[Doctors talk freely.Guan Xin Ji]The Pursuit of Happiness: Religion

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“Doing what I like is freedom, and liking what I do is happiness! Remember! Remember!” This is also a well-known quote from South African meditation friends.

One morning, after I finished meditating at home, I received a text message from that friend on my mobile phone. At first glance, I’m tempted to agree, but I still find it weird. How should I answer this foreign friend? Human beings have racked their brains in social science, psychology, medicine, and philosophy, but they can’t find eternal and lasting happiness. Will they find the answer in religion?

Religion has various definitions. It can be a cultural system that connects with gods or supernatural or divine beings. It can also be defined as a principle or theoretical system that adheres to beliefs with enthusiasm and firm belief. A high-level religion has a purpose and a method to teach believers how to achieve that purpose.

God-based religions believe that heaven is the ultimate destination for human beings. There is only pleasure, no pain. The way to return is to stop evil and do good, and have a deep belief in God. Under the protection of God, the soul has sustenance. When encountering any good or bad situation, I firmly believe that everything is God’s will. He will naturally make the most appropriate arrangements for mankind, so I accept it calmly.

Living in this way, believers are more likely to be satisfied. However, the changes of impermanence and the production of chemicals in the body will eventually affect the body and mind. After all, continuous happiness is hard to find. The only hope is to ascend to heaven after death. I hope that there will be no pain at that time, and only eternal happiness. After ascending to heaven, some religious scriptures mention that heaven and man will wage wars between gods and gods because of their desires, but the religious circles do not want to go into details about this, and believe that as long as they ascend to heaven, they will be consummated.

Of the religions centered on the laws of nature, the one that has explored the deepest pursuit of eternal happiness is none other than Buddhism. It was because Prince Siddhartha was exposed to the suffering of birth, aging, sickness and death that he became a monk to seek eternal happiness. After he became a Buddha, he taught the world how to get rid of suffering and gain happiness with a way of thinking that is completely detached from ordinary people.

Ordinary people try their best to avoid suffering and obtain happiness, but the happiness they get is only short-lived and cannot last due to physical and psychological factors. For this kind of temporary happiness, the Buddha called it suffering, because this happiness will deteriorate.

Material enjoyment is not true happiness

Before the Buddha became a monk, he had already experienced that material enjoyment is not true happiness. After becoming a monk, I found that inner joy is far superior to material enjoyment, and the joy of meditation is the most important among worldly joys. But when one enters a deeper meditation, the initial level of meditation is no longer so fascinating, and the happiness obtained after entering deep meditation also disappears without a trace.

After the Buddha attained enlightenment, he explained the cause of suffering: All living beings do not know the truth as it really is, and they intuit themselves or the external environment as entities that exist objectively. When faced with a pleasant external environment, a greedy psychology arises; for an unsatisfactory external environment, it strongly rejects it. With craving or repulsion, some actions are performed naturally to take or hurt, and with that comes its consequence: suffering. If one can know and experience the truth, and no longer cling to all things, what one will get is endless coolness and ease, which the Buddha calls the joy of Nirvana. This kind of happiness has surpassed all material and spiritual happiness in the world. There is no need to seek worldly happiness, nor to reject any unsatisfactory things.

To carry out the Buddha’s view of happiness in a simple way: “I want to be happy” is what all living beings desire. If “want” is removed, it means “I am happy”; “.

Looking back at my South African friend’s text message “Doing what I like is freedom, liking what I do is happiness!” I replied: “Awesome, but I think differently, being free from all circumstances is freedom , the absence of greed, hatred, and ignorance is happiness.”

Best of luck to all of you who find a way to eternal and sustained happiness!

(Guangming Daily/Doctor Column‧Author: Chen Changci)

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