A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st Century

by Gelong Thubten

I remember once walking with my teacher Akong Rinpoche in London. We were visiting our monastery’s branch there and we had a break from the teaching sessions. We took a stroll along the Thames’s South Bank. It was an exceptionally beautiful sunny day and I was in heaven, walking in the sunshine with my favorite person. When we were alone like this we would simply hang out and be casual with each other—there was no formality. I turned to Rinpoche and said, “It’s really beautiful, isn’t it?” Somehow right at the moment I finished speaking those words, we entered a dark tunnel with graffiti all over the walls and the smell of urine; I think there was even a pool of vomit on the ground, it was just hideous. Rinpoche simply said, “For me everything is beautiful.” I imagine that for somebody whose mind contains no habits of resistance or fear, everything must look and feel great. That is true happiness, and such a person is invincible.