Are You Cheerful?

[icy]

The effectiveness of our practice can be measured by looking at our mood. If we are in better spirits, the practice is working. We can take heart because we have a purpose, to exchange whatever sadness we meet for joy. The smallest personal damage can be put to use to dissolve great suffering and do away with negativity. If there is a way, we try to stop unfortunate things from happening, but when unhappy events occur we meet them optimistically. We never let negativity discourage us or injure our ability to help.
Setting out on any adventure demands determination. We may have to toil and struggle with setbacks along the way but the trials we face are short-lived. We can endure them because we have a great end in mind: to benefit all sentient beings. Remaining good-natured and enthusiastic shows that our efforts are succeeding. Being cheerful is the sign of a good practitioner.

[WisdomBeing]

This is such a lovely post, icy! I am generally an optimist though people call me naive.. it's like that is your glass half empty or half full thing. I like to think that i'm bloody lucky to have a glass and water in it in the first place! Life IS suffering but if we are buddhists, we accept the four noble truths so at least we know that there IS a way out of suffering and Buddha shows us the way. I remember reading a book by Lama Zopa called "Transforming Problems into Happiness".

In that book, Lama Zopa said, "Happiness and suffering are dependent upon your mind, upon your interpretation. They do not come from outside, from others. All of your happiness and all of your suffering are created by you, by your own mind."

While good advice, i don't think it is easy to apply. I had tried talking to friends (non-Buddhists) who were very depressed and when i tried to explain how it's our attitude and perspective, which we can change, that affects them, they were rather resistant because they blamed external phenomena, their husband, their job, their neighborhood etc. Even when i tried to share with them about karma, which explains external phenomena, many found it difficult to accept because they did not believe in reincarnation. If they did not accept reincarnation, they would not accept how karma works. Why i shared this was because it really is so important to have some basic knowledge and understanding of Buddhism which can really transform the way we look at life and be truly cheerful!

[bambi]

I used to think that being unhappy and having the pitiful face can get attention. Then to chance upon Dharma and learning the benefits of being happy was amazing!
Yes Wisdom Being, Lama Zopa said it right! Happiness and sufferings is dependent on our own minds. Just like you, I have many friends who are unhappy and it's kinda said to see them like that, without Dharma. Those who know me know that Dharma have benefitted me. It takes time to nurture and show them that they can be like that too.

[fruven]

We can see that karma manifests in different ways for the victim and victimizer. Even though the chief monk has practiced so many good deeds in this life he has to suffer from the consequences of past karma manifesting in this life preventing him from doing more good works and benefiting others. Thus negative karma do become an obstacle in pursuing Dharma. For us lay people who are accumulating mostly negative karma in our lives we cannot imagine how much of our past negative karma and when it will come back, ripen and prevent us from doing our practice. The fact that we are still able and living is the only consolation. If the negative karma is so huge that it is life threatening our only hope for gaining merit only in this life as a human being would be dashed. Therefore count ourselves lucky and pray that all practitioners and monks and nuns would be protected always so that we can have the chance to continue practicing benefiting others always.

[fruven]

We can see that karma manifests in different ways for the victim and victimizer. Even though the chief monk has practiced so many good deeds in this life he has to suffer from the consequences of past karma manifesting in this life preventing him from doing more good works and benefiting others. Thus negative karma do become an obstacle in pursuing Dharma. For us lay people who are accumulating mostly negative karma in our lives we cannot imagine how much of our past negative karma and when it will come back, ripen and prevent us from doing our practice. The fact that we are still able and living is the only consolation. If the negative karma is so huge that it is life threatening our only hope for gaining merit only in this life as a human being would be dashed. Therefore count ourselves lucky and pray that all practitioners and monks and nuns would be protected always so that we can have the chance to continue practicing benefiting others always.

[Jessie Fong]

To be cheerful means to be happy.

I was brought up with the view that people who are practising correctly would always have this cheerful attitude, always with a smile on their face, and with a glowing look.  All these because they have understood the teachings of Buddha and put them into practice.

So if you ask me Am I Cheerful - well, that would have to be left to you as each of us have our own perception.  I would like to think I am.

[Tenzin K]

Basically as human in the samsara we can never run away from all the positive and  negative feeling that cause from our attachment that we persive as they real and permanent.

Learn up and practice the dharma will serve as a guide for us to be liberated. Personally for a  practitioners we can see that they are much calm in handling situation. Whatever things happen we are ok whether it's good or bad. As long as we do not attached with the Samsara we would be able to control the situation and our feeling.  Whether things turn out good or not it should not disturb our mind to handle and by right we should be all the time cheerful.

[RedLantern]

The value of distinguishing "happy" and "cheerful"was underlined by Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche whose precise and profound understanding of the English Language and his ability to apply it in expounding Buddhist principles. By making a conscious decision to be cheerful,including when we are in pain,we diminish our identification with unhappy circumstances and strenghten our confidence that we are not entirely at their mercy,but over how we relate to them.
Wishing cheerfulness on others is a single way of spreading what in  Buddhism are known as "the four immeasurable".love,compassion,equanimity and joy.Such wish is not only expressing a desire for people to be happy,but that they might have the tools to cut cultivate a cause pleasures they experience during the winter
holiday season,or at any other time.And that,to me,seems like a wish worth making.

[icy]

We can become cheerful if we adopt a gentle and skillful approach to life, taking care to avoid extremes, which applies to healthy mental and emotional growth too.

[Q]

When I hear about the word cheerfulness... all I have to do is just think about the difference between people living in the rural parts of the country, compared to people living in the city. Which of the two are more cheerful and peaceful? I would say that most of the time, it is the people living in the rural parts that are more cheerful.

Why? because of simplicity. Through simplicity, we can experience our mind in it's raw state, unaffected by many of samsaric's distractions... and along with the Dharma, we begin to trust our mind and discover the inherent goodness in it.. thus leading us to be more cheerful. Cheerfulness is the natural state of mind, that is why with meditation, when the  mind is relaxed and have space... we will find ourselves to be in a state of genuine cheerfulness.

Being in the samsaric world, where we are often forced to put on a cheerful expression, we do this because society tells us to put on this expression so we force it, and hope that nobody (including ourselves) will realize the that we are actually not happy. Then through this, we will crave more... we will be more attached. Why? because the happiness is not genuine and deep down we know it is not genuine so we tend to try very hard to keep it because we're afraid losing it will make us unhappy.

Then there is another type where people prevent themselves to feel cheerful. Some people feel if the abstain for feeling cheerful, we will prevent ourselves from the pain when the cheerfulness come to an end, thus we end up becoming defensive, feeling that we're protecting ourselves.

Under these conditions, we will find that the lack of genuine cheerfulness results in a claustaphobia mind and a closed heart which causes the ups and downs of our mood. Why? Because somehow we had an impression that life should be perfect, and so far we're not experiencing that perfectness... so we end up contorting reality into our fantasy happiness... which leads us to more unhappiness.

Life will always rise it's painful, ugly head... That's why we must take into account and accept the harshness of life. We must counter these painful moments with cheerfulness, not by ignorance but through wisdom. After all, contemplating on the truth of pain and suffering does not make one have depression. Instead, it helps us appreciate what we have.

Just remember a saying that goes "the joy of a King is no greater then the joy of a beggar". It is not about what we own, but cheerfulness comes from what we enjoy... therefore it cannot be bought or sold, and the only thing that can bring about genuine cheerfulness is through being free from fixation and attachments.

[apprenticehealer]

I fully agree with Wisdom Being who quoted Lama Zopa "All of your happiness and all of your sufferings are created by you, by your own mind".

We are all born to suffer, but the degree of suffering depends purely on oneself. Do we wish to spiral downwards to this dark pit of suffering, or do we rise above that ? This is our choice - to dwell in negativity or to be positive.

If we bring into our hearts and into our minds ; positivity , happiness , peace and joy, then what is inside us will be reflected onto the outer side of us. It's a lot of hard work and effort by ourselves , to bring in this joy , to ingrain in us most of the time the peace and happiness that we feel within, then it is something so precious that it can never be taken or stolen from us - unless we allow it or we ourselves 'give ' it away.

Being cheerful, happy, positive , being in joy is really up to us. Non attachment is the main key to happiness.

[buddhalovely]

Within the meditative tradition, cheerfulness is considered to be the natural, harmonious, and wholesome expression of our truest self. In Tibetan it is known as dekyi—blissful, happy energy. Somebody who is cheerful in an unforced way seems to have an air of possibility, a light and fresh approach. This kind of cheerfulness helps the mind to move forward, beyond the distortion and torment of emotions.

Cheerfulness comes naturally with meditation. It is a quality of space created within the mind. When there’s space in the mind, the mind relaxes, and we feel a simple sense of delight. We experience the possibility of living a life in which we are not continuously aggravated by emotions, discursiveness, and concepts about the nature of things.

Lack of genuine cheerfulness is a result of claustrophobia in our mind and heart. There is simply too much going on; we feel overwhelmed and speedy. We were somehow under the impression that life was meant to be happy, and now we are getting the short end of the stick. The harder we try to contort reality into our fantasy of happiness, the less happy we are, and the more chaotic our mind seems.