The real source of happiness is inner peace.

According to Buddhist traditions, all living things in this world desire to be happy and without any suffering. Though very few are knowledgeable of the causes of happiness and suffering That’s why most people resort to obtain happiness from material things. But if we will understand it logically, these things causes the sufferings and problems and not the happiness we are pursuing.

Buddhists believe that we cannot find the causes of suffering in external sources as our mind controls it. Therefore, we must get happiness from inner peace, the peaceful state of our mind. With inner peace, we are not disturbed by external conditions and our tolerance to be unhappy decreases tremendously. But external conditions are not necessarily the culprit.

The teachings always implies that when one have inner peace, the peaceful mind can literally filter the external conditions and absorb only the things which can make us happy. It is something like having an optimistic attitude, when one thinks positively, everything will be positive to him even though some causes feelings of extreme pain or suffering.

According to Dhammapada 1,

“Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, mind is their maker. If one speaks or does a deed with a mind that is pure within, happiness then follows along like a never departing shadow.”

But how can we achieve inner peace?

Buddha says meditation. It is a method where we will bombard our minds with thoughts and feelings that causes happiness. It is also the time wherein we will just let our mind do the job and talk to us. With this, our mind becomes peaceful, when our mind is peaceful, worries or any suffering are taken aside, paving the way for the happiness to fill our minds.

Scientifically, meditation can be done almost everywhere. One of the most convenient and practical is the breathing meditation. This kind of meditation just takes the pleasure of breathing as the subject of meditation.

But take note that meditation is not the only way to be happy. Meditation can only help us gain not only inner peace but to overcome delusions, anger, ignorance and attachment to earthly things which leads us to nirvana, or the extinction of desire and sufferings: eternal happiness which no external condition can destroy!

Sources: www.parami.org, www.aboutbuddhist.org

Recent technological advancements in medicine include drugs that can alter mood, emotion and sometimes thinking. As many people nowadays get depressed, having an instantaneous way out of melancholy is desired to cope with the fast paced world of today.Ativan, Prozac, Serafem: just few of the popular antidepressants and tranquilizers prescribed to patients with severe cases that cannot be treated anymore with counseling and coaching. Research shows that these medicines may cause addiction and dependence that can sometimes interfere with normal life once medication is stopped.

Alternatively, most psychologists believe that feelings of intense sadness can be controlled by proper coaching and counseling and that everything is just “in the mind.”

One effective treatment is by tricking the brain with the use of placebos. Placebos are pills disguised to look like a real drug. It is typically made from sugar or starch and technically does not cause any kind of effect to the patient. It can also refer to a fake surgery or therapy. Once taken, the patient will feel assured that the ‘pill’ or ’surgery’ is healing him, in effect, making him feel good.

Placebos are commonly used to people who think they need to take prescription drugs to aid their depression but in reality they don’t as the doctors think so.

Professor Michael Jospe from the California School of Professional Psychology has been studying this subject matter for 20 years now. He said:

“The placebo effect is part of the human potential to react positively to a healer. You can reduce a patient’s distress by doing something which might not be medically effective.”

He also put it in another way. He cited an example between a kid and a Band-aid. The child feels better when the Band-aid has comics or graphics in it. It gives a soothing effect to the kid even though there’s no scientific evidence to prove it.

Practically, the placebo effect can help people feel better and avoid the consequences of a medication’s side effect. This is less costly, safer and this may be all they need.

But ancient wisdom gives us a completely different view.

According to the Buddhist teachings, everyone has the the ability to understand and control their minds and when one has completely understood himself, control comes naturally. But the problem is many are lacking awareness of themselves or the consciousness of being.

Achieving awareness of the mind takes a lot of ways but if we will follow the Buddhist way, meditation is the way to go. Meditation is an act of shielding ourselves from outside forces such as thoughts, feelings, physical pain or pleasure. It is like talking to no one while trying to reach out to someone, in this case, we are reaching for our mind.

Meditation is not just concentrating on ourselves, it is the way of being unconscious about our mind. In our daily lives, we talk, breathe, walk and move unconsciously. This is what meditation is all about, just letting our mind to speak to ourselves in a way we cannot interfere.

Buddha said:

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.”

When one can understand their minds, they can also understand what is bothering them. For example, people suffering from depression can pinpoint the problem which causes them suffering.

After the problem is pinpointed, it is up to the person to change or alter the events that will eventually lead to recovery. No more tricking of the brain, all one needs is a little patience and self understanding.
Sources: www.mayo-clinic.org, www.fda.gov and www.associatedcontent.com

Dalai Lama, the world-revered spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism recently went to Toronto - the place with the largest concentration of Tiberans outside India and Nepal - to share to 16,000 people the “Art of Happiness.”

For him, happiness is available to human beings both as individuals and as communities and science proves that happiness is the optimal and normal state of human existence.

During his talk, he frequently cites medical references and research which he links to a healthy immune system and a greater peace of mind. He then told the audience that his philosophical approach is based on “secular ethics.” He then explained that secularism is not a form of rejection of religion. He cited Mahatma Ghandi to further accentuate his point: “Secularism - respect for all religions. All religions equally respected.” He said that once religious people accept secularism and participate fully, they are making contributions to the secular ethics for society on the basis of our common existence.

As for the Art of Happiness, he said that based on the law of causality - the relation between causes and effects - everyone has the right to live happily, without suffering. “we need to think seriously about the causes of happiness. Good result, happy result, entirely depends on good action, constructive action.”

He also stated that compassion - humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it - begins when a baby receives nourishment from his mother’s milk. “When warm-heartedness takes seed, it can transform to unlimited, unbiased compassion, not based on other’s attitudes. That feeling can even extend toward one’s enemy.” He continued “Loving kindness is the strongest antidote to anger.”

To sum it up, he had a practical advice to everyone: get enough sleep. At 73-years old, he has still a good physical health which he credits to his peace of mind and the way to achieve it is by having adequate sleep. “Peace of mind brings nice sleep,” he said.

Whenever we are down and want to feel better, we always seek an outlet to release our emotions: talking to a friend or family member, or writing in the diary. “Putting our feelings into words helps us heal better. If a friend is sad and we can get them to talk about it, that probably will make them feel better.” said Matthew D. Lieberman, associate professor of psychology at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) who conducted a study that reveals why expressing our feelings makes our gloominess, anger and anguish less.

The study explains that one can benefit from the ancient Buddhist teaching of “mindfullness meditation,” a technique in which an individual focuses to his present emotions, thoughts and body sensations, such as breathing, without passing judgment or reaction. A person simply releases his thoughts and “lets it go.”

David Creswell, a research scientist from the UCLA said Lieberman has now shown in a series of studies that simply labeling emotions turns down the amygdala - a region in the brain which serves as an alarm to activate a series of biological systems to protect the body in times of danger -a response in the brain that triggers negative feelings.

Creswell said.”We found the more mindful you are, the more activation you have in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the less activation you have in the amygdala. We also saw activation in widespread centers of the prefrontal cortex for people who are high in mindfulness. This suggests people who are more mindful bring all sorts of prefrontal resources to turn down the amygdala. These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health.”

How is it done? Creswell said that one way to practice mindfulness meditation and paying attention to present-moment experiences is by labeling the emotions verbally. “for example, ‘I’m feeling angry right now’ or ‘I’m feeling a lot of stress right now’ or ‘this is joy’ or whatever the emotion is,” he said Creswell felt excited in the study because it brings a connection between the ancient Buddhist teachings and modern neuroscience.

“more than 2,500 years ago, [Buddha] talked about the benefits of labeling your experience. Now, for the first time since those teachings, we have shown there is actually a neurological reason for doing mindfulness meditation. Our findings are consistent with what mindfulness meditation teachers have taught for thousands of years.”

Source: Science Daily

Whenever we watch Buddhist themed movies, the character of the monk is never left out. They were portrayed as fun loving, calm and simple people. Their smile catapults us into happiness and relaxation. Moreover, there is always a scene of them reaching for zen while meditating. Could this be the reason for their happiness?

Scientists from the Harvard and the University of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison has been long studying the brains of monks and other people practicing meditation. Their MRI images reveal that the meditative mind is physically different than a mind in normal state. Harvard University’s Sara Lazar said:

Scientifically,”Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula.”

It may be a little hard to understand but Dr. Richard Davidson of UW provided a simpler, practical explanation.

“…by meditating, you can become happier, you can concentrate more effectively and you can change your brain in ways that support that.”

So far, there has been no information whether or not meditation causes happiness. Even the Dalai Lama, the 68-year old Nobel Prize Winner and leader of Tibetan Buddhist worldwide wanted to know the answer. He hopes that the researchers can prove scientifically if meditation has medical and emotional benefits in order to impart to other people their way of relieving suffering and finding happiness.

(Read CBC, image courtesy of cambodia4kidsorg)