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Cultivating Happiness
Thursday, March 6, 2008

This Thursday evening, the first Thursday of March, we will begin with a guided meditation and then follow with our usual walking meditation and silent sitting meditation. After, we'll discuss the role of happiness and joy on the path.

For me, joy in this practice has been a double-edged sword. My very reason for meditating has been to increase happiness and contentment in myself, my loved ones, and in my community. But often, I've cringed and withdrawn from some of the practices that are intended to encourage happiness. When I first started practicing, someone at a retreat suggested that we sing "Zippity Doo-Dah." I just about fell over. "This is a Buddhist retreat!" I protested internally. "Are these people absolutely nuts? Did they drink the Kool-Aid?" Every inch of me resisted singing, although I did join in, half-heartedly. Eventually, as I practiced more, I found that singing (if not that song in particular!) does cultivate happiness in myself. It helps me to open my heart and express myself; to see where there are any blockages in me; to discover that being open and giving voice to my feelings is not as hard as I believe it to be. I also really enjoy hearing ! the community sing, hearing many voices join together in expressing ourselves and where we are at this very moment, whether that is joyful or not.

Over time, I've come to appreciate how central to the practice it is to cultivate what Thich Nhat Hanh calls the positive seeds in our consciousness: gratitude, joy, peacefulness, love--there are many of them. Thursday night, we'll discuss practices we can use to cultivate these positive energies in ourselves, particularly happiness; why we do so; and the challenges we face in encouraging these positive states within ourselves and our community.

I hope you can join us.

Warm regards,

Scott Schang

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." Thich Nhat Hanh

WALKING MEDITATION

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.

Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.

Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.
Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 1999, p. 194