I Want Happiness

Faculty of Medicine,

University of Colombo

Once a rich prince went to his spiritual teacher and demanded that he wanted to be happy. Not happy from the next birth, next year nor from tomorrow, but from now on. He was willing to go through the required training.

Where does lasting happiness come from? Is it important for us to know it nowadays?

The aim of this article is to present an experiential and pragmatic happiness formula offered by one of the greatest spiritual leaders of mankind to a wealthy young man. The need for happiness and the pattern of thinking of the modern youth have not changed over time. Hence, this formula for happiness is very much applicable to the modern world as well.

The prince had all the luxuries in life that money could buy and also political power. He had ample material resources ranging from all imaginable kinds of food, leisure activities, and other entertainment. However, he realized that the happiness gained by these luxuries was short lived and there seemed to be no lasting happiness in any of those. The reflective mind of this intelligent prince soon realized that enjoying these luxuries was not the road to permanent happiness.

Many people in the modern world experience the same need for lasting happiness and contentment. Many of them enjoy a luxurious life but underlying mental stress is overwhelming. Some people realize the damaging nature of stress. However, others fail to recognize this silent danger and continue to work under severe mental stress.

Mental stress is also experienced by people who do not lead luxurious lives. Many people who are in the middle and low income communities suffer from stress related to work, family and social life.

What was the formula for happiness that the prince was offered by his spiritual teacher?

"Prince, you already have all the luxuries of lay life. You are still not contented and feel something is lacking in your life which makes you unhappy. If you are given the formula for everlasting happiness and contentment, are you ready to accept it and train yourself to get it"

"Most certainly, venerable sir," the prince agreed.

"Very well! Sit down here in the lotus position. I will teach you the formula for permanent happiness. This technique has eight components to be accomplished. You will stay still for one hour during this training in which these eight components are fulfilled. You need a vision in this new life which you have already come to. This is the vision of lasting happiness and freedom from distress in the mind. Adopting this vision is the first component. Without this vision you will be aimless and will not take up this exercise seriously. We will call this the Right Vision. Second is an attitude, the attitude that you do not stop this training until you reach the permanent happiness which also means freedom from mental distress and discontentment you go through now. This, prince, is called the Right Attitude, the second of the eight components. An attitude is something driven deeply into oneself which doesn't go easily. This attitude remains till you achieve the final goal in this endeavour".

With this vision and attitude the prince is now sitting by the side of the teacher with determination.

"During this one hour of training you do not speak in order to accomplish absolute verbal discipline, the third component. You do not move any part of your body to fulfill the absolute physical discipline, the fourth. When you are verbally and physically disciplined in absolute terms, you are disciplined socially as well, an absolute requirement in this formula for happiness. This social discipline is the fifth."

With determination to end the mental stress and discontentment and to achieve permanent happiness the prince, now is sitting in the lotus position closed lipped and the body still. At this stage, he has fulfilled five out of the eight components of this technique.

"Now prince you are ready to watch your mind using your mind. For this I will teach you a method. Close your eyes fully or about 70 percent. Start looking at your body using your mind as an eye. Look at it one part at a time. To do this it is helpful to identify a certain number of body parts that you are familiar with. I suggest you to consider 25 body parts, namely head, forehead, right eye, nose, left eye, right cheek, left cheek, mouth, chin, neck, upper chest, lower chest, upper abdomen, mid abdomen, lower abdomen, right thigh, right knee, right lower leg from knee to heel, right foot , right side toe, left thigh, left knee, left lower leg, left foot and left side toes.

"From now on this technique is entirely a mental exercise. You take your mind to one of these body parts. You can start from the head. While taking your mind in a circle on the top of the head contemplate 'may all be well, happy and peaceful' once. Then you let go the head and come to the forehead and contemplate the same. Similarly, you let go every part one by one from the head to the toes of the left leg. From the toes of the left leg you come back to the top of the head and start the next cycle."

"Here, prince, you engage your mind to scan the body using loving kindness as a tool of removing attachment or aversion. Loving kindness is not love. Love is attachment which turns out to be painful when broken. Loving kindness gives the mind a skill of associating without attachment hence, no mental pain results when the association is terminated.

"You will come across distractions when you do this. There are three sources of such distraction. One source is the world outside you. You will hear voices, conversations, music and so on among many other things. Your mind, prince, has affinity to listen to these. When you hear those let them go immediately. There can be only one thought in the mind at one point of time. If your mind occupies an outside thought it replaces the thought in meditation. So, these distracting thoughts take your mind off the meditation. When you smell something pleasant such as a perfume or an unpleasant one let them go disregarding its pleasant or unpleasantness. So is any tactile sensation on the body. These noises, smells and touch are the three disturbances from outside. As we have closed the eyes when we start we are not distracted by visual inputs. As we do not eat during this training we do not get disturbances from taste. These are the five distractions that can generate thoughts disturbing meditation. These are the five types of external objects that you always lived with before sitting down here to practice this, exercise.

"Now venerable sir, do we not let go all disturbances from the outside world of attachment during this exercise?"

"You are correct prince. You let go the attachments from the outside world during this exercise.The second world you have to let go is the world associated with the physical body. You will feel pain, hunger, thirst and sometimes pleasant feelings as well. Whatever these feelings are you let them go without letting those feelings creating thoughts".

"Now you know how to deal with two sources of distractions. Prince, you still have another world to let go. You still have thoughts emanating from your consciousness consisting of memory and its values and attitudes. This is the third source of distractions. What you do now is watch those thoughts and let them go as they arise. However, initially you cling on to these and engage in thought processes. You will sooner or later learn to see these popup thoughts and let go". The more frequent and the longer you practice the faster you distinguish those distracting thoughts and let them go. This is the sixth of the eight components and also called Right Mindfulness."

"Prince, To sit down to practice this you need lot of courage. To continue doing it you need even more courage. When you continue you will gradually remove attachments already stored in the consciousness. No new attachments created during this period of training. State of non-attachment will be expanded. This courage and expansion of non attachment is called the Right Effort which is the seventh of eight components.

"Now you start practicing this. From the first thought in this exercise you will feel relieved. This relief can be interrupted until you train yourself enough to maintain it as long as you want. You will go though four levels of deep absorption during this period of regular training. Once successfully stabilized in the exercise you would enjoy relief, contentment and happiness with lesser disturbances. This is the eighth component also called Right Concentration.

"Venerable Sir, I spent one hour trying to do it. Sir, it was a struggle right from the beginning. My mind was so disobedient and violent. I was listening to music from the street and enjoying the fragrance of food in the street. I was thinking of home for a long time unable to bring my mind back to meditation. My legs were hurting like in hell. But sir, I was determined. Last few minutes I was able to defeat all these and bring my mind back to body scan. I felt much better".

"Very well prince, you had a glimpse of the reality associated with your body, mind and consciousness. Had you not sat here in this meditation you would never have even sensed this reality. You have just made an initial observation of the nature of physical and mental distress of being human and the route cause of this distress which is a static self called myself in this dynamic interplay of body, mind and consciousness."

As you proceed in the training you should

1. Develop your stamina to continue this exercise. To develop your stamina in this you should also

a. develop your born talent further in doing this exercise.

b. not be lazy

c. organize your lifestyle to allocate time for this exercise. You should give it a very high priority in your life.

d. You should manage your mundane life and super-mundane life that you just initiated. You may have to give up activities that are not essential such as social events which can be skipped, meetings, and certain entertainment that you used to spend time on.

e. Experiment with in the training to make the exercise give intended results of removing attachment.

2. Protect and nurture the non-attachment achieved. This needs frequent and regular practice, at least two hours a day initially and increasing as you proceed.

3. Associate the non-attached mind which is blissful, as much as possible. As this happens during meditation you must make sure you find time to meditate.

4. Stay in the final blissful state of mind the source of lasting happiness and contentment. This is the state where mind is free from the attachments to living and inanimate possessions, body and the consciousness unruffled and possessing exceptional capabilities.

"During this exercise you begin to see how the mind behaves. Mind dwells in the body, external world and in the memories of the consciousness. Almost all of these encounters generate separate thought processes which often create a distress. Even happy thoughts in inappropriate situations create a distress by disturbing concentration and creating uncalled for facial expressions that people struggle to conceal".

"Venerable Sir, I noticed that the thoughts frequently arose are those that the mind liked or had a conflict with. I mean, Sir I had a land dispute before I came here. I was about to lose a land that belonged to me. This thought kept disturbing me. However, when I kept letting this thought go the distress started waning".

"You are right, prince when the strength of an attachment weakens it creates less and less thoughts and with low intensity. Ultimately, this thought of losing the land will never arise spontaneously freeing you from this distress one hundred percent. It does not mean that this information is not there in the memory. It is still there, however, mind is free from its attachment to this thought. When you keep practicing this exercise, freedom of mind is achieved in relation to all the thoughts making yourself totally free. Coincidentally, your mind will be filled with happiness, contentment and sense of fulfillment" .

"Will I then be happy and contented for ever, venerable Sir"?

"You need to practice further till you are able to maintain this state of the mind as long as you want. It takes more time and commitment. However, you will feel happier, more contented and freer along this path as you proceed".

"Venerable Sir, will I lose all my memory once I achieve this ultimate state of happiness?"

"No prince! You will not lose those, but the attachment to those. Then these memories in the consciousness will not automatically pop up into your mind unlike earlier. They remain to be accessed only when you purposely intend to retrieve them. As this access takes place without attachment but only for a specific purpose and by that time the tenacity of the mind has disappeared these retrieved thoughts will not cause any distress. So, you won't lose memory but you access it only when you need it. Hence, your emotional stability, happiness and contentment are not affected by the memories of the past".

"Venerable Sir, what will be my relationship with my family?

"You can practice this exercise at home. When your mind's attachments become less and less your day to day arguments, conflicts and disappointments with family members will gradually disappear. Mutual respect will be developed creating peace and happiness within the family. This, is because your need for defending yourself, your ego and the psychological need to dominate wane. They will know when you need more time to practice and your chances of finding time to practice will be assured".

"Venerable Sir, do I have to be modest in my clothes, look and the vehicle I use"?

"Not necessarily prince! You can wear what you wear now and you can use the same vehicle. You do not have to change your look either. When you advance in this path you will realize what to do and what not to do. What you wear or what kind of vehicle you use will not matter much. Your mind will let you know these outside things do not matter much and you will be happy with what you have. You will be unruffled when you lose those".

"Venerable Sir, I used to eat deliciously cooked meat and fish served on my table. Should I stop eating meat and become a vegetarian"?

"The most important thing is to start the training. Your mind will gradually learn that you do not live to eat but eat to live and food never gives lasting happiness. In time to come you will be happier without meat.

"Thank you venerable sir, now I see the path to happiness. I will practice the exercise you gave me giving it the highest priority in my life".

Many people in the contemporary world seek happiness. Indulging in sense pleasure gives only temporary happiness. Some people among us enjoy peace in mind and spend quite happy lives. Those who enjoy peacefulness without comprehending the deceptive nature of the pleasure based on the five sense organs are, however, vulnerable. Subtle distresses in their minds are ignored by them or not visible outwardly or not recognized by them. However, when the circumstances change this sense of peacefulness can be seriously affected. It is important to know that this peacefulness is temporary and that they depend on a born talent. These born talents either remain the same or slowly deteriorate. That is why training for permanent happiness is so important. One who is seeking permanent happiness should understand this and not be deceived by temporary states of peace in mind or happiness.

Acknowledgement

This article is based on the interpretation of Vyaggapajja Sutta through my personal experience gained by vipassana meditation in the Noble Eightfold Path and as a medical doctor and a researcher into the mind. I sincerely acknowledge the guidance provided by the most venerable arahath Lankapura Sariputta thero for me to get into the Noble Eightfold Path expounded by the Siddhartha Gowthama Samma Sambuddha.