“Happiness is our natural heritage as human beings", according to the Dalai Lama, but doesn't Buddhism tell us that we suffer because of attachment?
What is wrong with attachment? It could be argued that it’s not possible to live without love, affection, relationships and a whole gamut of needs and desires. It might even be supposed that it is precisely the satisfaction of these needs and desires that provides the motivation to live a full and happy existence.
Attachments are necessary and unavoidable. We can’t all retreat into the forest and live in a blissful state of nirvana…and so we may argue. But where does all this takes us? The reason for suffering, according to the Buddha, is ‘attachment’. At the root of attachment is desire. What do we desire? We desire the end of suffering.
Attachment can only argue from the viewpoint of attachment. It is a circle. But can we break out of it? The situation is analogous to a dog chasing its own tail. While this may be a temporary and amusing distraction, it inevitably results in boredom. For the dog, this is only a game - unless it is disturbed in some way. Human beings do the same thing, but unlike the dog we are serious and we persist in behaving this way.
How many times do we go on repeating the same thing over and over again before we learn? The clients of therapists may be interested in working through the trauma of divorce, but they seldom acknowledge their own contribution to that divorce - even though it may be their third or fourth! An emotional band aid is secured, but the real problem is avoided.
Love is something that we want; affection becomes something that we demand; relationships become instrumental, a means of gratification or an antidote to loneliness; and lasting satisfaction is always just around the corner. We are seldom truly satisfied with our lot.
In the same way ‘happiness’ is treated like an object, a right enshrined in law, and in our haste to acquire it we forget the admonitions from our poets and singers, such as William Blake (“He that ….winged life destroy”) and Bob Dylan (“There’s no failure…success at all”).
We are born, we live and then we die. That is the nature and pattern of all living things. Our life is not a practice or a dress rehearsal - this is the real thing! Yet every day we engage in what can seem like an unending struggle, alerting us to the inescapable realisation that something is missing in our lives. What is that something? That something is happiness. It’s what we all seek. It is our reason for existence, and its loss our greatest sorrow.
Fight or flight seems to be our stock response to many of our everyday life situations, creating tension and stress and making each day a struggle, if not for material survival, then certainly to feel at home with ourselves, with our neighbours, and with our environment. Denial, blame and absorption in endless consumption and distractions do not assuage the pervasive sense of unsatisfactoriness that we can all feel from time to time.
We all want to find happiness in our lives. We search, and if we find it, it’s often a fleeting, transient phenomenon – nothing seems to last for long. Perhaps we need to change our approach in our search for that something that can be so elusive. Can we change ourselves - do we need to? Morihei Ueshiba, the Founder of the Japanese Martial Art of Aikido said that in order to find your 'true' self, you must "forget self".
There are many forms of self-cultivation that encourage self-realisation; cults and therapeutic regimes and systems abound to cater for our numerous neuroses. There are many prescriptions for attaining that which we lack - so we are informed. Are we really so bereft of resources? Of course training can help, but a teacher cannot give us what we don't already have:
Daiju visited the master Baso in China.
Baso asked: "What do you seek?"
"Enlightenment," replied Daiju.
"You have your own treasure house.
Why do you search outside?" Baso asked.
Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?"
Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house."
Daiju was delighted!
Ever after he urged his friends:
"Open your own treasure house and use those treasures."
George Bernard Shaw, commenting on the subject of happiness had this to say:
” We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."
We can change focus, shift the emphasis, and concentrate on the production of happiness rather than its consumption. If we find that we have some, then give it away! In this way there will be no shortage. It is after all the reason for life.
The Ox Herding pictures of the Zen tradition chart the developmental stages of liberation and end with a depiction of a fat, jolly priest with wine and trinkets. He is in the ‘market place (the world) and giving it all away. In other, notably Chinese traditions of Zen, this last stage is often portrayed as an empty circle - freedom.
What is wrong with attachment? It could be argued that it’s not possible to live without love, affection, relationships and a whole gamut of needs and desires. It might even be supposed that it is precisely the satisfaction of these needs and desires that provides the motivation to live a full and happy existence.
Attachments are necessary and unavoidable. We can’t all retreat into the forest and live in a blissful state of nirvana…and so we may argue. But where does all this takes us? The reason for suffering, according to the Buddha, is ‘attachment’. At the root of attachment is desire. What do we desire? We desire the end of suffering.
Attachment can only argue from the viewpoint of attachment. It is a circle. But can we break out of it? The situation is analogous to a dog chasing its own tail. While this may be a temporary and amusing distraction, it inevitably results in boredom. For the dog, this is only a game - unless it is disturbed in some way. Human beings do the same thing, but unlike the dog we are serious and we persist in behaving this way.
How many times do we go on repeating the same thing over and over again before we learn? The clients of therapists may be interested in working through the trauma of divorce, but they seldom acknowledge their own contribution to that divorce - even though it may be their third or fourth! An emotional band aid is secured, but the real problem is avoided.
Love is something that we want; affection becomes something that we demand; relationships become instrumental, a means of gratification or an antidote to loneliness; and lasting satisfaction is always just around the corner. We are seldom truly satisfied with our lot.
In the same way ‘happiness’ is treated like an object, a right enshrined in law, and in our haste to acquire it we forget the admonitions from our poets and singers, such as William Blake (“He that ….winged life destroy”) and Bob Dylan (“There’s no failure…success at all”).
We are born, we live and then we die. That is the nature and pattern of all living things. Our life is not a practice or a dress rehearsal - this is the real thing! Yet every day we engage in what can seem like an unending struggle, alerting us to the inescapable realisation that something is missing in our lives. What is that something? That something is happiness. It’s what we all seek. It is our reason for existence, and its loss our greatest sorrow.
Fight or flight seems to be our stock response to many of our everyday life situations, creating tension and stress and making each day a struggle, if not for material survival, then certainly to feel at home with ourselves, with our neighbours, and with our environment. Denial, blame and absorption in endless consumption and distractions do not assuage the pervasive sense of unsatisfactoriness that we can all feel from time to time.
We all want to find happiness in our lives. We search, and if we find it, it’s often a fleeting, transient phenomenon – nothing seems to last for long. Perhaps we need to change our approach in our search for that something that can be so elusive. Can we change ourselves - do we need to? Morihei Ueshiba, the Founder of the Japanese Martial Art of Aikido said that in order to find your 'true' self, you must "forget self".
There are many forms of self-cultivation that encourage self-realisation; cults and therapeutic regimes and systems abound to cater for our numerous neuroses. There are many prescriptions for attaining that which we lack - so we are informed. Are we really so bereft of resources? Of course training can help, but a teacher cannot give us what we don't already have:
Daiju visited the master Baso in China.
Baso asked: "What do you seek?"
"Enlightenment," replied Daiju.
"You have your own treasure house.
Why do you search outside?" Baso asked.
Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?"
Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house."
Daiju was delighted!
Ever after he urged his friends:
"Open your own treasure house and use those treasures."
George Bernard Shaw, commenting on the subject of happiness had this to say:
” We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."
We can change focus, shift the emphasis, and concentrate on the production of happiness rather than its consumption. If we find that we have some, then give it away! In this way there will be no shortage. It is after all the reason for life.
The Ox Herding pictures of the Zen tradition chart the developmental stages of liberation and end with a depiction of a fat, jolly priest with wine and trinkets. He is in the ‘market place (the world) and giving it all away. In other, notably Chinese traditions of Zen, this last stage is often portrayed as an empty circle - freedom.
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