The New Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness

by Kelsang Gyatso

Everyone, whether religious or non-religious, is looking for happiness all the time

we can transform our mind from its present confused and self-centred state into the perfect wisdom and compassion of an enlightened Buddha.

completely purified his or her mind of all faults and limitations and has brought all good qualities to perfection.

If we apply the appropriate methods they can be completely eliminated, and we will experience the supreme happiness of full enlightenment.

Happiness is a part of the mind that experiences inner peace, or peace of mind, so the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions. If our mind is pure and peaceful we will be happy, regardless of our external circumstances, but if it is impure and unpeaceful we will never be happy, no matter how hard we try to change our external conditions.

delusion, such as uncontrolled desire, also known as desirous attachment, anger, jealousy, pride, laziness and ignorance.

Because we cherish ourself so strongly, we are drawn to the people and things we find attractive, we want to separate ourself from the people and things we find unattractive, and we are uninterested in the people and things we find neither attractive nor unattractive. In this way attachment, anger and indifference are born. Because we have an exaggerated sense of our own importance we feel that others’ interests are in conflict with our own, and this in turn gives rise to competitiveness, jealousy, arrogance and lack of consideration for others. By acting under the influence of these and other delusions we engage in destructive behaviour, such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and hurtful speech. The result of these negative actions is suffering for both ourself and others.

we do not choose our rebirth but are reborn solely in accordance with our karma. If good karma ripens we are reborn in a fortunate state, as either a human or a god, but if negative karma ripens we are reborn in a lower state, as an animal, a hungry spirit or a hell being. It is as if we were blown to our future lives by the winds of our karma, sometimes ending up in higher rebirths, sometimes in lower rebirths.

Pure happiness can only be attained through developing our mind. Through improving our qualities of love, compassion and wisdom we can gradually eliminate all our suffering and problems, and eventually attain the everlasting joy of full enlightenment. I guarantee that if you put the instructions of training the mind into practice in your daily life you will find the inner peace and joy that everyone is looking for.

With the intention to attain The

this self-centred view of the world is based on ignorance and does

THE BENEFITS

We often become strongly attached to another person who we feel will help us to overcome our loneliness by providing the comfort, security or excitement we crave. However, if we have a loving mind towards everyone we do not feel lonely. Instead of clinging onto others to fulfil our desires we will want to help them fulfil their needs and wishes. Cherishing all living beings solves all our problems because all our problems come from our mind of self-cherishing.

In every field of activity the best way to ensure success is for the people involved to reduce their self-cherishing and to have a greater sense of consideration for others.

All the suffering we experience is the result of negative karma, and the source of all negative karma is self-cherishing.

Gradually all our actions of body, speech and mind will become pure and beneficial, and we will become a source of happiness and inspiration for everyone we meet.

Contemplating our own qualities and others’ faults serves only to increase our self-cherishing and diminish our love for others; and yet all enlightened beings agree that self-cherishing is the root of all faults, and cherishing others is the source of all happiness.

If we

are honest with ourself we will recognize that at the moment our mind is filled with defilements such as anger, attachment and ignorance. These mental diseases will not go away just by our pretending they do not exist. The only way we can ever get rid of them is by honestly acknowledging their existence and then making the effort to eliminate them.

by recognizing one’s own faults in the mirror of Dharma and then making a concerted effort to remove them, even the most evil person can become a completely pure being.

For someone whose main wish is to achieve the spiritual realizations of love, compassion, bodhichitta and great enlightenment, living beings are more precious than a universe filled with diamonds or even wish-granting jewels. Why is this? It is because living beings help that person to develop love and compassion and to fulfil his or her wish for enlightenment, which is something that a whole universe filled with jewels could never do.

Our spiritual realizations are our inner wealth for they help us in all situations and are the only possessions we can take with us when we die. Once we learn to value the inner wealth of patience, giving, love and compassion above external conditions we will come to regard each and every sentient being as supremely precious, no matter how they treat us. This will make it very easy for us to cherish them.

DEVELOPING HUMILITY Whenever I associate with others, May I view myself as the lowest of all.

In general we would all prefer to enjoy high status and a good reputation, and we have little or no interest in being humble. Accomplished practitioners of training the mind, such as Langri Tangpa, are the complete opposite. They actually seek out subordinate positions and wish for others to enjoy the happiness of higher status. There are three reasons why practitioners of training the mind strive to practise humility. Firstly, by practising humility we are not using up our merit on worldly attainments but saving it for the development of internal realizations. We only have a limited supply of merit, so if we waste it on material possessions, reputation, popularity or power there will not be enough positive energy left in our mind to effect deep spiritual realizations. Secondly, by practising humility and wishing for others to enjoy higher status we accumulate a vast amount of merit. We should understand that now is the time to accumulate merit, not to waste it for worldly enjoyments. Thirdly, we need to practise humility because there is no self or I that we normally see. We should view our self or I – the object of our self-cherishing – as the lowest of all, as something we need to neglect or forget. In this way our self-cherishing will become weaker and our love for others will increase.

the most harmful is self-cherishing and the most beneficial is the mind of cherishing others.

Because of our self-cherishing we find it upsetting when we are criticized or insulted,

The I that we grasp at so strongly, cherish so dearly, and devote our whole life to serving and protecting is merely a fabrication of our ignorance. If we reflect deeply on this point we will realize how ridiculous it is to cherish something that does not exist. An explanation of how the inherently existent I does not exist

All negative actions are motivated by delusions, which in turn arise from self-cherishing. First we develop the thought ‘I am important’, and because of this we feel that the fulfilment of our wishes is of paramount importance. Then we desire for ourself that which appears attractive and develop attachment, we feel aversion for that which appears unattractive and develop anger, and we feel indifference towards that which appears neutral and develop ignorance. From these three delusions all other delusions arise. Self-grasping and self-cherishing are the roots of the tree of suffering, delusions such as anger and attachment are its trunk, negative actions are its branches, and the miseries and pains of samsara are its bitter fruit.

For those who aspire to become enlightened, the worst fault

In reality self-cherishing makes us stupid.

Although we regard each of our fingers and thumbs as precious, we would be prepared to sacrifice one to save the other nine, whereas sacrificing nine to save one would be absurd. Similarly, nine people are more important than one,

Normally when things go wrong we blame others, but the real cause of our problems is our self-cherishing mind. Once we have correctly identified self-cherishing we should regard it as our worst enemy and blame it for all our suffering.

our attacker harms us only because of his or her self-cherishing, and blaming him will not help, for it will only make us bitter. However, if we place all the blame on our self-cherishing mind and resolve to destroy it, we will not only remain undisturbed but also undermine the basis for all our future suffering.

Developing compassion and wisdom, and helping those in need whenever possible, is the true meaning of life.

If we wish to live in a pure environment, or to find a place where we will always feel at home, we need to purify our mind by developing universal love and compassion.

compassion for all living beings we now need

Conventional objects such as people, trees, atoms and planets have a relative degree of reality that distinguishes them from non-existents such as square circles and unicorns; but only the ultimate nature, or emptiness, of phenomena is true, because it is only emptiness that exists in the way that it appears. Objects exist only in relation to the minds that cognize them. Since an object’s nature and characteristics depend upon the mind that beholds it, we can change the objects we see by changing the way we see them. We can choose to view ourself, other people and our world in whatever way is most beneficial. By steadfastly maintaining a positive view we gradually come to inhabit a positive world,

We need a strong and stable mind, one that is undisturbed by any hardship that life throws at us. With such a mind we are like a hero or heroine, and nothing can interfere with our progress

superior great compassion – the spontaneous wish to take the sufferings of all living beings upon ourself

Just as one drowning person cannot save another, no matter how fervently he or she may wish to do so, likewise it is only when we have freed ourself from suffering and mental limitations that we are able to free others.

it is vital that we make use of every opportunity to improve our virtuous minds during our daily life.

when we talk to our friends our motivation is usually mixed with self-cherishing and we say whatever comes into our head, regardless of whether or not it is beneficial. We can however talk to others with the sole purpose of benefiting them, encouraging them to develop positive states of mind and taking care not to say anything that will upset them. Instead of thinking about how we can impress people, we should think about how we can help them,

not to abandon any living being, means that we should always be happy to help any person or group of people, even if they have harmed us.