Not All Happiness is Created Equal

How many of you have said, looking at the current state of your life, “I wish I could get back to how happy I was 10/20/30 years ago?” Maybe you long for the good old days of your marriage, before things went south. Maybe you long for the days when you actually enjoyed your job, before you became jaded. But I think the truth is that you really DON’T wish to return to those days, because there is a deeper happiness in store for you around the corner. Let me explain.

Once upon a time, I was a bouncy, exuberant college student. I had a group of friends I enjoyed, a major I was great at, and plunged myself head-first in communities such as Society for Women Engineers. I skipped around the globe studying abroad in France, volunteering in Thailand and interning in Colorado and Tennessee. I did all of this with the sort of wide-eyed bliss of someone trying out his or her wings for the first time. It was easy to be happy because everything was going so well. Can you relate?

Then I went on to graduate school and I entered Phase 2. The bouncy stopped. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a bioengineer, but had no idea what my life’s passion was. I wasn’t sure who I wanted to be friends with, who I wanted to marry or what I wanted to get involved in. I felt stuck, unsure, indecisive and lost. It was hard for me to be happy because of all the turmoil I felt.

I thought back to my gleeful days in college and wished I were back there. After all, I was so happy. What went wrong? What would it take to bring back the bouncy?

Then I realized that I actually wouldn’t want to bring back that form of happiness. My happiness in college was due to circumstance. Consider how it is easy to eat well when you are hanging out at organic vegan summer camp, but then you go home and out comes the box of brownies. It was easy for me to be happy in college because I was somewhat naive about who I really was and everything was working out so well, but that wasn’t lasting happiness. My happiness was circumstantial because when I went to grad school and circumstances changed, I was no longer happy. That is not the sort of happiness you want to hang your hat on.

Enter Phase 3: cultivated happiness. Cultivated happiness comes from having learned how to build your own happiness, regardless of what is going on around you. It comes from knowing yourself and taking on the challenges that you are passionate about and being proud of the path you are on, no matter what bumps it may have. Cultivated happiness is lasting happiness and is a skill you can bring to any situation. For me, cultivated happiness came when I realized that I, and I alone, was in charge of making sure I had a good time each day and that I really did have the power to enjoy my life no matter what.

Dr. Samantha Sutton
The Daily Love

Mindfulness Meditation 15.9.2011

Let's go beyond just knowing what's happening around us.
Let's go much more deeper.

To observe,

The mental states,
The feelings,
The observer itself.

This week we'll be touching on Intentions.

So let's meet, if Wisdom and Understanding is what you're after :)


For more info please contact:
Engelbert Teh (016-4232970)
Stella Tan Pei Zin (016-2617757)

Heart of a Buddha

Natural laws are impartial.

Only those who are virtuous

are in harmony with nature.

J. Krishnamurti on Meditation

Meditation
by J. Krishnamurti








Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration. It is one of the favourite gambits of some teachers of meditation to insist on their pupils learning concentration - that is, fixing the mind on one thought and driving out all other thoughts. This is a most stupid, ugly thing, which any schoolboy can do because he is forced to.

It means that all the time you are having a battle between the insistence that you must concentrate on the one hand and your mind on the other which wanders away to all sorts of other things, whereas you should be attentive to every movement of the mind wherever it wanders. When your mind wanders off it means you are interested in something else.

Meditation demands an astonishingly alert mind; meditation is the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of fragmentation has ceased. Meditation is not control of thought, for when thought is controlled it breeds conflict in the mind, but when you understand the structure and origin of thought, which we have already been into, then thought will not interfere. That very understanding of the structure of thinking is its own discipline which is meditation.

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence. Silence put together by thought is stagnation, is dead, but the silence that comes when thought has understood its own beginning, the nature of itself, understood how all thought is never free but always old - this silence is meditation in which the meditator is entirely absent, for the mind has emptied itself of the past.

If you have read this book for a whole hour attentively, that is meditation. If you have merely taken away a few words and gathered a few ideas to think about later, then it is no longer meditation. Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system and that is not attention.

Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.

So meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus or walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the singing of birds or looking at the face of your wife or child. In the understanding of meditation there is love, and love is not the product of systems, of habits, of following a method.

Love cannot be cultivated by thought. Love can perhaps come into being when there is complete silence, a silence in which the mediator is entirely absent; and the mind can be silent only when it understands its own movement as thought and feeling. To understand this movement of thought and feeling there can be no condemnation in observing it. To observe in such a way is the discipline, and that kind of discipline is fluid, free, not the discipline of conformity.

Activities in September

Here is a list of the activities in September. The Buddhist Society has a lot of fun and meaningful activities organised just for you. =)

Dhamma talks: Listen to our experienced Dhamma speaker and learn how to deal better with challenges in everyday life following the teachings of the Buddha.

Dates: 5th and 29th of September

Movie sharings: Watch a movie and learn to watch out for meanings behind the movie. Not everything we see is what it really is. Step back, and learn to see situations as it truly is, not what we assume and perceive them to be. Most importantly, enjoy an entertaining FREE movie with your friends.

Date: 21st of September

Meditations: Learn the art of meditation. Learn to be cool and calm when facing problems. Learn how to deal with stress. Most importantly, learn to understand yourself better. An opportunity not to be missed. Meditation will bring you a lot of invaluable benefits.

Dates: 15th and 22nd of September

Semester gathering and Friday gatherings: Build up friendships and have some fun with your friends. The semester gathering will be held in conjunction with the Mid Autumn Festival. Do come and join us!!!

Date of Semester gathering: 12th September

Dates of Friday gatherings: 9th and 23rd of September

Recruitment Drive: Sign up and be a member of the Buddhist Society. You will never regret this as you will meet great friends and at the same time LEARN while joining our meaningful activities. =)

Date of recruitment drive: 22nd of September

Blood Donation Drive Photography Competition

Picture taken by first prize winner Woo Chien Ling.

Congratulations to the winners of the Photography Competition held during the recent Blood Donation Drive!!!!

First Prize : Woo Chien Ling (259 votes)

Second Prize: Kuok Huey Wen (238 votes)

Third Prize: Tung Kin Fai (213 votes)

Hopefully, you all have enjoyed this opportunity to capture the beauty in the act of giving and sharing. Please do join us for our other events which are as meaningful and as full of rewards.

=)

7 Everyday Ways to Uplift Your Mood

7 Everyday Ways to Uplift Your Mood
By JOE WILNER


Every day we run into hassles and stressors that can start to build up and bring us down. Maybe you don’t have enough time, you have too many responsibilities, or you’re worried about some upcoming obligation.

Whatever hassles you’re experiencing it’s important to learn to deal with them, though at the same time, it’s also important to fill our day with positive and uplifting experiences.

Uplifting experiences help us build positive emotions and become more resilient when times get rough. Having the good with the bad is crucial in order to cope with the stress of everyday life.

These don’t have to be anything extreme or out of the ordinary. Positive uplifting experiences are all around us.

Here are some simple everyday experiences that can help give you an emotional boost.

Relating well with family and friends – Whether its friends or family, having healthy and positive relationships is very valuable to our emotional health. When we have shared connections with friends and family each day we will find more amusement, joy and affection in our life.

Feeling healthy – We may not have perfect health or always get the amount of exercise we desire, but as long as we do things here and there to help us be healthy it offers us a chance to feel good about ourselves. Setting healthy goals is a wonderful way to start feeling content with your health.

Getting enough sleep – You may feel like you have so much to do you have to stay up late and wake up early – though this is ultimately counterproductive. When we don’t get enough sleep it drains our energy, lessens our creative juices, and steals our emotional well-being. To increase your energy level and have a more cheerful attitude get ample sleep.

Eating out at restaurants – Sometimes eating out isn’t the most economical thing to do, but it certainly offers a chance to have a fun and enjoyable experience. It can save us time from cooking and lets us just relax. Many restaurants also offer a warm and stirring environment that can boost our mood.

Completing a task – The feeling that comes with doing a job well done and accomplishing our goals is paramount to increasing self-esteem and confidence. When we trust and believe in ourselves we will be more likely to set and achieve successful goals. When we are able to manage time and meet our responsibilities life is immensely easier to handle.

Visiting, phoning, or writing someone – Is there someone you haven’t talked with in a while that you want to connect with? It’s never been easier to reach out to old friends and acquaintances we want to connect with. With social media we can contact someone and make plans to unite and visit. We can share how we feel and offer kindness.

Staying home and relaxing – Simply staying home, relaxing, and putting your feet up may be just what you need to remain positive and in high spirits. Making sure to unwind and enjoy our down time can be a wonderful solution to stress and turmoil.

These are just a few ideas that we can focus on in order to provide us with more opportunities for positivity.

How many of these are part of your life? What could you add to your daily routine to help improve your mood and decrease stress?

Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/positive-psychology/2011/07/7-everyday-ways-to-uplift-your-mood/

Heart of a Buddha

Dignity and quiet joy

in all that we do

are the expression of

perfect concentration

and

perfect wisdom.

Friday Gathering

Meditation Class