THE TRUE NATURE OF HAPPINESS

Gyomay M. Kubose, Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living, with an Introduction by William Gilbert (Coarsegold, CA: Dharma House Publications, 1967) (From the "Introduction": "What is Suchness? It is things as they are and life as it is. It is truth as it is. Suchness is the world, void of artificiality or make-up. It is 'Sonomama' in Japanese and 'Tathata' in Sanskrit. A rose is a rose; a lily is a lily; and I am I. This is the world of Suchness!" Id. at x. "All men, without exception, wish to have a happy life, and they work hard to attain it.... What is happiness? We must know clearly what the objective is when we seek it. If we do not know, our efforts may be in vain. The ancient Greeks thought good is happiness. But in the middle and modern ages, Aristotle's formal meaning that good is happiness has been altered to the more material meaning that happiness is pleasure or absence of pain...." Id. at 1. "The real way of happiness is the realization of one's life itself. It is the unfolding of the whole self.... True happiness is not given to us--we create it. If you are unhappy, do not blame others or your environment. It is your mind, your attitude, that make you miserable. Changing place, or work, may help, but that is not the complete cure for your trouble and unhappiness. The right attitude, and a clear and right mind are the way to happiness." Id. at 7.  "Buddhism teaches that whatever exists is the result of karma and that you are responsible, not somebody else. No external agent is responsible for your happiness or misery." Id. at 68. "Happiness is in the present, and only by living in the present is real happiness achieved. Actually in the world of truth there is only the present, but people tend to live in three worlds, past, present, and future. ... Living in the present is most important. This immediate present is what we must be concerned with. Are we happy? Are we free, now, from idle complaints, greediness, frustrations, and hatred? Attachment to the past makes a person stubborn, and attachment to the future may cause an idealist illusions and disappointments." Id. at 100. "Buddhism is a religion of enlightenment and a way of life. It is not a religion of belief. Therefore, there is no dogma to believe and no creed to follow. Buddhism teaches to see and understand life and things correctly as they are, and teaches right living." Id. at 34. "It is said in the Dhammapada: 'All that we are is the result of / what we have thought; / it is founded on our thoughts, / it is made up of our thoughts. / If a man speaks or acts with / a pure thought, happiness follows him, / like a shadow that never leaves him. / He abused me, he beat me, / he defeated me, he robed me; / in those who do not harbor such thoughts / hatred will cease.'" Id. at 142. I have wasted/lost so much of my life thinking that some job, some woman, some thing was going to make me happy. Wrong path; wrong direction.).