Mipham Rinpoche's Advice on Happiness, p1

I would like to say a little bit about the recitation that we do for those who may be new to Abhaya gatherings, to give you an understanding of the reason behind this so you can develop a sense of trust and faith in this method that we use.

Dharma as a path to happiness

What we call Dharma, generally speaking, involves different types of engagements such as teachings, explanations of Dharma, as well as practice. Recitation of liturgy falls under the category of practice. What we call the Dharma is a method by which we can arrive at or attain happiness; we can experience happiness and we can be separated from the experience of suffering. To unite with happiness and to relieve ourselves of suffering: that's what is meant by the Dharma. The Dharma is also a path that is for the benefit of oneself as well as the benefit of others. It has a dual benefit, self and other.

All of us want to be separated from suffering, nobody wants to suffer. We all want to experience happiness. This is the same for all beings, it's a universal desire to be happy and a universal desire to be free of suffering. The problem is that, even though we want happiness, that is our wish, our actions oppose it. Our opposing actions end up bringing us suffering instead of happiness.

We want to accomplish a true, genuine, lasting happiness, one that does not easily disappear. And that is also the goal of the Dharma. The Dharma is a path towards happiness, it is a path to accomplish happiness. That is exactly what the Buddhadharma is designed to do. This path to happiness depends completely upon our own effort, our own engagement. The path is set up for us, but it is up to us to walk the path.

Happiness is dependent upon many external as well as internal factors. It arises depending on causes and conditions that are both external and internal to us. Actually, everything arises dependent upon something else; this is dependent arising, this is how things come into being. Our happiness depends upon causes and conditions in order to come about, and so does our suffering. Suffering also depends upon causes and conditions, many different causes and conditions accumulated together, collected together. The collection of causes and conditions is what brings about the experiences of happiness or suffering. So this is what we are doing with the Dharma -- it really is. The Dharma is the practice of collecting different causes and conditions for the arising of happiness. This is done gradually, and on many different levels from obvious to more subtle. Through practice and in activities such as meditating, we can directly come to understand the way this works.

The very root of both happiness and suffering is the mind. Our mind is at the very core, everything depends upon our own mind. When our mind's nature is obscured by unawareness of its own nature, not knowing itself, this is what we call obscurations, and this brings about the experiences of suffering.

While our mind is at the very root of experiences of happiness and suffering, there is still a connection to outer objects. Our experience of happiness or suffering also involves the relationship with external objects that we perceive.

དགའ་ཞིང་མཐུན་པའི་ཡུལ་ན་གནས་པ་བདེ། །
Happiness is abiding in a joyful and harmonious place
བག་ཕེབས་ཡིད་རྟོན་གྲོགས་དང་འགྲོགས་པ་བདེ། །
Happiness is being in the company of a mind that is carefree and reliable
བསོད་ནམས་བསགས་ཤིང་དམ་པ་བསྟེན་པ་བདེ། །
Happiness is accumulating merit and relying on sublime beings
ཆོག་ཤེས་འབྱོར་ལྡན་རང་དབང་གྱུར་བ་བདེ། །
Happiness is having the wealth of contentment that brings freedom

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་མི་ཕམ་པས་གསུངས།

In a quote from the great scholar Mipham Rinpoche, he describes our experience of happiness. When we see our surroundings as being very joyful and we are very happy in our surroundings, how is this related to external conditions? What is the relationship between ourselves, our happiness, and external conditions that bring us joy and happiness? Rinpoche will begin with a commentary on the relationship between ourselves and our outer environment, and how that comes about.

Harmony between ourselves and our environment

There is a relationship between ourselves and our environment that we need to be aware of. We can stay in a very pleasant place, a place that makes us feel happy, for example in a country or a more immediate environment such as a place where we reside. We feel happy there, and in order to to experience that happiness, there needs to be harmony between ourselves and our outer conditions. We could be staying in a very beautiful place, a place that really makes us feel wonderful. But what if we don't have the means to be there? Let's say we need wealth to stay in this place. We need to have the means to support ourselves. When we don't have that, then even though we are in a very wonderful environment, because certain conditions are not present, we are then faced with other kinds of problems. We may enjoy being in a very expensive place. we may enjoy staying there, but our ability to stay requires harmony between ourselves and our environment. We could run into an obstacle in this way. There is a relationship between our self and our external environment and the conditions that need to be present in order to actually enjoy that environment.

There's a very clear relationship between ourselves, our experience of happiness, our desires for happiness and our environment. And what’s needed is a meeting of our internal desires, our internal experience with the outer environment. These need to be in harmony. They need to match up in a way that allows us to experience happiness or to enjoy the place where we find ourselves. You may live in a place that is very beautiful outwardly. You may be surrounded by wonderful houses and cars and things like that, and you may have a desire to experience those things and to have those things. But perhaps your means, your wealth, or your ability to really enjoy those things are limited. In that case, you can't actually experience happiness even though you're surrounded by it. You can't experience those things because your abilities are limited. There's a disconnect between the outer environment and your own abilities which doesn't allow you to enjoy those things.