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The Unhappiness of Happiness
Wait a minute. The unhappiness of happiness? What an oxymoron. How does that even make any sense? Well, if we really think about it, it might just do. For most of us, what we define as happiness is usually associated with pleasure, satisfaction, contentment, joy, calm, peace, and fulfilment. These are all valid mental states of positive energy and better well-being in general, which we term happiness. However, like an addiction, the mind is hot-wired or has been conditioned from the past to savour, relish, indulge, grasp, hold on to, cling, and attach to these mental states. It is not good enough to merely appreciate the blessed moment and then let go.
Purpose
If experience is just an experience
If there is only pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experiences
Chasing after them again and again
What is it for?
If desires cannot be fulfilled
Like a bottomless bucket
Like an insatiable beast
Going after them again and again
What is it for?
Invisible Monster
Never look down on conceit or pride. This tiny bug can eventually turn into a big monster if keep on feeding on it. It is so little, tiny, and almost invisible, always lurking in the background, waiting for the right moment to arise. This is scary especially when there is more evidence to prove that this ‘bug’ is everywhere.
No Need to Beat Ourselves Up
I have come to understand that learning about the mind is the most natural thing in the world. In fact, there is no difference in the process of learning, be it about worldly matters or reality. Many times we beat ourselves when we forget but really there is no need to. For the truth of these words resounds:
You forget in order to remember better. (A Course In Miracles, Textbook, Chapter 7, Pg 115)
Toy Car and Meditation
When we draw, we notice lines and images that come out from the drawing but not realizing the drawing is taking place. We can be drawing very mindfully, but we are not mindful that drawing is taking place. When we stand on the meditative lens, we can see the world and the mental processes. When we stand on the worldly lens, we definitely see the world, but not the mental processes. Without the information about mind work, we don't even know something that is already there is there.
Run, Forrest, Run
This is an often-used quote from my favourite movie “Forrest Gump” whenever I faced difficulty. This attitude was my programming and a big subject for learning in this lifetime and potentially many more. The program was well-developed with many versions of upgrades running in the background in all channels such as working, family, learning, relationship and entertainment. Whenever this mind felt uneasy, run.
A Most Precious Gift
For those of us aspiring to cultivate the mind towards liberation, we know all too well that our worldly environment is not conducive for our practice. Thus the need, every now and then, to breakaway and attend a retreat away from it all. Wouldn't it be great if we have a second home, a retreat centre, which we can go to intermittently?
If Not Meditation Then What Else?
For the past few weeks, my mind was foggy most of the time, and getting through the day was a drag. It was as though I had forgotten how to meditate and there was not even a shadow of wisdom in sight. The memory of how light, alert and dynamic the mind was since I began meditating more than 3 years ago was as if it never existed. What a real bummer! Today, I said I have had enough. I do not like feeling this way. There is definitely something not quite right.
When I Am Healed, I Am Not Healed Alone
There was this nagging knowledge that there must be another way. So I searched for it in literature and philosophy. There were hints but never a full-fledged teaching. Neither could I find a community to ask life and death questions.
Ideas Underlying Thoughts
Our ideas are the roots, the source of all our reactions. And over time, these reactions, being our experiences, tend to cause those ideas to be reinforced. Hence, it can be said that we're our ideas. Anyone well-versed with our ideas can easily predict our reactions.
What We Truly Are
I see each and every one I have met on this journey so far as the teaching coming alive, as a reminder of the Truth – an extension of Love and the only One that ever exists. The prospect of a new Home makes perfect sense in my humble opinion for all of us to cultivate and spread that joy, love and light to benefit all who wish to be a part of the One. A returning to our sacred origin, of who or what we truly are.
Precious Lessons, Priceless Gift
Solving problems requires information about the workings of that field and the know-hows to use that information to make it work for us. The information cannot work for us if we do not know how it works in the first place. More crucial too, without the basics of you-need-to-know, we don’t even know where and how to start, what more solving problems.
Serve Love Respect Vision (SLRV)
When one has tasted the fruit, there is a wish to give it back to the world. This is where the teachers must have come from and where I am coming from. When the heart is transformed through such a beautiful understanding, it is convinced that the precious Dhamma must be shared.
New Year—New Year, New Mind
Each year there is this queer yet familiar feeling taking place in this mind as it approaches the end of the year. Do you know what it is? It is this lingering thought of “may the coming new year be a better year”. Did you ever notice this happening too? My suspicion is that it is a common idea occurring in our minds when we have the concept of a “coming new year”. Am I wrong in my assumption?
Igniting The Flame Within
There was the aspiration from then for consistent cultivation by having self-retreats. What started as weekly 3 hours of practice gradually progressed to a regular overnight weekend undertaking. It was an inspiring way of living, in spite of the stress as well as the hustle and bustle of working life. Joyfully, I persevered, and the dhamma (Truth as nature of the way things are) flame was kept ignited.
Towards a Noble Cause
Sri Langkasuka Retreat Village was born with this vision in mind — to support the rare ones who are willing to seek within. We strive to offer the opportunity for those who wish to seek higher wisdom. We strive to offer the best supportive conditions for such a noble aim to come true. You may be one of the rare ones, who wish to live a life of solitude dedicated to the mindscape understanding that leads to enlightenment or inspired to support such an endeavour.
Wisdom’s Way, Suffering’s End
Wisdom is men’s precious gem. Without wisdom, the mind can easily fall into concepts and experiences. The mind will not be aware, and the mind will not understand how the laws of nature work. Our minds are inundated with wrong views. Every piece of information learned since birth – from reading, family conversations, society, the news, movies, and entertainment – gives rise to wrong views. If we do not encounter this path, we will definitely target the externals, project our blame – the externals are not good, these are wrong, others are unfair to me – and experience pain and suffering. All troubled minds are due to wrong views about people, events, and situations. With right view and awareness, the mind will turn and reflect inwards, seeing how the mind projects various wrong views towards people, events, and situations.
The Marvel of the Mind
Time to wake up friends!
It’s not to fix or solve
But in watching with fascination
The workings of the mind
With its fabrications and deceptions
Which are but nature
Displaying the wonders
Of how it works
Not good or bad
But misunderstood.
How is your day?
I've never asked what actually lies behind "How are you? How is your day?" until one day, after all the busyness, I went to the washroom to freshen up, and I asked myself "How are you, Stephanie?"
The Endless Search
When we seek the wisdom of enlightened or awakened beings, what is it truly that we are asking for? A large majority would probably reply with the desire for a way to have permanent peace, happiness, and a life without worries or fears. Do these answer the big question of what is the purpose of life? Or does it sound more like we are looking for a way out of misery and to preserve a lifestyle of comfort in order to stay happy instead?
Start your journey
A thousand mile journey starts with a baby step. Start yours today!