Every single living being from the smallest insect to the largest whale, from a human
infant to a human adult, seeks happiness and wishes to avoid suffering. This common interest unites all life on the planet. Human beings, however, are uniquely proficient at manipulating the world in the attempt to promote happiness. We design the world for our personal comfort, ease, enjoyment, and pleasure. We have all manner of machines, gadgets, apps, products, substances, toys, games, activities, services, etc., all designed for our delight. And yet, not only are we actually not particularly happy, often we find that these very items that promised to make us feel good seem to be implicated in our suffering.
Buddha teaches us that we make a fundamental mistake in our understanding of
happiness when we assume that external items, events, or factors themselves have the power to cause our pleasant feelings. Because we do not realize that happiness does not reside within things or circumstances, we obsessively and futilely search for satisfaction where it cannot be found. Until we deeply understand the actual source of happiness, we can all be regarded as addicts, for what is an addict but someone who compulsively repeats a strategy for achieving happiness that has no chance of working?
On the one hand, this situation looks bleak: so many people flailing around in their
ignorance, doomed to a life of dissatisfaction if not outright misery. But the good news is that with a little experience of Buddha’s teachings, we can begin to develop the wisdom to
understand how genuine happiness is available to us and we can learn how to cultivate it at
deeper and deeper levels within ourselves. As we begin to transcend our dependence on external factors, substances, and circumstances as ostensible sources of good feelings, we enjoy the freedom that comes from loosening the bonds of our cravings and addictions. Ultimately, we become truly empowered to create happiness for ourselves and others.
Want to learn more? Join us for a special workshop on Freedom from Craving & Addiction with our main teacher and Buddhist monk, Gen Zamling this Saturday, August 26 from 2-5pm in our Wicker Park location.
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