Happiness

All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others.

Santideva: Bodhicaryavatara s. 129

~ 

I suppose it could be called an oblique strategy to give up finding my own happiness by doing all I can to evoke happiness in others. Subverting this, of course, is the tendency to do so with a hidden agenda of finding happiness for myself. That is called love with strings. I know from experience that any parent knows what it is to give of oneself completely with no strings attached; especially in the first few years of their child’s growth. A mother doesn’t give milk from her breast with the hope of the child one day giving back the milk. It just doesn’t work that way but the bonding that takes place during the most natural of all blessings is returned ten times ten along with the suffering of love.

    This quality of spiritual attainment is a most attractive one. It beats the hell out of warnings of impending doom and damnation. We have had this thrown on us by prohibitionists who would scare us away from the ravages of alcohol and drugs. Such admonitions fall flat on our ears because our initial experience with these toxins is that of intense pleasure and, once we experience them, we often find ourselves mocking the prudes who would... with all good intentions... earnestly try to steer us away from disaster. 

    The most common complaint most of us have about recovery programs is that they lay out a life for us that mocks the joy we found while we were drinking or using. In other words: sobriety of this sort is boring. Until recovery can be seen as an adventure, our eyes won’t open to the possibility that sobriety isn’t the goal at all. Being able to help another human being without strings is the adventure we sought all along because, in doing so, we are no longer preaching a dull and futile struggle. The beast inside will always win that one and we will eventually burn out. In fact, until we are no longer preaching anything at all, the power of the Heart of Compassion won’t open to us. I simply come to a point where, if I see a hungry man and, if I have an apple… well, what do I do with it?

geo 5,258