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Being able to enjoy happiness doesn’t require that we have zero suffering.
When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand our suffering, we suffer much less.
able to go further and transform our suffering into understanding, compassion, and joy fo...
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People often ask, “Why do I have to suffer?”
If there’s no right, then there’s no left.
Where there is no suffering, there can be no happiness either, and vice versa.
There are things that bring you joy that annoy other people.
Happiness is possible right now, today—but happiness cannot be without suffering.
Without suffering, there’s no happiness.
When we stop and take a breath in this way, we unite body and mind and come back home to ourselves.
We are truly alive only when the mind is with the body.
We relive the past, we worry about the future.
The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food.
Love needs to be nurtured and fed to survive; and our suffering also survives because we enable and feed it.
We’re not living our lives.
Breathing in, I know suffering is there. Breathing out, I say hello to my suffering.
Maybe our body needs us, our body is calling us, but we don’t hear
if we don’t have the time and the willingness to take care of ourselves, how can we offer any genuine care to the people we love?
“Good morning, my pain, my sorrow, my fear. I see you. I am here. Don’t worry.”
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I smile.
The suffering of the parent is the suffering of the child.
One unnecessary suffering that we can let go of is the suffering of fear.
fear of what might happen if we do the wrong thing, or fear of being hurt by or of hurting someone we care about.
When there is no more blame or criticism in your eyes, when you are able to look at others with compassion, you see things very differently.
You speak differently. The other person can sense you are truly seeing her and understanding her, and that already eases her pain significantly.
we should not try to run away from one unpleasant thing after another. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, and transforming it into compassion, we find a way to happiness.
We can see the beautiful sky above us, but we often don’t appreciate what we have.
Most of the time we just ignore it.
In joy, there is still some element of excitement.
You can wash your dishes in mindfulness. You can cook your dinner in mindfulness.
You are a real artist. You know how to create joy and happiness any time you want.
Sitting meditation is also an opportunity to heal and to create moments of joy.
Our body is a wonder. Our body is like a flower; it’s a wonder of life.
You are aware that you are alive; that is already enlightenment.
You just focus your attention on brushing your teeth. You spend maybe two or three minutes brushing your teeth.
You can produce the energy of joy and happiness during that time simply by being mindful of your teeth and of your brushing.
Mindfulness can change everything by helping you to really be there and enjoy...
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MORNING VERSE FOR HAPPINESS When you wake up in the morning, the first thing to do is to breathe and to become aware that you have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. This is a gift of life.
Waking up this morning I smile. I have twenty-four hours to live.
vow to live them deeply and learn to look at the beings around me with the eyes of compassion.
The practice of mindfulness means to be aware of everything you do in your daily life—to live more deeply every moment that is given you to live, so you won’t waste your time and waste your life.
When you walk, it can be a celebration.
When you breathe with awareness, it’s to celebrate. When we sit like that, we are celebrating; we’re celebrating life.
Whether you drink a cup of tea or take a walk or just sit down and look, you can create happiness during that time.
We need to find the many small joys that life has to offer and help them grow.
If we know how to create a moment of happiness, we get to enjoy that happiness ourselves, and we can also double it by sharing it with another person. That is the art of happiness, tasting and delighting in the little happinesses of daily life.
Insight is seeing what is there. It is the clarity that can liberate us from afflictions such as jealousy or anger, and allow true happiness to come.
Without a community, it’s harder for a person to change anything.
Everyone needs a mindful community for support.
We can join together to create a healing environment wherever we are.
