Happiness Sucks!

 Happiness Sucks and the Zen Way to Contentment

C.S. sitting on his zabuton as he prepares for meditation

I once read of a study dealing with music and happiness.  The study had two groups of participants listen to a composition of classical music.  The first group was told to simply listen to the music.  The second group was told to listen to the music and to try to have the music cultivate a sense of happiness within them while listening.  Afterwards, both groups were asked how happy listening to the music made them feel.  Interestingly, it was the first group that said they felt really happy while listening to the music.  The sense of simple bare attention, without attempting to alter the atmosphere through "being" happy, was enough to create happiness without effort.

We live in a culture - and this is especially true if you're like me and deal with the "health and wellness" community - that is in the middle of a "happiness boom".  But the truth is that the happiness simply isn't going to happen if it's forced.  In my last post on "nothing special", I mentioned that it is the very pursuit of happiness that keeps us as a human species trapped in endless cycles of disappointment and suffering.

We need to stop attempting to be happy and instead focus on alleviating our suffering.  When we do this, the happiness will be a natural byproduct.

One of the ways that we suffer in today's world is through the "thinking mind".  It's often not our situation that brings about suffering or pain or simple "dis-ease" with the world - rather, it's often what we think about our situation.  And the thinking mind that we own is very good about putting a negative spin on our situation.  Even if you're a naturally positive person, the sort of person that always sees the "glass-half-full" nature of things, this will eventually cause you pain and dissatisfaction, as well, because of the karmic nature of "what goes up, must come down".

Instead, true satisfaction and pleasure and, therefore, happiness can be found by simply letting go of thoughts of good or bad, right or wrong, this or that.  This is the reason that the 1st group of classical listeners above were naturally happy.  Without knowing it, they were resting in "don't know mind".

Don't Know Mind sees simply what is without attempting to spin it, change it, or, naturally, think about it.  This is where the practice of seated zazen can be helpful.  When you sit zazen, your goalless goal is to let go of thinking mind so that the true Nature of simply what is can emerge on its own.

Zen master Seung Sahn had this to say about don't know mind:

"Some Zen masters say you must keep great doubt, which is don't-know mind, I guess  But they say that there is a point where you must pass through great doubt and into great enlightenment.

"Great doubt is don't-know.  The names are different - great doubt, great question, great don't-know.  There are many many names.  My given name is Duk In, my monk's name is Heung Won, and my enlightenment name is Seung Sahn.  I have many names but none is my true name.  When I was born, I had no name.  The true name is no name. So great doubt, great question, don't know - they are all the same."