceful nature affected the elephant and as a result the elephant obliged him in good humour when he pushed. All others approach the elephant with either fear, or some other thing in their mind, and the elephant sensing that their mind is not with them ignore them.
I fully agree with the minister, because evry 3rd day here in Thrissur we have one elephant running amuck and damaging things. It is actually because their trainers are not proper. Anyway, that is not a part of what I wanted to say, but later on you will understand the simile of the elephant better, so I mentioned that in passing.
The King did not agree, and hence the minister asked the king to give the youth some task that was difficult for him to perform. Since he came from a very affluent family, the youth had never worked in his life. The King gave the man a bag of sea salt and required that it be sold in a week at a rate slightly higher than the normal rate, and pay the proceeds to the treasury in one month.
The next day the minister took the king to see the young man play with the elephant.
The Elephant shied away from him, and when he pushed it, instead of stepping back, it actually threw him!
"My lord", Said the Minister "It was not his strength, but the feeling of peace that the elephant noticed which made it move back. Now that young man has lost his peace, because you gave him worry. He is trying to solve your problem, his mind is agitated, and therefore the elephant threw him away!
One does not know if the king proceeded further in the matter. However I proceed to take you from folklore to the reality which is TODAY.
The cause of sorrows, said Buddha, is attachment. So don't crave for things. Then you won't have sorrow. Then you also will not have a home, food, and your Ferrari. You will be a beggar depending on others for your sustenance. That itself is terribly sorrowful. So when and where can we find a little peace in the universe?
The answer is anywhere.
To find peace and cease from self inflicted suffering, You MUST be attached to yourself. That is what I feel and usually I keep the nasty feelings out with that. By that I mean you ought to first understand that you do not desire Peace and Pleasure, both being concepts of the mind. Your need is to avoid pain and tumult caused by pressing needs. Rather than seeking, we therefore ELEMINATE.
In other words,
One ought to eliminate the sorrow in a situation to have 'not sorrow' or peace
One ought to eliminate pain in order to reach the state of 'no pain' that is called pleasure.
Better said than done. Is it not so?
Look into what causes you the pain. Let us take, for example the physical pain - say 'Tooth ache'. It is not bearable, and Shakespeare says : "There was not yet a philosopher who bore the tooth ache patiently"
The elimination of the tooth ache will comprise of a visit immediately to the dentist, and get it over with. But, simple as it is, go back in your life and see how many times you carried your tooth ache, cold, headache and things trying out home remedies before you visited appropriate persons? Find many instances like that? Then you caused your own physical pain. Even other wise, do you check your sugar level? No? Then you also are causing yourself pain.
One solution to our common unhappiness may be that we are not taking timely action!
I give that as an example. There is more pain mentally than physical. Friend betrayed us. Wife nagged us. Someone called us an idiot (Which we grudgingly acknowledge to be true) and things like that. That is mental pain. How to get money to tide over 11 more days is also mental pain.
There can be any number of solutions to these situations. Unfortunately, I have to attend to other pressing matters which promise pain if I don't. Therefore I will continue this blog after the 31st, say in April, after I tide over the current pain. Really, it is simple. I welcome your interaction in this matter to settle the principles of finding true bliss.
Article source http://w4rum.com/2397.t
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