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HAPPINESS FROM A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2014

Dalai Lama
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Abstract

Happiness is an essential goal of all people. Because happiness is so fundamentally part of our being, the question of how to attain it is of great importance. Buddhism has a long and well-developed philosophical and practical tradition with the goal of helping humans to attain happiness and end suffering. In this article, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama draws on the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition to explain how one can achieve happiness by transforming the mind. In particular, His Holiness explains how, in the Buddhist tradition, there is a special instruction called Mind Training, which focuses on cultivating concern for others and turning adversity to advantage that can be of great benefit to people seeking to end suffering and cultivate happiness.

Keywords

Buddhismhappinessmeditationmindaltruism
Type
SYMPOSIUM: PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN INTERRELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 5 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2014 

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References

1 Drom-ton-pa (1005–64 CE) was the chief Tibetan disciple of the great Indian master Dipankara Atisha and was significant in shaping the second propagation of Buddhism in Tibet. He initiated the Kadampa tradition and founded Reting Monastery.

2 The three divisions of the Buddhist scriptures, the Tripitaka in Sanskrit, comprising Discourses, Discipline, and Higher Knowledge.

3 The tradition that preserved Atisha's teachings, especially the instructions for Mind Training.

4 Gungthang Tenpai Dronmey (1762–1823 CE) was a Tibetan master famous for his pithy advice about developing renunciation and the determination to be free as a ground for cultivating the awakening mind of a bodhisattva.

5 Someone who, having cultivated the awakening mind and the altruistic aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all other beings, has embarked on that course.

6 Aryadeva (3rd century CE) was a disciple of the great Indian master Nagarjuna, the author of several important treatises on Madhyamaka philosophy, and a teacher at Nalanda University.

7 The abbreviated title of Aryadeva's seminal work, the Four Hundred Verse Treatise on the Actions of the Bodhisattva's Yoga. For a translation of Aryadeva's work, see Aryadeva, , Four Hundred Stanza's on the Middle Way, trans. Sonam, Ruth (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2008).Google Scholar

8 The perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger, and other disturbing emotions; the unconditioned state of mind that is free from the conditions that formerly obscured it.

9 The fundamental formulation of the Buddha's teaching that there is suffering, that suffering has a cause, that there is cessation of suffering, and that there is a path to that cessation.

10 Shantideva (8th century CE) was a scholar at Nalanda University and the author of Bodhisattvacharyavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life), a text about developing the bodhisattva's aspiration and putting it into practice, which is highly valued in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.