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one of the first thoughts a Buddhist we are alone or with others, when you are sick, or in a conflict, or
has when waking up: “May all whether we are facing problems or with any of life’s other challenges.
beings be happy.” enjoying pleasures.
The Buddha’s first teaching was
There are many ways of looking at In your book you mentioned that about suffering, its cause, its end,
Buddhist ideas of happiness. One of the mind is the source of all our and the way to end suffering. Is
the most grounding is the idea that problems but also the source of it necessary for us to experience
happiness comes from aligning our the solution? Can you elaborate suffering first before we can find
minds with reality as it is, rather more on this? true happiness?
than a fantasy of what we want it to
be. When we imagine things to be The Buddha told a story of “two In general, Buddhism says that
permanent and unchanging, rather arrows” when we face some suffering is unavoidable, especially
than impermanent and fleeting, problem in life. The first arrow is those of sickness, aging, and
that is a cause of unhappiness. the problem itself, like our partner death. Everyone must experience
When we feel compassion for other breaking up with us. That one we these over the course of their life.
beings rather than anger, jealousy, cannot avoid. The second arrow is When approached in a healthy
disconnection, or loneliness, that is the story we tell ourselves about way, suffering becomes a cause
a cause of happiness. When we see that problem: “No one loves me,” for compassion and a motivation
the world as interconnected and “I’m never going to find someone to find methods for not wallowing
interdependent instead of broken else,” “They are such a jerk,” “I can’t in our pain, not falling into rage
into dualistic parts one can exploit be happy on my own.” That second or despair. Instead, we learn to
or avoid, that is a cause of happiness. arrow is the one we can avoid. manage suffering in healthy ways,
seeing it as inevitable, and even
As you start learning Buddhist Most of us have learned from our seeing the power of suffering to
techniques for training happiness, own experience, or from friends, lead us to expand virtues like
one of the simplest methods is to that sometimes the most difficult compassion, or appreciating the
look into your own mind and dive experiences in life can lead great preciousness of life so that we
beneath stimulation, entertainment, growth, productive change, or new create a life of inner development,
memories, plans—even beneath opportunities. Tibetan Buddhism meaning, and connection.
your personality—to discover who teaches “mind training” techniques
or what you might be beneath that allow us to turn any pain into a Your podcast is known as a
all that. In Mahayana Buddhism, method for growing our compassion. Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment. Is
of which Tibetan Buddhism is One of the meditations I share in skepticism a quality encouraged
a branch, there is the idea of a the book is called “Universalizing.” by the Buddha?
“fundamental goodness” intrinsic With this practice, when you face a
to every one of us; and that our problem in life, like an unexpected That first time I saw the Dalai Lama,
delusions, however annoying, are bill, you use it as a trigger to imagine he said that the Buddha taught not to
shallower, not truly who we are. all the people on earth who share take any of his teachings on faith, but
the same problem or worse: people the test them for ourselves. And if
When we are able to connect with who have lost their jobs, who are in any of his teachings turned out to be
this fundamental goodness that severe poverty, who have lost their invalid through our own analysis, we
lies within our own minds, which homes. You then try and generate should set them aside. The Buddha
Buddhists call “Buddha Nature,” compassion for them, thinking, taught us to be skeptics. I have never
we find a wellspring of inner “May no one suffer loss, poverty, come across another religion that
happiness that is stable whether fear, insecurity.” You can do the same told its followers not to take its