Mind Training and the Habits of Happiness
Buddhism has resided on the periphery of my mind for some years now. Yet lately, for many reasons, I have brought it into a more central focus. I still feel like an infant, and I could in no way carry on an intelligent conversation about Buddhism and its history or tenants yet. But there is something about it that I cannot get away from. Over the last few years, there have been brief moments where Buddhism has arisen in my life in different forms and invited me to investigate it further.
The principals of compassion, selflessness, humility, peace, patience, and, as Mathieu Ricard puts it, well-being sing truth in some deep, ineffable sense. These are qualities with which I want to be identified, and they are also qualities that I still lack. These are principles at the heart of Buddhism. Also at its heart are the practices and methods for attaining these principles.
Through mind training (or meditation), our brains have the ability to change in remarkable ways that have now been observed, graphed, charted, and scientifically proven. I have read about brain plasticity in the last few years, but to think about its implications for emotional and personal development sends shivers up my spine! How liberating to know that you are not fixed or chained to the person you are now. You can change, develop, and grow for the rest of your life if you only take the time to focus on what you want to be. Want to be more compassionate? Meditate on compassion. Want lengthen that short fuse to the point that it burns out before it makes you explode? Meditate on patience.
It sounds daunting, but I like the way that Ricard presents this idea. He says,
“In itself, [anger] looks very menacing, like a billowing monsoon cloud or thunderstorm. We think we could even sit on the cloud, but if you go there, it’s just mist. Likewise, if you look at the thought of anger, it will vanish like frost under the morning sun. If you do this again and again, the propensity for anger to arise again will be less and less each time you dissolve it. And at the end, it may arise, but it will just cross the mind like a bird crossing the sky without leaving any track.”
For mor info on Mathieu Ricard, “The happiest man in the world”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard
