The Four Kinds Of Happiness

Venerable Sangye Khadro leads a guided meditation based on teachings by Theravada nun Ayya Khema on the four kinds of happiness — sensory happiness, divine happiness, and happiness that arises from concentration and insight.

Transcript

Okay, So welcome everyone and we're going to do a meditation, A guided meditation on different kinds of happiness and different kinds of suffering. So we'll meditate now to try to get a better understanding of this topic and see if it makes sense to us. So we'll start by sitting quietly for a few minutes and just focusing on the breath, Watching the breath coming in and going out to bring our mind to a more calm and clear state. Okay, So I invite you to make yourselves comfortable. But whichever way you're sitting, Whether you're sitting on the floor cross legged or you're sitting on a chair, Try to keep your back straight because that helps the mind to be more clear and focused. And other than your back being straight, Try to have your body as relaxed as possible, As free of tension as possible. So it can be helpful to just do a quick scan of your body. You can go from the top of your head down to your toes or from your toes up to the top of your head. Just kind of scan through your body to see if you notice any tension anywhere. But if you do notice any tension, Consciously let go of the tension. You can imagine it dissolving, Flowing out of you or evaporating and disappearing in space, Whatever works. But do the best you can to let go of tension. And I hope these were spontaneous instructions to those of you. And also let your breath flow in and out in a natural rhythm without trying to control it in any way, Regulate it in any way. No need to do that. Your body knows how to breathe. So just let go and allow the body to breathe as it normally does, As it naturally does. Being aware of the breath coming in and going out is a good way to settle down the mind. Often our mind is busy thinking about other things, Often things from the past or things from the future, Other places, People and so on. So when we meditate we need to let go of these other thoughts and do the best we can to stay focused in the present moment. Just for a short time be aware of your breath coming in and going out and let your mind become spacious, Like clear sky free of clouds and just let go of other thoughts that are not related to what we are doing here now. And before we begin the main part of the meditation, Contemplating these different points about happiness and suffering, Let's bring into our mind a positive motivation for doing this meditation. The best motivation we can have is altruism, Caring about others, Wanting to benefit others as much as possible. So you can do that on your own, Just spending a few minutes bringing into your mind, Into your heart, Feelings of compassion and love, Caring, Wanting to benefit others as much as you can and see if you can make that your reason, Your motivation for doing this meditation. So we'll start by contemplating the different kinds of happiness. So the first of the four kinds of happiness is sensory happiness or sensory pleasure. So these are pleasant experiences we have with our five senses, Seeing beautiful objects, Hearing pleasant sounds, Smelling pleasant odors, Tasting delicious tastes, And then feeling pleasant sensations in our body such as being warm when it's cold outside or cool when it's hot outside, Having our stomach full when we're hungry, Having something to drink when we're thirsty and so on. So any pleasant experience we have just with our body, Our tactile sense. So just think of some examples of this kind of pleasure that you have had maybe already today. Just try to identify that this is one kind of pleasure, One kind of happiness. So there are a number of problems with this kind of happiness. One is that it's very transitory. It doesn't last very long. It may only last a few seconds or a few minutes, But eventually it vanishes. And when it does disappear, We may be left feeling dissatisfied. And often we have attachment or craving to want that experience again or to want better pleasures, More pleasures, Different kinds of pleasures. So it can lead to attachment, Craving, Grasping, And that can get us into problems. So one problem is when we have attachment to certain types of experiences like pleasant sounds, For example, We may not always be able to hear those pleasant sounds. And instead, We may without choice have to listen to unpleasant sounds, Things that we don't like. And because of our attachment to the pleasant sounds, We can have aversion from happiness or even anger when we hear unpleasant sounds. So there's nothing wrong with having pleasant experiences. The problem is when we grasp at them, We cling to them, We want more of them, And then we have aversion or dislike to other kinds of experiences, The opposite kind of experiences. And then our mind gets very disturbed with these delusions, These disturbing emotions. Now let's look at the second of the four kinds of happiness, Which Ayakkama called deva happiness or divine happiness. And this is happiness that comes from cultivating the four immeasurable thoughts, Loving kindness, Compassion, Joy, And equanimity. So these are very beautiful positive states of mind directed towards other people and other beings. And when we can cultivate these and have these in our mind, Then our mind is very peaceful and very positive. And it brings a certain amount of joy, Happiness that's better. It's like a superior quality happiness compared to the first one, Sense pleasures. One reason for that is sense pleasures are often egotistical. There may be a strong sense of I, I want these pleasant experiences just for myself. But with second kind of happiness, Because we're more focused on others and their happiness, Their wellbeing, We're free of that self-centered, Ego-centered side of the experience. So it's more pure, More pure and clean. So you may have had some taste of this kind of happiness, For example, With your patients or with your children, With your parents, People you really love and care about. So when you're in that state of mind and really truly caring for another person and not concerned about yourself, Your needs, Your happiness, That's just not important to you at that moment. You're really focused on the other with love and kindness and compassion. So bring to mind some experience like that and try to recognize how it is a much more pure and beautiful type of happiness. Yeah, Thank you. And then the third type of happiness is the happiness that comes from concentration. Now you've probably heard of this before in the teachings on calm abiding or shamatha. This is one way we can keep our mind focused on an object of choice for a very long period of time without distractions or sleepiness or boredom. It's a very strong, Concentrated state of mind. And it's said to bring bliss in our body and in our mind that we can remain with for even for hours without getting tired or losing that concentration and that peace. So this is probably not something we've had first-hand experience of. But you might be able to recall moments in your meditation practice when your mind was able to just stay calm and focused on your object of meditation and you felt very comfortable, Very satisfied, Not wanting to run away and do something else, Be distracted to other things, Just happy to be sitting there and staying with your meditation practice. So if you've had such an experience like that, See if you can remember it and imagine that if that experience were to be multiplied a hundred times or a thousand times, How much more wonderful it would be. I need you to stand back. Changforeigner. Hangclock. And then the fourth type of happiness is the happiness that comes from insight or wisdom. So when we develop insight into the true nature of things, Especially ego-lessness, Selflessness, Where we're free of the strong sense of a self or an I that we tend to cling to and worry about and get obsessed with and so on. So insight frees us from that kind of concern about the self, The I, And all the other disturbing emotions that arise from that, Such as attachment to people and things that we want for our own happiness, Aversion towards the people and things we want to keep away to remain happy and avoid suffering. Now all the other disturbing thoughts and emotions, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, And so forth. So with the arising of insight into the true nature of things, Our mind becomes really calm and clear and free of all those disturbing thoughts and emotions. So we may not have had any experience like that, But you might try to just imagine what it would be like to be free of all those disturbing thoughts and emotions. And that's said to be the greatest kind of happiness of all. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our panelists. So it's helpful to know that there are different kinds of happiness when they are not all the same. They are not all equally satisfying. Most of the experiences of happiness we have are probably of the first type that come from sense pleasures, Contacting present sense objects. We sometimes have the second kind of happiness. We may have little tastes of the third one. It's only natural that we do want happiness, That we do want pleasant, Satisfying experiences. We want to avoid unpleasant, Painful experiences. And it is possible for us to work on our mind so that we can have more of the positive, Satisfying, Pleasant experiences and less of the unpleasant, Painful ones. That's the real purpose of meditation. But it's important to recognize that we do need to work on ourselves, To work on our minds. This isn't something that's just going to come by itself because we want it. We do have to put effort into working on our mind, Transforming our mind and creating the causes for happy and positive states of mind and create the causes for decreasing or disturbing negative states of mind. So see if you can come to a conclusion based on this meditation that it is important to do that. It is important to put effort into working on your mind, Bringing about that kind of transformation, Decreasing the negative, Disturbing aspects of the mind, Increasing the positive, Beneficial aspects of the mind. And finally, To conclude this meditation, We make a mental dedication of the positive energy we accumulated and created during this meditation. We started off with a good motivation, An altruistic motivation, And then we did our best to stay focused and concentrated on the meditation, Contemplating the different points. And so this was a good thing to do. We created positive energy or merit. This is the cause of happiness and spiritual growth. So let's mentally share this positive energy that it will bring peace, Happiness, Benefit, Freedom from suffering and the causes of suffering for all living beings. G superhuman.

Reviews

Super Happy 😃

A very negative, mean person once told me they never learned to be happy-becausse he was not taught. . He asked me to help with yoga and lifestyle but would not ever do any type of session. Maybe he is not really searching for happiness but seems to thrive in complaining?

Beautiful. Thank you. I love your meditations 🙏🙏🙏

Shame about the recording, but it really didn't detract from the impact of the talk, really wonderful

Beautiful. Thanks for posting