World Smile Day: A Path to Happiness

Buddhism's Seinfeld: funny Ajahn Brahm

The first Friday of October is World Smile Day (Oct. 3, 2025), a relatively new holiday with a fascinating story. Created by a commercial artist named Harvey Ball, this day came about as a response to his creation of the smiley face. Harvey worried that the commercialization of the symbol would lessen its impact. We can hardly blame him for his estimation; the symbol has been used in many different ways including clothing, comic books, coffee mugs, pins, and more. These little yellow faces are more than just a symbol, they’re a statement about the power of smiling.

History of World Smile Day

Has this symbol always existed?

In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist and ad man from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol [the yellow emoji icon] we’ve all come to know.

Popularity for this symbol exploded into the world of popular culture. It’s every artists’ dream for their work to be respected and recreated and few symbols have had quite the legacy that Harvey’s creation has had. More: nationaltoday.com

Smiling animals brighten our day

If looking for something to brighten an otherwise dreary winter day, look no further than these adorable animals. Looking at their cheery grins will no doubt put a smile on the face that watches them, too. These smiling animals will brighten the day

Buddhism: There is no way to happiness. Why? Happiness is the way

I let go, surrendered, and blissed out on the mat.

This is a tricky truth no one talks about, at least not in the West. We are forever searching and seeking, scheming and striving to get happy, to FIND a way to happiness. But this message turns that sort of thinking on its head.

When at a Buddhist monastery or on a Buddhist retreat, it's not uncommon to ask, "How do I attain meditative absorption (jhana)?" Another word for it is "zen" or dhyana and dharana on a yoga retreat. But there's no answer. One is taught a technique but no way to achieve the thing one strives for. Why?

I have a theory. - What is it? - Do the GOOD.

It is reached by letting go, dropping the striving, surrendering up the muscling, giving up the go-getter attitude. It just happens. And teachers will say, "There's no way to [scheme and use force to] do it. Meditators just do it."

I went to the room of the greatest jhana teacher in the world, and I pressed him, "What's the secret?"

He didn't know what I meant, he said. He didn't even know what I was talking about, he claimed. Then I thought, he's given me an opening. Here's my chance. I better ask very carefully:

"How does one meditate...successfully? What I mean is, how does one attain absorption? How does one get to..." He looked at me like I was kidding and when he saw that I was not, as if by rote, he gave me the basic instructions:

• Sit up straight, but not too straight, relax, bring your attention under your nose to the breath, remain aware of each and every in-breath and out-breath that is happening. Don't do anything but give your undivided attention to that breath (composed of an in-portion and out-portion). Just that. [Then what? - Then nothing, just that. - No, but there has to be something more; it can't be just that. - Just do that (in addition to keeping silent, following the Eight Precepts, and always keeping the breath in mind except when asleep) and then report to me what happens during the daily interview sessions. Try it. It's very simple, but there's nothing easy about it. So keep at it.]

Bare awareness (mindfulness/sati) is a start.

"No," I said, "not how does one sit; how does one succeed? How does one get to that state of one-pointedness, samadhi, stillness, rapture, unbroken focus...?"

"Oh, that," he said. "I don't know that." I thought he was joking, a real effort to make an American-style joke, and I didn't know why he wasn't telling me. He knew I was sincere. He knew I had been striving all month long. Then I applied more pressure than probably anyone would ever dare to apply.

I wasn't leaving without an answer: "What do you mean you don't know? Who better than you? If you don't know, who could possibly know?"

Then he stunned me, as he often did with the directness of his insight and his willingness to share his knowledge with me? "I don't know because I do not read minds. People come to me. I give them the instructions. And some of them come tell me what is happening, and I guide them from there."

You asked him what?! Did he throw you out?

"But WHY do some of them have something start happening since not everyone does?"

"That I do not know. I just know they do. And when they do, I can help them, guide them to go deeper. But how they get to it in the first place, that I do not know." [These aren't exact quotes, just the gist of the conversation, which only lasted a few desperate minutes as I pushed and pushed.]

As he said this, I realized I had asked him this before, after sitting with him in Asia at his massive monastery, where it seemed everyone was succeeding and attaining. I asked him and pushed him a little on the matter with someone sitting by me to catch what I might be missing, two Americans sincerely wanting to experience what Buddhist texts write about, what the Buddha taught, what sutras say happens.

At that time he looked at us and perceiving our sincerity said one strange word, his guess as to what it was distilled down to ONE thing as if it could ever be just one thing distinguishing success from just sitting. That word was parami. She smiled next to me, but I grimaced, perplexed. "'Parami?' The Sanskrit word paramita?"

"Yes," he answered, but he was actually talking about the Pali (and therefore Theravada Buddhist) form of the word parami. In either case, it means "perfection," but the Sanskrit is a diluted Mahayana term of six factors, whereas the historical Buddha always taught TEN intentional actions (deeds, karma).

My teacher clarified. What he imagined (from what he heard from many of his successful students reporting to him) was that they remembered doing skillful deeds in the past, and he concluded that those past skillful deeds were coming to fruition as they sat. And that's why some succeeded and not others.

What kinds of questions are these? You are silly.

(What I was really getting at was, WHAT ACTIONS CAN SOMEONE DO NOW OR WHILE ONE IS SITTING IN MEDITATION, ANXIOUS FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?)

That he didn't know, so I had to undertake a lifelong journey of trying to figure it out. Of course, it will have something to do with the Factors of Absorption (jhananga, "limbs of jhana"). Leigh Brasington figured this much out, having had the insight that happiness is the way:

Right Concentration: Practical Guide to the Jhanas

Brasington teaches a technique of focusing on one of these factors, happiness (piti, joy, pleasure, rapture, bliss) as it arises in the body in serenity meditation. By focusing on it, it increases based on the principle that, "Where attention goes, energy flows." This is true enough, but how does one get the initial happiness/bliss to pay attention to and make increase?

Now it makes sense that what I had always been looking for was a carrot or apple in front of the horse (mule, donkey, jackass). I could only neigh in realizing it: THE GOAL is not this happiness because THIS HAPPINESS is the way to relaxing, letting go, unstriving, surrendering, unclutching, dropping hangups, persisting without grasping or clinging, shikantaza ("just sitting"), not setting up a goal and striving for it. Why? It's because those blissful states of meditation and their attendant stillness, mindfulness, and progress towards insight are NATURAL. They arise. We don't "do" them. We can't do them. We don't know how and do not have that power.

But if we relax and just watch with vigilance, stillness, steadiness, persistence, we are cultivating the Factors of Absorption and other factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, which are categorized into seven groupings.

• One is reminded of a very important thing the Buddha once explained to someone. When talking about the Bodhisatta, himself at the stage of still being a seeker of enlightenment, he once realized that he could neither strive too hard or be negligent. Doing either, he sank as if in a great ocean (samsara), but not striving and not being negligent, he made progress. What could this mean either than the Middle Way of avoiding extremes, of persisting but not pushing, of cultivating but not disturbing the peace or giving in to apathy, listlessness, or despair?
• Thai Forest Tradition arahant Ajahn Maha Boowa seems to be suggesting the same thing here (translated by the American intellect Ven. Thanissaro): "The tactics [techniques] given by each of the Buddhas to the world are called the Dhamma [Truth] of the doctrine. These aren't the genuine Dhamma. They're tactics [methods] — different offshoots — actions and modes displayed by the genuine Dhamma, means for letting go and striving, teaching us to let go, teaching us to strive using various methods, saying that the results will be like this or that. As for the genuine Dhamma of results in the principles of nature, that's something to be known exclusively in the heart of the person who practices. This Dhamma can't really be described correctly in line with its truth. We can only talk around it. And particularly with release [nirvana, liberation, freedom]: This can't be correctly described at all, because it's beyond all conventions and speculations. It can't be described. Even though we may know it with our full heart, we can't describe it. Like describing the flavor [of a soup using only words to someone who has yet to simply taste it]." From Things As They Are.

Smile, be happy. Don't overdo it; just let it be.

So happiness IS the way. Be happy. Right now. Choose it. It's a choice. Smile. After all, it's World Smile Day. Reflect, "Why is the Buddha ALWAYS smiling slightly?" There are no statues of him yelling or throwing things, losing his temper or his poise. Why? It's because once one uproots the defilements, there is nothing more tat can upset. One knows-and-sees directly.

Like that, Lisa, just like that. Hold it.

And to the extent that that knowing-and-seeing is the goal, one has reached it. Things have become clear, and nothing can any longer upset us. What was in the way, aside from the defilements (of which there are many subtle ones) and lack of parami-karma (ten skillful deeds performed with the ambition of nirvana being the result)? What is the direct path to bodhi (enlightenment, awakening, realization, liberating-insight)?

What is the way to bodhi? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. What is the way to those factors? The preceding factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. How does one do any factor? It's probably a good idea to be happy. How does one even begin to dream to do that? Smile.

Harvard U's free course on Happiness

I took Harvard's free 6-week course on happiness—and here's what I learned

After six weeks of reading articles, watching videos, and contributing to class discussion boards, I've officially completed Harvard University's "Managing Happiness" course, led by social scientist and Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks.

The online class is completely free for audit only (not class credit), and anyone can take it up until March 27, 2024, which is past, so forget about becoming happy (j/k).

The course is self-paced, but after six weeks, one will lose access to its materials and one's progress.

Now that I've finished the course, my biggest takeaway is that I feel a lot more in control of my own happiness.

I left with an understanding that the things beyond my control can, and will, affect my happiness, but my reactions to these outcomes are more important (more important than what happens to me).

When I first started the Harvard course about happiness, I had several questions that I hoped to have answered. Here are some insights that I've gained.

Here's what I learned from Harvard's free happiness course

You make me smile, Buddha. And I get happy.

1. How often should we experience happiness? Though there isn't a set frequency for how often we should feel happy, we can experience happiness very often, especially by doing things that will make us genuinely smile.

The first thing that we were asked to do for the class was to grip a pencil between our molars for 60 to 90 seconds to mimic the act of smiling. [If the tail wags the dog, the dog will get happy, however counterintuitive that may seem. Try it.]

Though the activity felt silly, it did make me laugh, which [kickstarts deep breathing and] is associated with happiness.

Duchenne smile engages muscles of mouth and eyes

Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, a French neurologist who studied facial expressions, was particularly interested in what some call the "Duchenne smile," a smile that engages the muscles around our mouth and eyes.

"If we force a Duchenne smile, we start to feel happier," Prof. Brooks says in one of the course's videos.

And research from 2022 seems to support that theory. The Duchenne smile teaches us that "you can stimulate your happiness and improve it," sometimes by just genuinely smiling, Prof. Brooks adds.

2. Is it realistic to expect to feel happy all of the time?

Why was the Buddha always happy? Nirvana

 

As often as we can cultivate happiness in our own lives, it's not possible to feel happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Modern research shows us that our emotions are under our control — but only partly," Prof. Brooks says during the course.

Our genetic makeup and outside factors, like other people's actions, can also affect our emotions, he explains.

It requires effort and discipline to better manage our feelings. It's also important to remember that "happiness requires some amount of unhappiness," Prof. Brooks says.

Instead of avoiding unhappiness, we should embrace it and try to see what it is teaching us that can lead to growth.

3. If happiness is connected to our experiences, especially with those around us, how can we protect it when dealing with difficult people? Relationships greatly impact our happiness, but how to handle interactions with difficult people was not something we covered in depth.

However, one of the seven practices that Harvard researchers believe leads to happiness and good health is having good conflict-resolution skills.

• Google Zen expert on the number one skill for dealing with difficult people

I'm not really smiling, just mellow and content.

To be happier, researchers interviewed for the course also encourage people to form and strengthen relationships with people they can count on.

An 85-year Harvard study found that the Number One thing that makes us happier in life is positive relationships.

Prof. Brooks recommends developing great relationships and achieving healthy friendship balance by:

• Having check-ins with our friends
• Asking deep questions to gauge people's true opinions on important topics to build upon friendships with acquaintances
• Making more friends that "you don't need"

"In order to have a friend, you must be a friend," Prof. Brooks says, so you should practice the behaviors that you'd want a friend to have.

Be supportive, give people the capacity to be themselves, and provide advice without judgment, he recommends for those looking to become better friends.

4. How can we cultivate happiness during tough times in our lives? We typically feel like we're having a tough time during major transitions in our lives, but writer Bruce Feiler, who was mentioned and interviewed for the course, believes that life is found in the transitions.

Sometimes transitions are ones that we choose like moving to a new city or starting a new job. Other times, we can't anticipate them like the pandemic or the loss of a loved one.

But after interviewing hundreds of people and asking them about the transitions in their lives, Feiler learned that 90% of people were able to get through their tough times. For this reason, he suggests accepting our emotions and going through the process of recovery, instead of not acknowledging that things have changed.

Psychologists have also discovered that many people experience post-traumatic growth, a transformation after life-changing experiences and trauma.

According to the American Psychological Association, signs of post-traumatic growth can include:

• Appreciation of life
• New possibilities in life
• Personal strength
• Relationships with others
• Spiritual change.

And if you're struggling to find happiness during a tough time, Prof. Brooks offers this piece of encouragement:

"Remember that bad things don't last."

• I’m taking Harvard’s free 6-week course on happiness—here’s what I hope to learn
• CNBC's Make It, the new newsletter
• An 85-year Harvard study found the No. 1 thing that makes us happy in life: It helps us ‘live longer'

• Renée Onque, CNBC.com, 8/2/23, I took Harvard's free 6-week course on happiness—here's what I learned (msn.com); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Look At Me Now" (Family Guy)

Paulv "Family Guy" Lahos; Karmin; Wisdom Quarterly

• Can Buddhists listen to rap music? 
• Buddhist rap music fan? Yes!
• Magically moving rocks (Coral Castle)
• Revealed! Celebrities' natural hair colors

Why are American teeth crooked, decaying?

"How Are Teeth Damaged?" (Tooth Truth by Frank J. Jerome, D.D.S., pp. 199-200)

Famous Budai, the fat happy smiling Mahayana monk or "Buddha" (shutterstock.com)

 

Dr. Weston Price [westinaprice.org] was a highly respected research dentist who worked in the first 40 years of the 19th century. For several decades he was employed by the American Dental Association (ADA) as head of its research programs. [He produced volumes of valuable work for them.]

After leaving his post at the ADA, he traveled the world. Taking photographs of native people in Polynesia and other remote areas, he was able to show the influence of the Western (American) diet [or SAD: Standard American Diet] on children in the same families raised before sugar and white flour were introduced and those born after its introduction.
   

"I thought cavs and crooked teeth was normal!"

The children exposed to sugar and white flour had dental disease and their faces were narrower, causing bad bites with crowded, crooked teeth.

In some places, when the Western diet stopped being available, children born after the previous native diet was resumed were again healthy, just as the older children and the parents. Dr. Price's book about his observations of dietary influences on growth and decay, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, has become a classic in nutritional literature.

"Ah, no more vivisection on us!" (funnycats4u)

Dr. Francis Pottenger, M.D. did dietary experiments, using cats. When fed Western diets (human foods), the kittens grew with all the problems we exhibit including allergies and deformed dental arches. When these kittens became adults, he fed them their natural diet, and it took five generations before their kittens were completely healthy.. When the experiments were extended by feeding the cats the Western diet for three more generations, none of the kittens survived to breed. These experiments suggest that after long exposure to the Western diets, the facial deformities common in America -- the long, narrow faces with crowded, crooked teeth -- will become more common...

Mindfulness: 6 R's

Easy to Understand Mindfulness

By the American Buddhist monk Bhante Vimalaramsi (Annapolis, Missouri)

Meditation is “observing how mind’s attention moves moment-to-moment in order to see clearly and precisely how the impersonal process of Dependent Origination occurs.” Seeing and under-standing how the mind’s attention moves from one thing to another is the main thrust of Buddhist meditation.

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This is why Dependent Origination is so important in seeing and understanding. It develops an impersonal perspective with regard to all arising phenomena and leads the meditator to see the true nature of existence.

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Successful meditation needs a highly developed skill of mind-fulness. The “6R’s” training taught at Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center is a reclaimed ancient guidance system to develop this skill.

1. RECOGNIZE

The first R is to recognize when your mind is distracted. Before that, the meditator must recollect or re-ignite his or her power of observation (mindfulness) for the meditation-cycle to begin running. Mindfulness is fuel. It’s like gas for an engine. Without mindfulness, everything stops. Being persistent with this practice relieves suffering of all kinds. To begin the cycle smoothly, one must start the engine with lots of gas (mindfulness) in the tank.

Mindfulness recollects how the meditator can recognize and observe any movement of the mind’s attention from one thing to another. This observation notices any movement of the mind’s attention away from the object of meditation, such as the breath or the sending out of metta (loving-kindness), or performing any task in daily life.

One can notice a slight sensation of tightness/tension as the mind’s attention just barely begins to move toward any arising phenomenon. Pleasant or painful feeling can take place at any of the six sense doors. Any sight, sound, odor, taste, touch, or thought might cause this pulling sensation to begin. With careful non-judgmental observation, the meditator may notice a slight tightening sensation. Recognizing early movement is vital to successful meditation.

2. RELEASE

One then continues on to release. Relax. When a feeling or thought arises, the meditator releases it, lets it be without giving any further attention to it. The content of the distraction is not important at all. But the mechanics of HOW it arose are. Just let go of any tightness around it; let it be there without placing attention on it. Deprived of attention, the tightness passes away.

3. RELAX
Mindfulness then reminds the meditator to relax. After releasing the feeling (painful or pleasant sensation), and allowing it to be without trying to control it, there is a subtle, barely noticeable tension in the mind/body. This is why a tranquilizing step is emphasized. It’s easy.

Lighten up, have fun exploring, and smile. Smiling leads us to a happier, more interesting practice. If the meditator forgets to release and relax, rather than punishing or criticizing him or herself, be kind, re-smile, and start again. Keeping up one’s humor, sense of fun, exploration, and re-cycling through these phases is important. After re-smiling, mindfulness recalls the next step.

4. RETURN

Gently return your attention to the object of meditation (the breath and relaxing, or loving-kindness and relaxing), continuing with a gentle, collected mind to use the meditation object as a “home base.” In daily life, having been pulled off task, is where one returns attention -- releasing, relaxing, and re-smiling before again taking up the task.

Sometimes people say this practice-cycle is simpler than expected. Often simple things became a mystery because of small omissions and changes. Reclaiming this practice develops more effective focus on daily tasks with less tension and tightness. Mind becomes more naturally balanced and happy. The meditator becomes more efficient at whatever he/she does. People actually have more fun doing everything that once seemed like drudgery.

Mindfulness helps us remember to apply the Buddha's meditation instructions. REMEMBER THIS STEP. To leave it out would be like forgetting to oil a car and expecting the motor to run smoothly. Without performing this relaxation step every time in the meditation-cycle, the meditator will not experience a close-up view of the cessation of tension caused by craving or feel the relief when the tightness unclenches.

Note: craving always manifests first as tightness or tension in the mind and body. One has a momentary opportunity to see and experience its real nature and the relief that comes from cessation (of tightness and suffering) while performing the release/relax steps.

5. RE-SMILE

Mindfulness moves on with a recollection to re-smile. If you have listened to the Dharma talks at http://www.dhammasukha.org/, you may remember hearing about how smiling is an important aspect of this meditation. Learning to smile -- slightly raising the corners of the mouth -- helps the mind remain observant, alert, and agile.

Getting serious, tensing up, or frowning causes the mind to become heavy and one’s mindfulness to become dull. One’s insights become more difficult to see, thus slowing one’s understanding of Dharma (phenomena and the Doctrine).

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Imagine for a moment, the young Bodhisatta Siddhartha resting under the Rose Apple tree as a boy, years before he became the Buddha. He was not serious and tense when he attained a "pleasant abiding" (jhana) and experienced deep insights with a light mind.

6. REPEAT

Repeat the entire practice-cycle to attain the results the Buddha said could be reached in this very life. Repeating the “6R’s cycle” over and over again eventually replaces old, habitual suffering as we see and experience for ourselves what suffering actually is.

Notice the cause, which is becoming involved with the tension or tightness in any way. Experience its cessation by releasing and relaxing. And discover how to exercise the direct path to the cessation of suffering that we ourselves cause. This will happen each time you release an arising feeling, relax, and re-smile. Notice the relief.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Dhammasukha Meditation Center & Jeta’s Grove

RR1 Box 100 Annapolis, MO 63620

Phone: (573) 546-1214

Website: http://www.dhammasukha.org/

Bhante Vimalaramsi: bhantev4u@dhammasukha.org

Sister Khema: sisterkhema@dhammasukha.org