Can Buddhism bring you happiness?

From time to time I have a look at the statistics page for our web site and there I can find what search phrases people are entering. One caught my attention this morning: “Can Buddhism make you happy?” It is interesting as the other day when I was on the train in Sydney a young woman sitting opposite me was looking intently at the bag I was carrying, you know, the type of bag that the Chinese Buddhist monks carry. It was given to me by my teacher. I sensed she wanted to say something and just at that very moment she asked: “Is that a Buddhist bag?” I replied that it is. Then she asked: “Some people say Buddhism makes you happy and peaceful. Is that true?” I did not have time to finish me answer when she had to alight at the next station.

I am no master or guru and my journey in Buddhism has only been for a short six years so I can only respond to such a question from experience rather than doctrine which I still stumble over from time to time. I reflect back at my own journey and it was my own deep unhappiness due to a relationship breakdown that was one of the catalysts for me to seek out Buddhism. I had been in a relationship for one year with a lady I had met in Australia when a year almost to the date later she phoned me to say: “I am sorry I have not been able to bring myself to say this but I am married.” I felt crushed, depressed, angry, hurt and a plethora of other feelings. I guess what shocked me more than anything else was my capacity to become so depressed. As a result I did psychotherapy, meditation, valium, yoga, walking, qigong, RET. You name it; I did it. Finally I met someone who introduced me to Pure Land Buddhism. Then I found happiness? No! However, it made sense to me. Nothing else had made any sense. It had a clear explanation as to why I was feeling the way I was and a clear and logical way out of it.

No ‘-ism’ can give you happiness. Further I am not sure we would know happiness if we found it. Our understanding of happiness appears so distorted that this seems part of the problem. Inner peace and happiness can’t be pre-packaged. Run on down to K-Mart, buy a Buddha statue, place it in the lounge room to change the Fung Shi and eternal happiness and prosperity will come flowing. Well, I have news for you; it won’t, at least not in the long term.

Buddhism can be understood as a Life Education. It has a rational explanation as to why we are in a state of unhappiness and has clear methods to allow ourselves to up-skill. Ignorance is one of the biggest blocks to living a happy and peaceful life. The antidote for ignorance is education. Many mistake Buddhism for Meditation. While meditation is certainly an integral part it is still only part of the story. Without first knowing why we came into the state we are in then any meditation will only give partial results at the best. The four Noble Truths of Buddhism outlines the syllabus, if you like. The first of the Four Noble Truths tells us our condition. The second tells us why we are in that condition. The third and fourth show us a way forward. Lasting happiness and inner peace can only come through a thorough knowledge of our condition.

As Buddhists we often refer to our practice of Buddhism. Like any new skill it takes practice. No top sports person becomes so overnight. It takes years of hard training to gain success in a particular sport. In our practise of Buddhism we must apply equal effort.

Within a few months of my beginning steps in Buddhism I felt a calmness pervade my life for the first time. It was a calmness of knowing that happiness was now in my own hands, or rather in my own mind and that I had at my disposal a set of time honoured and tested skills to put into diligent practise.

I have not reached Nirvana. I am far, far away from that and for me it is not important. What is important is that maybe I can show others a path that when applied with diligence and effort can bring results – an abiding happiness and inner peace – and maybe I have done some good.