How can Buddhism get us to JOY?

Bita Enayati and Dhr. Seven, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Quarterly GETTING PHILOSOPHICAL

Hey, Buddha, make me happy, Dude.

How can learning Buddhism give us access to joy?

Sun and rain are equally good. Enlightenment or being equanimous, accepting all things free of bias, makes for a joyful abiding. Equanimity,* which is available right at this moment is a kind of mindfulness that does not falter or fade.

To achieve this kind of happiness, we need to overcome two kinds of obstacles, craving and delusion about the true nature of what we call "self " (which, impossibly, is impersonal).

In the ancient Buddhist texts, the Buddha sometimes refers to the number of grains of sand in the Ganges river. How many grains are there? In Japan the number has been calculated exactly and is thought to be 10 to the power of 52.

A Buddhist joke

Wait, so this guy goes up to the Buddha looking for happiness, right? And he asks him...

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Are we going to hear a joke?

As we can see the "world" and "time" are very different in Buddhism than how we're normally accustomed to thinking of them. This is an adapted joke to remind us and give us a sense of scale. A man wishing for his own welfare approached the Enlightened One to get something:

• Man: How long is a million years for you?
• The Buddha: It’s like a second.
• Man: How much is a million dollars to you?
• The Buddha: It’s like a penny.
• Man: Can you give me a penny?
• The Buddha: Sure, just give me a second.

I can't meditate. It takes too long! Attention span

The Buddha teaches that our human lifespan is like lightning, like an instant, like a second (even though it is variable and waxes and wanes between 80,000 and 10 years or so, and the earth is not the only place there are humans).

Happiness is relative. What is true happiness, getting rich or awakening from ignorance? We like our ignorance, our delusion; we think of it as our source of happiness.

Enlightenment is the greatest gain. But without making comparisons, we can’t make judgments. Comparing a human life to the history of this planet (which let's say has been evolving and devolving for 4.6 billion years) may shake us to our senses.

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."

For if 4.6 billion years is turned into a year, the dinosaurs only lived on December 31st. Locusts live only seven days. Mayflies live only a few hours. What’s the purpose of their lives? People in their 80s feel like eight decades passed in the blink of an eye. It's all relative.

When we appreciate impermanence in Buddhism, we might treat things with greater care. For example, when we're moving, we put our China in a box and label it FRAGILE. That way we handle it with care. Why? We do so because we have become keenly aware that it might break if we don't.

When we go through a rough time, we ask ourselves, "Is this real?" It feels surreal to us, meaning we can't believe it.

If we go through an unusually smooth time we also ask, Is this real? Pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming.

Many Buddhist teachings lead to greater joy.

What is happiness? That man wanted a million dollars. That would have been "happiness," or would it? We all see how millionaires become exclusively happy, right? They don't feel greedy, have big problems, drink, get sick, feel angry, want more, get confused, lie, cheat, steal, and make bad karma...

Would the rich, even in a million years, become satisfied? Not on your life! Too much still isn't enough, so what's a million dollars? It's a door to a big problem or a big opportunity. And we're not ready for that opportunity but, boy, we sure do want that million dollars. Hmm. Funny that. Maybe we should get ready -- get ungreedy (nonclingy), unangry (unhateful), unconfused. Why? A little self acceptance can go a long way.

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am then I can change" (Carl Rogers).

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This is all the happiness I need, man.

There's happiness available, and all we can think of is getting a million dollars or a billion or $182 billion like Elon Musk, and Carlos Slim, and Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, and the British Royals, the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffet... (awful lot of white males on the list).

They're all happy, right? Jeff is the happiest. And happiness steps down with Elon and then Carlos and so on. No way. Have they overcome greed, hatred, delusion, aging, illness, or death? Do they not experience loss and separation, lack of fulfillment and meaning, the eight vicissitudes of the world*? They experience it all and worse, right?

• How Elon Musk lost $30 billion overnight – and the title of World’s Richest Man

Rich Lisa Garr searching for meaning (KPFK)

Maybe learning Buddhism would help us be joyful because these are the exact questions the Buddha took up, discovered, and made known.

And he found that the most important thing is awakening from delusion, becoming enlightened in a world of ignorance and an ignorant world.

*Equanimity

"Evenheartedness" or upekkha is unwavering — staying calm and joyful in the face of the eight vicissitudes of life. These eight are the attha loka dhamma or Eight Worldly Conditions:

1. gain/
2. loss
3. fame/
4. disgrace
5. praise/
6. blame
7. sadness/
8. happiness.

There are Ten Perfections not Six

The "far enemy" of equanimity is greed and resentment, mental states that are in obvious opposition to it.

The "near enemy" is a characteristic that superficially resembles equanimity and therefore subtly and insidiously opposes it — indifference, neutrality, apathy.

In the development of meditative absorption (jhana) in the context of right concentration (samadhi),  equanimity arises as the quintessential factor of the first four absorptions. It is present in the third and fourth jhanas, as Bhikkhu Bodhi explains:

Bhikkhu Bodhi

"The real meaning of upekkha is 'equanimity,' not indifference in the sense of unconcern for others. As a spiritual virtue, [it] means stability in the face of the fluctuations of worldly fortune. It is evenness of mind, unshakeable freedom of mind, a state of inner equipoise that cannot be upset by gain and loss, honor and dishonor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain.... True equanimity is the pinnacle of the four social attitudes that the Buddhist texts call the 'divine abodes': boundless loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic [or empathetic, vicarious] JOY, and equanimity. The last does not override and negate the preceding three, but perfects and consummates them" ("Toward a Threshold of Understanding" (Access to Insight, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies).

In Theravada Buddhism equanimity is one of the Ten Perfections (paramis). It is the tenth practice of a bodhisattva or "being bent on supreme enlightenment." It is also one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhanga). It is the ultimate characteristic to develop.