Practicing Enjoyment

Venerable Thubten Chonyi from Sravasti Abbey gives a short talk and guides a meditation on paying attention to and finding joy in the small things in life. This helps us to overcome the mind of attachment that's always seeks happiness elsewhere, and helps us to stay present with and appreciate the joys we already have.

Transcript

Good evening,

Everybody.

I don't know about hearing about enjoyment.

We might practice a little enjoyment.

But let's start with some meditation.

And maybe we should start,

Can start with thinking about enjoying our meditation.

So just get in your meditation posture for a few moments.

Getting your seat settled wherever you are,

Feet flat on the floor,

Spine straight is most important.

Hands ideally in your lap with the left hand on the bottom,

Right on the top,

Thumbs touching right up against your belly.

If you have another position that you train with,

Of course do that.

But if you don't,

This one is a good one to learn.

It's right up against your stomach.

Shoulder is level and relaxed.

In fact,

Lift your shoulders up to your ears a couple of times and just let them drop.

You've been at a computer all day or behind the wheel of the car or whatever.

This really begins to loosen up all the tightness here.

One more.

Good.

Up,

Drop.

Yeah.

And then recheck your sitting posture and see if you need to adjust a little bit.

So feet flat,

Eyes lowered.

Let a little light in if you can.

Lips closed.

And just be aware of where you are in physical space,

First of all.

The room you're in,

Background sounds,

Odors from the kitchen or the street below,

Wherever you are,

Be aware.

But let them just pass through as things we observe.

Everything we have to get tangled up in.

Just noticing.

Contact the chair with the floor with your cushion.

Let yourself be aware of the network,

The community of people tuned in to daily Dharma gathering wherever they are in the world.

Have a sense of being surrounded by like-minded friends,

Other beings wishing to find peace in their hearts and minds to cultivate joy.

Maybe the thought of that network or community brings a little smile,

An inner smile to your lips.

And then bring your attention to your breath.

And especially put your attention at your belly where the breath rises and falls.

For a moment we'll just be aware of that sensation of breathing.

No need to change your breath.

No need to change the rhythm.

Just be aware of what's there.

Aware of the sensation of the breath entering the body.

Letting it out only when the body naturally itself wishes to exhale.

Breathing in again.

And the body's impulse is to breathe in.

And take a moment to appreciate that we are breathing.

And see if you can enjoy breathing.

Bah,

Bah,

Bah,

Bah.

Perez.

Appreciate that the air you're breathing is relatively clear.

Enjoy it.

Clean air.

If you are free of allergies and free of upper respiratory situations so that your breath comes easily,

Rejoice in that too.

If you are dealing with breathing difficulties,

Just acknowledge that it's not so easy to breathe tonight.

But I'm glad that I am,

And can.

Take another moment with that enjoyment and silence.

Let's set a motivation for our time together.

Aware of the network of people that are online.

Aware of the network of the people who live very near us,

Even in our own home.

Getting this sense of the network of living beings all around us,

Everywhere.

All breathing the same air.

In and out.

Both inhaling what's there and then exhaling and sharing it with others.

And every single one of these beings is wishing to have happiness.

Not a single one wants any problems.

Everyone has good qualities.

And think about appreciating,

Oh,

Good hearts.

Good hearts everywhere.

And set a motivation that through our short time tonight,

Our own good hearts will be nourished.

We can recognize the goodness in others all around us.

Our own compassion and wisdom will grow.

And we can assist other living beings to cultivate their good qualities too.

Until we realize our full potential,

Planting seeds for everyone to do the same.

So that joy really is our state of mind all the time,

Effortlessly.

And that we can rejoice in one another's virtue.

Set that as our theme.

So slowly come out of your meditation.

Our theme tonight,

Enjoyment,

Actually was sparked by a question that Sandy had last week when we were doing the meditation on cultivating joy.

It was a question about recognizing that in general in society when we talk about joy,

We generally think of it as an outer expression or maybe even an action.

You know,

We think of joy and we think about balloons,

The Mylar thing,

Cakes with candles.

Kind of a giddy outer excitement often comes with that idea.

And people think,

Oh,

I don't have that kind of joy or don't even want to.

Actually,

It's exhausting to have that kind of,

Quote,

Joy.

And she said,

I recognize that maybe it can be a quieter inner quality.

So I wanted to talk about cultivating joy,

Sympathetic joy or unselfish joy in the context of it being an inner quality that may or may not have an external expression.

And if it comes as a cultivated,

Quiet inner quality,

Then its outer expression is organic and may have balloons and it may be very subtle.

So I thought,

Well,

Let's go look this up.

So some synonyms for joy,

Delight,

Pleasure,

Elation,

Gladness.

So elation takes us more towards the outer expression,

I think,

But delight.

If we sit and enjoy breathing,

Can we take some delight in breathing?

Can you get a sense that there might be a pleasure in breathing that we can enjoy without grasping onto it?

But that's a quiet feeling,

A quiet sense.

And it has kind of a feeling tone internally of being pleasant,

Of being joyful.

So another word for us,

We looked up in joy,

Is to find something pleasing.

To look out the window and notice,

Oh,

Apple trees blooming.

Simple moment,

Quiet pleasure,

Easy joy.

To appreciate something.

Someone worked hard to fix the sound before we went on camera tonight.

To appreciate that,

I can acknowledge that appreciation and go,

Oh,

Well,

That's actually something I can take joy in.

I can enjoy that help,

That support.

So it can be a very subtle kind of expression that I think sometimes in our fast-paced world,

We run a roughshod over those quiet moments of enjoyment.

So joy is a state of mind.

And unselfish joy,

Which is really what I think we're trying to cultivate here,

Is the joy that rejoices in others' happiness and virtues,

Not just our own.

This is an interesting trick of the mind.

Our own happiness,

Of course,

Is something we're seeking constantly,

Constantly.

But to think that,

Oh,

My own happiness arises when I share it,

Not by giving my happiness out,

Which is one way of doing it,

But by recognizing,

Oh,

She is happy.

That makes me happy,

Too.

Oh,

He is skilled in this.

That makes me happy,

Too.

Oh,

Look,

They got something very nice.

That can make me happy,

Too.

Look,

His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

For example,

Touches millions and millions of people with his message.

This makes me happy,

Too.

So enjoyment and cultivating joy is quite subtle,

Actually.

And I found a wonderful quote from a meditation teacher that said,

It should not be regarded as a matter of turning on a tap from which your joy gushes forth.

It's not that.

There should be,

In a certain sense,

A quiet stream of sympathy and understanding that flows within us all the time.

A quiet sense of recognition of the good qualities of someone else,

A quiet sense of recognition of the happiness of someone else,

And responding internally,

We go,

Oh,

That makes me happy,

Too.

I'll share a story that on one winter retreat,

As many of you know,

We just did three months of retreat where I live at Srivastava Abbey,

And we do this every winter.

And one winter I went to my teacher before the retreat and I said,

Do you have anything I should work on?

I was looking for something to wrap my mind around that would make me a better person.

And she looked at me and she said,

No.

And then she said,

Enjoy what you're doing.

I said,

That's it?

Yeah.

Enjoy what you're doing.

It was one of the most powerful retreat tips I've ever had.

The practice of enjoying what you're doing starts to fill us up.

If I can enjoy this cup of water,

Then I'm mindful and present to it.

I can appreciate that I have it.

It opens my mind to the kindness of all the ways that this cup of water came to me.

I can be grateful for it.

And instead of just like slurping it down without thinking about it,

My mind is happier.

If I can stand at the sink and wash the dishes or around here,

Wash out the soy milk container that we recycle and nobody wants to wash.

But to enjoy the process of cutting it open,

Washing it out for the recycling,

Thinking I am doing this for the benefit of members of my community.

I am doing this for the benefit of the planet so that we can recycle this thing so that it doesn't just fill the garbage dumps.

Then my mind is joyful about a pretty mundane task.

And so we can see that our joy is actually just like right on the tip of our own mind.

It's right on the tip of our own thought.

And it doesn't rely on anything outside of us.

It doesn't rely on getting a job.

It doesn't rely on somebody bringing us balloons.

It doesn't rely on any of those factors.

But we have to train our mind to do this.

So I want to take a little bit of time.

We don't have much more tonight,

But I want to take just a little bit of time to give us some practice in training our mind and enjoying what we're doing.

So think of some task you've done today.

Anything.

Going to work,

Coming home,

Driving,

Picking up the kids,

Washing the dishes,

Making dinner.

Think for a moment how,

Where your mind was when you did it.

If you can even remember because we're so automatic sometimes.

Okay,

I've got one.

Now,

Go back inside at that moment and think,

I want to enjoy what I'm doing.

And redo that task in your mind.

Does it lift a little bit your experience of doing something pretty mundane?

And then as we train our mind to enjoy what we are doing,

We feel more full.

We feel happier selves.

And then the joyful practice of recognizing the happiness of others,

I believe,

Is easier.

Then we're not coming from a deficit place that I am so miserable.

I'm so tired.

I'm so,

I'm so,

I'm so,

I'm so,

I'm so.

How can I possibly rejoice in your happiness because I don't feel good?

Right?

Why should I rejoice in your happiness?

I don't have any.

But that's not true.

We actually have the capacity to cultivate our own joy first.

Then when you start to look around and go,

Oh,

They're happy.

That makes me even happier.

Oh,

I appreciate that quality in that person.

You may say something,

You may not.

Actually,

If you do and they feel happy,

Then you get even more happiness from them.

If we rejoice in others' good qualities,

You know,

This is an antidote to envy.

This is one of the things that they really teach as an afflictive mind.

It's the opposite of wishing that happiness for ourselves and wanting to take it away from somebody else.

But if we are feeling enjoyment in the small things of our own life,

Then we're not so bereft of happiness.

We don't need to be miserly about it.

We can actually share in the happiness of others,

Rejoice in their good qualities,

Reflect that back to them,

And help bring a greater sense of enjoyment in our world.

That's not dependent on grasping for sense pleasure,

Grasping for praise,

Grasping for comfort,

Grasping for all the things that we want to,

A good reputation,

Gain,

All the things that we grab for.

That we think is what's going to make us happy.

We think is where enjoyment comes from.

But it doesn't.

It's the Buddha's great secret,

Right?

He told everybody,

But it's not a secret.

So,

If I can leave you with a practice,

Enjoy what you're doing.

Share that with others and see where that takes your mind.

Reviews

Thanks for sharing your joy and in doing so bringing joy to others 💓

Thanks I enjoyed you sharing this talk/meditation 👍🙏😊

So amazing, what a powerful and honest talk about joy and the various intensities of it in our lives. Love the dialectic that the opposite is envy.
Had the image when a child is given an ice cream and I also feel happy in their pleasure!
Truly grateful for my own practice and will use in therapy to help others also 🙏

I enjoyed your talk and meditation and enjoyed participating in it with you. Thank you so much for the change of perspective and sharing your perspective with us! 🌻

Wonderful energy and inspiration to cultivate joy and appreciate other’s contentment…

Loved this simple way to find joy and happiness be present thank you

Korte meditatie op ademhaling met fijne info over 'joy'.
Niets nieuws, maar fijn om weer eens te horen en zo mooi uitgelegd te krijgen.
Dankjewel 🙏

Your meditation was filled with so many little lessons from the Buddha! I very much appreciated it and enjoyed it thank you 🙏

So beautifully put!! Thank you. ❤️🧠🙏

Excellent practice, thank you!

Awesome thankyou.

My first time with you. Your touched a cord. Thanks 🙏🏼

Lovely. Wonderful way of turning the mind to what is already wonderful.

So beautiful. Again, just what I needed tonight. I must share this joy with a friend. Thank you

That was fun. Bright voice and insightful. Thank you.

🙂 Thank you Venerable! 🙂

Really beautiful. Thank you🙏

Thank you for sharing your message and making a beautiful difference. Where can I find more of The Daily Dharma Gathering? 🙂

Thank you for this shift in my perspective
❤️🙏❤️

A short but uplifting meditation followed by a talk. Wonderful 🌻