A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century

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This comes from the incorrect assumption that you can find happiness outside of yourself and in some future occurrence instead of now. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to get something material or an experience or achievement, wanting what you don’t have makes you unhappy. When we recognize that we don’t need anything to be content, we feel fullness, which makes us happy. It’s a feeling of contentment with who we are and what we have, right now. You Are Hard-Wired to Be Happy: Use This to Be Happy As Often As Possible Feeling Good in the “Instant Happiness” Culture The aim of this book is to help you create happiness through bringing meditation into the heart of your daily life—not only to reduce stress and gain greater mastery over your thoughts and emotions, but also to discover your mind’s deep potential for unconditional compassion and freedom. Happiness is inside you, waiting. And even if you do end up getting it, your satisfaction won’t last long. Soon you’ll be habitually looking to the next thing that you think will make you happy. Lesson 3: Meditation is the pathway to inner peace and contentment, and you can develop it with daily practice in any situation.

Scientists have recently coined the term “neuroplasticity” to describe this phenomenon, which simply means the potential for mental change through training, such as meditation, leading to the creation of new neural pathways. We can imprint a multitude of new habits, unlearn negative ones, and achieve lasting benefits. PDF / EPUB File Name: A_Monks_Guide_to_Happiness_-_Gelong_Thubten.pdf, A_Monks_Guide_to_Happiness_-_Gelong_Thubten.epub I find it fascinating that we can observe our thoughts and emotions. As we go through our day, whenever we are angry, afraid, or sad, for example, we usually know that we are angry, afraid, or sad—we are experiencing how we feel. But if there is a part of the mind that knows we are angry, then surely that part is not angry—otherwise, how could it know the anger? And so there is an aspect of the mind that is always free. There are several misconceptions about meditation and mindfulness, which I hope this book will help to clarify.

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But isn’t it important to learn from the past and prepare for the future?” I thought. Only by recognizing the importance of the present, however, did I learn how to connect the important lessons of the past and the opportunities of the future together. I wrote this book because I am passionate about helping people realize they can choose happiness, and I wanted to show how this can be learned through the power of meditation. Meditation helps us to access what feels like a deep well within, filled with nourishing water that we can drink whenever we want.

Thubten, on the other hand, was miserable and in a downward spiral mentally and physically. The result has been a life journey often centered around the nature of happiness and the teaching of meditation around the world. In fact, the proceeds from his writing goes to benefit the establishment of meditation centers. Last week was tough. I felt mentally drained and disappointed in myself. But this morning, all of that is gone. What happened? I took time to be mindful. Examining my feelings without judgment, I could see where I was too hard on myself. The main brain chemical involved in that kind of happiness “hit” is dopamine, and interestingly this hormone surges before we get what we want and then it drops away. When we are about to have the bite of cake, or when we’re getting ready for the party, we are caught up in the excitement of the chase, and when we actually eat the cake the dopamine drops away; and so our lives are about anticipation. Animals get a big dopamine hit when they think they are about to get fed; “about to happen” is always the exciting part. “When I am rich”; “When I meet the right person”; “When I achieve the body I want.” We never actually get there, as the anticipation leads to a habit of looking for the next thing, which means we never feel we truly arrive. There is always an “if,” “when,” or “because” to our happiness. That’s just what Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten will teach you in A Monk’s Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st Century !I love to reflect on the past so that I can learn from it. I also enjoy planning ahead for the future so I can use that knowledge to improve my life and the lives of those around me. This book is written in a style that is very easy to read and the guide to meditation is perfect for beginners. Gelong Thubten is a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author from the UK. He ordained as a monk 26 years ago at Samye Ling Tibetan Monastery in Scotland. He is regarded as one of the UK's most influential meditation teachers, with pioneering work in providing non-religious mindfulness programmes to businesses, hospitals, schools, universities, prisons and addiction counselling centres. It’s important to remember that your mind is going to stray. When this happens, you simply need to recognize it without judgment. This book provides readers with a philosophically insightful and practically useful manual on how to break free of suffering and achieve inner peace. We begin our conversation talking about distraction and addiction, two states that are very closely linked. When we distract ourselves by scrolling, overeating, or drinking for example, says Thubten, we’re pushing away emotional pain or discomfort – even if we may not realise it. But the discomfort is really in the pushing. If we can learn instead to sit with what’s making us uncomfortable, those emotions start to transform.

Put into perspective, if we haven't gently trained our mind to be aware in the present moment, all these other things are more or less escapist in nature. I’ve found that many people seek a kind of happiness which is a fleeting sensation: a ‘high’—an injection-like bolt of energy,” he writes. “Yet this never seems to last, and when they no longer experience that high, they crave it again.” Normally our minds don’t feel free. Thoughts and emotions create a storm inside us, and we easily become their slaves. Moment to moment we might find ourselves in an “argument” with reality, constantly wishing things were different. Happiness involves mastering our thoughts and emotions and embracing things just as they are; it means that we relax and stop trying to manipulate our circumstances. If we can learn how to rest deeply in the present moment, even when facing difficulties, and we train our minds not to judge, we can discover within us a tremendous source of happiness and satisfaction. We might start to notice how much we usually look for nourishment from “outer” things instead.In ancient texts on meditation one often finds metaphors in which the mind is compared to the sky, and our thoughts and emotions to the clouds. The sky is limitless, vast, and without center or edges. Within the sky there are all kinds of clouds—heavy storm clouds, cotton wool–like clouds, thin, wispy cirrus clouds, and so on. These are all a natural part of the sky, but the sky is bigger. In a similar way, meditation teachings describe the pristine openness and spaciousness of the mind’s awareness, which is greater than the comings and goings of the thoughts and emotions. Say that you want to buy a pair of expensive glasses and say that you can’t afford them. Every time you think about them, you feel unhappy—you’re absolutely sure that once you buy those glasses, you’ll finally be happy.

Consequently, it is not at all surprising that all of us are constantly searching for happiness. But what if we’re looking for it at all the wrong places?Gelong Thubten's book is as warm, wise and generous as the man himself. We've never needed a voice like his more.'