Happiness Is Available, Help Yourself To It
Happiness Is Available, Help Yourself To It Every day we have many feelings. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sorrowful, sometimes angry, irritated or afraid; and these feelings fill our mind and heart. One feeling lasts for a while, and then another comes, and another, as if there is a stream of feelings for us to deal with. Practising meditation is to be aware of each feeling. The Abhidharma writings on Buddhist psychology say that feelings are of three kinds: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. When we step on a thorn, we have an unpleasant feeling. When someone says something nice to us, ‘You are very smart,’ or ‘You are very beautiful,’ we have a pleasant feeling. And there are neutral feelings, such as when you sit there and don’t feel either pleasant or unpleasant … I find this analysis incorrect. A so-called neutral feeling can become very pleasant. If you sit down, very beautifully, and practise breathing and smiling, you can be very happy. When you sit in this ...