Currently viewing the tag: "Buddhism"
The tag line of this blog is ‘ideas for a happy life’, but as I’ve written before I’ve found a more useful goal is equanimity, rather than happiness.
Why is this?
Well, when we aim for happiness, and strive to achieve it, it often becomes elusive. In striving for happiness we start to [...]
Today’s story is an original, loosely based on a Buddhist story that I may include in another article.
In a little town in southern England lived a lady who worked as an apothacary’s assistant, spending her days mixing remedies and labeling bottles. She lived at home with her aunt, her only living relative.
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The tag line of this site is ‘ideas for a happy life’. When I came up with it I was spending a lot of energy learning about positive psychology, the primary goal of which is happiness. But as I’ve gone further into the causes of happiness, I’ve come to realize that it means [...]
I’ve written a lot about meditation, but there is a danger that your meditative practice stays in your home and doesn’t carry out with you into the wider world. When this happens it can stop us from gaining the full value that mindfulness brings.
Today I want to share a Buddhist story that I have found very useful in recent months.
I originally heard the story told by Ajahn Brahm, the Australian Buddhist monk, and this version is partly told from memory, partly my own.
In this talk ex-biochemist Matthieu Ricard shares the discoveries he’s made about happiness since becoming a Buddhist monk. He first suggests a lot of intellectuals don’t care about happiness, they say “we like our unhappiness because it’s so good when it ceases for a while”.
He thinks that, despite what the intellectuals say, directly [...]
“If it’s life that you’re loving, there ain’t nothing more to do”
– Finley Quaye
As we go through life, it’s natural that we take on goals and aspirations. To the degree that these give our lives direction they are positive. Happiness, however, comes as a result of being present in the [...]
Something Free…
