Ryumon
06-18-2011, 02:57 PM
I'm reading a book about the four noble truths, written by a Tibetan. I find it interesting that the first two sentences of the book, in the forward, are:
"The Buddha's message is a universal one. We all search for happiness but somehow fail to find it because we are looking for it in the wrong way."
This made me think back to how I first got wind of the dharma.
While I had actually bought and read two books on Zen in the early 1980s, influenced by John Cage's aleatory music and his discussions of Zen (they were Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and Zen Flesh and Bones; good choices, but there wasn't much else available at the time), my first real understanding of the dharma occurred in 1989. I was living in Oslo, Norway at the time, after having moved from New York City, where I grew up, to France. My wife was sent as an expat to work on a project, and I had been teaching English as a foreign language in France at the time, and got some work teaching in Oslo.
One day, in the largest bookstore in the center of town, which had a fair number of books in English, I came across a book called The Buddhist Handbook, by John Snelling. (I see that there is an updated edition still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Handbook ... 0892817615 (http://http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Handbook-Complete-Teaching-Practice/dp/0892817615)) It was a simple book discussing the history of Buddhism, but it included a concise introduction to the Buddha's teachings. Now, while I don't remember a lot of precise moments in my life, I do recall sitting near the entrance of Vigelands Parken and reading a few pages of this book, and having a sudden flash of understanding. I don't recall what I read - I think it was a description of the four noble truths - but it lit up my mind in recognition of a truth. (Looking on Amazon at the beginning of chapter two of the book, I see a succinct summary of the dharma that is strongly at odds with the book I cited above. Snelling says:
"What is the essence of Buddhism?
Quite simply, it is the great question of who or what we are, right here, now, at this very moment."
Thats what I've always been attracted to, not some desire for "happiness." Not that I think happiness is a bad thing, but, as the Grateful Dead song says:
"When life looks like Easy Street
There is danger at your door."
I don't search for happiness; I don't think that's what I've ever searched for in the dharma. But I do search for a kind of balance, an acceptance of What Is, the "who or what we are" cited above.
I've bloviated a bit, and I apologize, but the initial impetus for this post was a simple question. Why does the Tibetan tradition focus on "happiness" so much? (The book I'm reading is far from the only one that does; several books "written" by the Dalai Lama contain the word "happiness" in their titles.) Also, I find it interesting - and reassuring - that the Zen tradition doesn't seem to be fixated on happiness. Because isn't the quest for happiness something that the second noble truth warns us against?
As for me, I'm not looking for happiness, or enlightenment; I'm just looking for is-ness...
"The Buddha's message is a universal one. We all search for happiness but somehow fail to find it because we are looking for it in the wrong way."
This made me think back to how I first got wind of the dharma.
While I had actually bought and read two books on Zen in the early 1980s, influenced by John Cage's aleatory music and his discussions of Zen (they were Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and Zen Flesh and Bones; good choices, but there wasn't much else available at the time), my first real understanding of the dharma occurred in 1989. I was living in Oslo, Norway at the time, after having moved from New York City, where I grew up, to France. My wife was sent as an expat to work on a project, and I had been teaching English as a foreign language in France at the time, and got some work teaching in Oslo.
One day, in the largest bookstore in the center of town, which had a fair number of books in English, I came across a book called The Buddhist Handbook, by John Snelling. (I see that there is an updated edition still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Handbook ... 0892817615 (http://http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Handbook-Complete-Teaching-Practice/dp/0892817615)) It was a simple book discussing the history of Buddhism, but it included a concise introduction to the Buddha's teachings. Now, while I don't remember a lot of precise moments in my life, I do recall sitting near the entrance of Vigelands Parken and reading a few pages of this book, and having a sudden flash of understanding. I don't recall what I read - I think it was a description of the four noble truths - but it lit up my mind in recognition of a truth. (Looking on Amazon at the beginning of chapter two of the book, I see a succinct summary of the dharma that is strongly at odds with the book I cited above. Snelling says:
"What is the essence of Buddhism?
Quite simply, it is the great question of who or what we are, right here, now, at this very moment."
Thats what I've always been attracted to, not some desire for "happiness." Not that I think happiness is a bad thing, but, as the Grateful Dead song says:
"When life looks like Easy Street
There is danger at your door."
I don't search for happiness; I don't think that's what I've ever searched for in the dharma. But I do search for a kind of balance, an acceptance of What Is, the "who or what we are" cited above.
I've bloviated a bit, and I apologize, but the initial impetus for this post was a simple question. Why does the Tibetan tradition focus on "happiness" so much? (The book I'm reading is far from the only one that does; several books "written" by the Dalai Lama contain the word "happiness" in their titles.) Also, I find it interesting - and reassuring - that the Zen tradition doesn't seem to be fixated on happiness. Because isn't the quest for happiness something that the second noble truth warns us against?
As for me, I'm not looking for happiness, or enlightenment; I'm just looking for is-ness...