(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

uccess (in conventional society) = inner happiness?

Fools don’t know the source of happiness. Because they are mystified as to how happiness comes about, they’re always just chasing after happiness with the idea that it depends on other people or things like food and clothing. A wise individual knows the source of happiness: the mind. Thus a wise person knows that the mind needs to be developed. <source: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: The Legacy of Shambhala>

Many of us have been trained to think that financial success and high social and occupational standing leads to happiness. Success (material) = happiness. We are dismayed to discover that it doesn’t.

I think it’s the other way around: happiness = success. If you are happy, then you are living a successful life.

There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. ~~ Buddha

Many of us have been trained to think that happiness is “candy floss.” Not realistic.I believe that it is our “birthright.”

So what does lead to happiness?

We hear that it has to come from inside ourselves, not from the outside, not from being led around by the nose by our society’s definition of “success.”

But, again, what does this mean, exactly?

In the July 27’09 post we discussed how to raise the life force (chi, windhorse, lungta, seimeietc.) in four steps first thing in the morning, before we even get out of bed.

I’m particularly interested in the first step, the Tiger:

Contemplate the Tiger

Colour: orange
Area of the body: legs and feet
Qualities: meek in the sense of discerning; we calmly reflect on our lives and the situations in which we are involved; we know what to accept and what to reject – this brings confidence; totally aware of law of cause and effect: whatever we do has repercussions for the future; the tiger is careful (not to be confused with paranoia).

What does that actually mean when it comes to our living our lives?

Professor George Vaillant has found, through a study carried out over 50 years, that being happy “involves an enormous balancing act.” There are four elements we should be considering when contemplating our lives and assessing the situations in which we are involved:

• health (mental + physical);
• ability to play;
• social relationships – loving; appreciating; and
  
• enjoy your work and have others enjoy it too (i.e. your work gives service to others in some way).

In short, he discovered that the happiest people were those who had focussed on a particular core value: thinking of others, not on financial wealth or social or occupational position. In other words, their definition of “success”  involved the four variables above.

Example: One of the men in the study, when first interviewed at around age 20, wanted to write and publish books. When he was re-interviewed at age 75, he had not done this. But he was happy. Why? L-O-V-E. He understood that one must see life with one’s heart. He knew how to play (sailing; gardening). Taught seventh graders how to write well.He found positive emotions, like compassion, faith. He worked at creating a close-knit family, including an extended family. In his case, he found he just wasn’t as interested in writing a book as he was in helping others get published. And that’s what he did.

An Encouraging Post Script:

Professor Vaillant based his longitudinal [over long period of time] study on his belief

“…. that a glimpse of any one moment in a life can be deeply misleading. A man at 20 who appears the model of altruism may turn out to be a kind of emotional prodigy— or he may be ducking the kind of engagement with reality that his peers are both moving toward and defending against. And, on the other extreme, a man at 20 who appears impossibly wounded may turn out to be gestating toward maturity.” <source>

Other Sources:

Joyful Wisdom

Habits of Happiness

The Meaning of Success

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