The seemingly happy persons can be the most miserable ones who have learned how to hide their true self well but it will not be long before the stress of hiding breaks them. Those who are happy will have to understand the nature of their happiness before they can say that they are happy. But indeed how rare is one who is truly a happy being and knows the secret to happiness.
To follow the bodhisattva path is not only to search for your own happiness, but to seek happiness for others as well. To be able to feel joy in seeing others being happy, that is happiness, to be able to help others out of their problems, that too is happiness. But happiness is only a word describing a feeling which is hard to describe. How many times do you see a person in a state of laughter for some time only to find sadness shrouding him within the next moment. People who do not look within to understand their natures, will be such people who are subject to happiness and sadness and they become confused with life because they seek only to have joy in life and reject the mundane pains.
Confusion brings about anger and rejection so that even those who pray and cultivate, unless they have the wisdom to understand the doctrines well, may not really be able to accept the occasions of unhappiness and then they will blame the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to be without compassion for them, then they think that they have wasted their time in praying and cultivation. This is a lack of faith, this is a lack of right understanding, this is a lack of guidance so that they must seek the help of the more learned ones to give them the guidance towards understanding. If they have bad times during their cultivation, it is because karma has ripened ahead of time, or that due karma has ripened, they are good opportunity to test one’s faith in the Buddha, it is a great chance to practise understanding and patience. Only the shallow ones will be complaining and blame the Buddha’s for not looking after them, these are minds which are feeble.
Happiness cannot be long lasting if it is tainted with selfishness. Try and achieve selfless happiness and see how great the difference will be. When one seeks happiness for oneself only, that kind of joy cannot be long lasting. Once one gets used to such happiness, and when those joys are no more, then more and more cravings will attack the mind again so that the search for another kind of happiness begins. That is why you see so much struggles in life. See how foolish human beings are, all those around you and even your own self. When you do not have something, you will be too happy the moment you acquire it but after some time there will be other things that you want and this line of craving will stretch on and thus causing more and more suffering in its wake.
How many times does anger arise out of dissatisfaction? The result of anger is jealousy and hatred which will poison the mind more and more. This will in turn cause one to turn to evil ways of acquirement and that becomes defilements which will envelope the mind. Be careful of this trend of living lest you fall into the miserable realms of existence which are filled with total unhappiness. Then even occasions of joy and happiness which are found in this realm will be taken away from you. Then it is too late to regret, too late to do anything about it.
Try to learn to accept life as it comes. Be content with what you have. When your family is well, be grateful; when you have enough to provide for your family, be satisfied; when you have good health, be joyful that you have more happiness than others already and this should start you to cultivate stronger and give some thoughts to the sufferings of others.
Raise the mind of compassion for them and pray for those who are subject to the agonies of life. Each man, each woman, each person, has his own kind of miseries, when you sit and reflect and find that you have fears and that they are only very minor ones you must be grateful that you have lesser bad karma to deal with, that you have lived quite well in the past. Then with a mind firm and strong, decide to have an even happier life in the future and refrain from setting bad causes which will bring about bad effects. Better still, reject the sufferings of existences within the samsaric realms and decide to live for the sake of destroying the links that bind you to these existences, decide also to liberate yourself so that you will have the ability and means to save those you love and also those you see are suffering helplessly because they do not know how to get out of these suffering realms. You who are fortunate to have been influenced by the Dharma which is the route and means to escape from these realms, must not waste this rare opportunity for it has been due to your past merits that Dharma is now before you.
You will need to put your faith in the Path of the Buddha, which is the proven path, the tested path, the only path that can free your mind from the poisons which pull you into the suffering realms.
You will have to practise mental discipline and learn to understand life as it really is. You must understand that such an opportunity as this life time, to have Dharma as a guide, should not be thrown away. And then you will live a life which is meaningful, which is contented even though you do not have all the things in life that others have, then you will have lesser desires which are harmful to cultivation so that detachment will be increasingly easier. Calmly reflect and realise how really miserable are the ones who are seeking for worldly wealth that bind them to such great sufferings as greed, fear, and delusion right to the end of life. When a man dies, he cannot even bring along with him a single piece of the things that he loved so much. Worldly things belong to the world, the mind is not worldly, the mind is formless, is pure, and all things which cause desires cannot be pure. Only by cultivation will one be able to purify the mind and this is spiritual wealth which brings about contentment, equanimity and happiness. When you have finally learned to live with the least of possessions, you can find the calmness that you have never realised before.
So do not look down on a monk or a hermit who prefers to stay away from the world of desire, look at them and see how calm they are. They do not suffer from want of anything, they do not fear that they will be robbed, they do not become angry with themselves or with others. They live in a state of calmness and a quiet contentment which worldly ones cannot understand.
Pay homage then to those who cultivate in totalness. Reflect your own desires and fears and realise how foolish you have been, striving for more than you can achieve and not giving a thought for the greatest task in life, the seeking of a free mind, a pure mind, a total mind, serene mind - Nirvana, a state of being which is totally free from the needless desires of the world. Attain it and all sufferings will be removed.
From this day on, if this message has struck a deep meaning in your mind, go about life with a grander purpose and learn to live in happiness with your own self and then with others. If that is already your purpose, then practise compassion and cultivate the virtues of life so as to avoid any act that is unwholesome which brings harm to yourself and to others.
Only when you can understand that happiness in this world is short lived, will last only as long as you are enjoying it, is truly hollow and meaningless, will you be in the search for the ultimate happiness. Do not be half hearted in your practice and cultivation as it will mean you’re cheating your own self. Wake up from the dream, from the illusion that the conditions of the world have trapped your mind into believing that they are real and permanent. Nothing is permanent, not even your own life. And if you are not even sure how long you will live, how much time have you left for cultivation? How much merits have you accumulated? How can you really be happy as you are?
Monday, 21st November 1983 (10th Moon 17th Day)