2nd class the habit of not fighting the inevitable

Recap

We looked into what is happiness

• seeking happiness by pleasing the senses
• seeking happiness by finding meaning to life

the first type is totally deceptive - we are acquiting happiness with the pleasant feeling that we get when get pleasant sensory experienc or sensory gratification. Because the experience of pleasure via the senses - sensory gratification might be intense but they will fade out and they require great effort in repetition and escalation.

the second type is a little more difficult to understand because people may find meaning of life in power in fame in reputation or in good family life or good friendships or being good at something but these things are also deceptive because they too do not last. At such time you might be acquiting happiness with a strong sense of accomplishment and pride.

Of course since not everyone manage in become good at what they do or always satisfiy their sensory desires - finally making these things the meaning of life is deceptive.

The Buddhist take on all these things is that they are not the meaning of life. This is because the meaning of life is to fulfil our basic aspiration to be happy. Here the meaning used for the word happiness is inner peace And the seeking of inner peace and striving for inner peace is on the Buddhist view the wisest thing of all. The topic of inner peace runs deep. It can be understood on many levels. the ultimate inner peace is nirvana and enlightenment. For those who do not have the experience of inner peace it is hard to believe that inner peace is the meaning of life. This is so because a person experiencing inner peace have an altered understanding of the whole context of life. Because we have very little inner peace we cannot appreciate how the achievment of inner peace is the meaning of life. This is why at the beginning we have to work in a more logical way to show that experiences coming from sensory gratification or from acquiring power reputation or the enjoyments we get from gardenning or painting etc - these are shallow, fleeting and ultimately non-rewarding.

With inner peace the more you have of it the more stable it becomes, unlike the other types of 'happinesses' it never turns into pain or disappointment.

And so a person who has deep stable experience of inner peace is a genuinly happy person whose habits are worth while imitating

Cloud edited the above

Here are the misspelled words I found and fixed:

1. acquiting → equating (appears twice)
2. experienc → experience
3. satisfiy → satisfy
4. achievment → achievement
5. gardenning → gardening
6. genuinly → genuinely
7. worth while → worthwhile (spacing)

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Recap

We looked into what is happiness:

• seeking happiness by pleasing the senses
• seeking happiness by finding meaning in life

The first type is totally deceptive — we are equating happiness with the pleasant feeling we get from pleasant sensory experience or sensory gratification. This is because the experience of pleasure via the senses — sensory gratification — might be intense, but it will fade out, and it requires great effort in repetition and escalation.

The second type is a little more difficult to understand, because people may find meaning in life through power, fame, reputation, a good family life, good friendships, or being good at something. But these things are also deceptive, because they too do not last. At such times, you might be equating happiness with a strong sense of accomplishment and pride. Of course, since not everyone manages to become good at what they do, or to always satisfy their sensory desires, ultimately making these things the meaning of life is deceptive.

The Buddhist take on all these things is that they are not the meaning of life. This is because the meaning of life is to fulfil our basic aspiration to be happy. Here, the meaning behind the word happiness is inner peace. Seeking inner peace and striving for inner peace is, in the Buddhist view, the wisest thing of all.

The topic of inner peace runs deep. It can be understood on many levels. The ultimate inner peace is nirvana and enlightenment.

For those who do not have the experience of inner peace, it is hard to believe that inner peace is the meaning of life. This is because a person experiencing inner peace has an altered understanding of the whole context of life. Because we have very little inner peace, we cannot appreciate how the achievement of inner peace is the meaning of life. This is why, at the beginning, we have to work in a more logical way to show that experiences coming from sensory gratification, from acquiring power and reputation, or from enjoyments like gardening or painting, are shallow, fleeting, and ultimately non-rewarding.

With inner peace, the more you have of it, the more stable it becomes. Unlike other types of "happinesses," it never turns into pain or disappointment. And so a person who has a deep, stable experience of inner peace is a genuinely happy person, whose habits are worthwhile imitating.

What are the habits of happy people

Happy people are people with peaceful mind Their habits are not verbal or physical but mental. So we are looking at mental habits.

However it is worthwhile saying that out of their peaceful mind their verbal and physical actions are naturally pleasant and controlled. a point worthwhile mentioning is that when we see someone behaving badly verbally or physically we can be sure they are not very happy

To clarify and conclude - we understand that verbal and physical habits finally come from the mind. So while we can and do try to change verabl and physical habits to help us become happier the main and finally the real way of becoming happy is to develop good mental habits

There are many mental habits we need to let go off and many others we should and can develop in the next three weeks we shall be looking at:

1. Not fighting the inevitable
2. Letting go of our self-centred view p.1 - emptiness
3. Letting go ouf our self-centred view p.2 - abandoning s-ch and developing affectionate and cherishing love

The habit of not fighting the inevitable

One thing that we as humans find very hard to deal with is uncertainty. We rather certainty than uncertainty. But the reality is that our life is totally uncertain. As someone said we cannot be certain that we will see the sun rising tomorrow, we cannot be certain that we will live to see the next moment.

In here lies a clash at the very bottom of our being, existing, and it brings with it a greate mental termoil which if you are 'lucky' person you will be able to surpress. But sooner or later you will have to face the uncertainty of things.