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Happiness and Joy Part 2

Lesson 19 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday Life

David Nichtern

Happiness and Joy Part 2

Lesson 19 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday Life

David Nichtern

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Lesson Info

19. Happiness and Joy Part 2

Next Lesson: How to Go Forward

Lesson Info

Happiness and Joy Part 2

there are so many forms that we've been raised with that may or may not fit our own personal journey and it's like just something that is a matter of personal exploration, you know, one of the interesting things about the Dalai lama is, he says, you know, he's not trying to convert people to buddhism, he thinks they should explore their own native traditions at least as much if it's possible. So I think that's a matter of personal choice I always have. Um but if we do feel there's some obstruction or obstacle to us really um and you know, the guilt becomes a stronger agenda than actually sort of transcending that I'm from the school of like do what you need to do. It's like the uh huh guilt is a pretty heavy thing and other people's, I think a number of people have mentioned other people's judgements of them being a kind of obstacle, a weight. So in a way, even though we need to respect those, those close friends and relatives, my personal take is we need to be kind of fierce in terms ...

of I agree with your the swimming analogy, um because ultimately we can't liberate people by trying to save them. And that's sort of built into the buddhist fabric is it's actually not a tradition that is based on trying to save somebody else. You can help somebody else, you can you can communicate with them, but you actually cannot save them. So coupled with that is the sort of knowledge or wisdom that inside each person's individual journey, there actually is the potential for them to to work with their own situation and that maybe what they need to be doing for a long time. So this idea of us saving others is kind of like interesting thing to throw into question and um being kind of brave enough to to step out at times to step out, I'm sure all of us have stepped out and to do it without any kind of aggression. You see a lot of examples of that, I think in different communities of people stepping out, working with their own kind of sense of freedom and individuality and uh without any kind of aggression towards the others, that's always very powerful when that happens, that's that's, to me is a real transformation when you see that happening. So um I hope this was sort of helpful to to us to have a look, it's not meant to be um guided in a sense, just maybe the framework is something you bring in to take a look at your own ph I and together, then if we get the ph I high up enough, we look at the G. N. H. The gross national happiness, you know, and how we can feed into that. Um Certainly if we have that intention, there's nothing wrong with that um to um wishing for the happiness of oneself and others is the essence of the practice that we learned today, The loving kindness practice. And it's very ancient, it's 2500 years old, that practice. So if we can just do maybe a period of sitting practice together, because we're on uh you know, a a media kind of platform, you know, we're limiting these sessions to five minutes just so that if somebody comes in that they're not completely bewildered by what's going on. Um but at home please feel free and everybody here feel free to bump that up a little bit. I think, you know, 15 minutes is a good kind of minimum sitting session at home. It's really not that much time and it allows you to settle a little bit deeper in um and deep in the practice a little bit. So let's just sit together for five minutes and just let go of what we just talked about. We we can just rest in the kind of mindfulness of the breath at the moment.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Cultivating Compasion For Yourself and Others
Cultivating Mindfulness E-Book
Simple Meditation Instructions for Ordinary People

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