All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others
Interpretation
This quote highlights that while everyone desires happiness, most people are unaware of how to achieve it, leading to suffering caused by ignorance.
Sharon Salzberg emphasizes a fundamental truth about human nature: the universal desire for happiness. However, she points out that this desire often leads to suffering due to a lack of understanding about what truly brings happiness. Our ignorance can result in actions that not only harm ourselves but also affect others, suggesting that greater awareness and insight could lead to a more fulfilled and compassionate life.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a mental health awareness seminar to discuss the barriers to happiness.
It doesn't matter how long we may have been stuck in a sense of our limitations. If we go into a darkened room and turn on the light, it doesn't matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week, or ten thousand years - we turn on the light and it is illuminated. Once we control our capacity for love and happiness, the light has been turned on.
Patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than ripping open a budding flower or demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.
To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act...It is a radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love.
The critical element in meditation practice is beginning again. Everyone loses focus at times, everyone loses interest at times, and everyone gets distracted over and over again. What is essential, and also incredibly transforming, is realizing that we have the ability to begin again, without blaming or judging ourselves, without thinking we have failed, without losing heart, we can, and need to, constantly be beginning again.
It's a rare and precious thing to be close to suffering because our society - in many ways - tells us that suffering is wrong. If it's our own suffering, we try to hide it or isolate ourselves. If others are suffering, we're taught to put them away somewhere so we don't have to see it.
Doing nothing means unplugging from the compulsion to always keep ourselves busy, the habit of shielding ourselves from certain feelings, the tension of trying to manipulate our experience before we even fully acknowledge what that experience is.
The more we think of others, the happier we are. The more we think of ourselves, the more suffering we feel.
When a man's stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor.
Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o'course.
Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there as long as you live, to make you happy again. Whenever you're feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you'll know that your pure within and will find happiness once more.
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.
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