The quest for happiness
( via TED, Ricard’s talk )
Matthieu Ricard on the habits of happiness
So how do we proceed in our quest for happiness? Very often we look outside. We think that if we could gather this and that, all the conditions, something that we say, everything to be happy. To have everything, to be happy. That very sentence already reveals the doom of destruction of happiness. To have everything. If we miss something, it collapses. And also, when things go wrong we try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory. So now, look at inner conditions. Aren't they stronger? Isn't it the mind that translates the outer condition into happiness and suffering? And isn't that stronger? We know, by experience, that we can be what we call in little paradise and yet, be completely unhappy within.
The Dalai Lama was once in Portugal, and there was a lot of construction going on everywhere. So one evening he said, "Look, you are doing all these things, but isn't it nice, also, to build something within?"
And he said, "Unless that -- even you get high-tech flat on the 100th floor of a super-modern and comfortable building, if you are deeply unhappy within, all you are going to look for is a window from which to jump."
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The Green Agenda
