Where Does Real Happiness Lie?
Transcript of the teaching video:
When we speak about all the types of suffering that we experience, the three types of suffering, for instance, the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, and pervasive suffering. What is the main problem that brings about all these types of sufferings? We seek happiness in what we call the perfection of samsaric pleasures. We think that these are everlasting happiness, and we seek them and grasp at them. In reality, this brings about the nature of suffering. Grasping at something temporary as if it is everlasting happiness leads to suffering.
Our mind identifies something in the nature of suffering as happiness and goes in that direction. What brings real, long-lasting, enduring happiness are qualities such as love, compassion, Bodhichitta and wisdom. These are really precious. We believe objects of the six senses are so precious, but in reality, they are not. What is most precious are these qualities in the mind that everybody can develop: love, compassion, and wisdom. It is very important to know the actual causes that bring about happiness and the causes of suffering. Identifying them is not enough; we need to make an effort in our lives to understand that real wealth, the most precious thing, has to do with the nature of the mind.
Understanding deeply what causes real happiness and what causes suffering is crucial, but simply knowing them is not enough. We must make an effort in our lives to understand that the real wealth, the most precious thing has to be in the nature of the mind.
This nature which is clear light and luminous, and this is where the qualities of wisdom, true love, and compassion arise and we need to use them. We need to cultivate these qualities and teach them from a young age. By incorporating these teachings into the education system, how to develop these inner qualities of the mind, what is real happiness and what is not, how to seek them, what are their causes, then slowly and slowly we can hope for a better world. If we practice these values in our daily lives—whether we walk, sit, sleep, whether we are alone or with others, at the time of death, then for all future lives as well, we will have a mind that is completely pacified and calm and genuine happiness will be experienced.
A mind free from grasping and seeking perfection in samsaric pleasures, driven by egoism, will not find real happiness. Instead, by developing inner qualities like love and compassion, we create true wealth. This is beneficial in the short term, midterm, and long term, even from life to life. A person who develops these qualities will move from one state of happiness to another.
Focusing only on external developments and grasping them as the real source of happiness is misguided. For all Buddhists and bodhisattvas, it is essential to understand and adopt this perspective. Therefore, we must make it possible for everyone to learn and internalize these teachings, creating a foundation for a better future and happiness for ourselves and others.
A mind that is completely without grasping, without seeking perfection in samsara and so forth is what we need to build. But instead what we do is keep building and doing things, technology, external things, with a mind that grasps, with a mind that is driven by egoism. So all these things that we produce to seek happiness and to have happiness will bring only suffering because even the motivation behind it is completely wrong, it is not a motivation that brings happiness.
All these things, whatever richness, whatever wealth, whatever object that we think in the world is, these are not the real wealth. The real wealth are the qualities that we can develop within our mind, the quality of Bodhichitta, love and compassion. This is the real wealth because it is extremely beneficial immediately in the short term, in the midterm, and in the long term. At the time of death and from life to life, the person who develops this quality will always go from one happiness to another happiness.
If we go in the direction of only giving attention to the external development and grasping it as the real source of happiness, which it is not, which is actually exactly the opposite way around - all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; they won't be able to, they can't do anything, we won't be able to receive the slightest benefit.
What we really need to do is not only to understand for ourselves but to make possible that all this becomes a system of education where the upbringing of the people of the world is based on these precious qualities of the mind. Then we have hope for a future better world and happiness for ourselves and others.
