When the Buddha talked about the causes of happiness and the causes of suffering, he spoke quite a bit about how much the self-centred mind, and the self-absorbed mind cause suffering and prevent happiness. He also spoke a great deal about how the mind that cherishes others is the cause of happiness. When he did this, he was not just thinking about happiness in the world and giving happiness to others, but about how we as individuals experience happiness. In other words, when our mind is really wrapped around ourselves — what we want, what we think, and how we struggle hard to make everything the way we want it, that self-centred mind by itself causes us a great deal of stress and unhappiness. In addition, it creates the karma that brings about more misery in future lives.

The mind that genuinely cherishes others is a mind that is happy and joyful. It is a mind that is very free. With that mind, we derive happiness right now and create the karma to meet pleasant situations again in the future.

It is very interesting to spend some time in meditation looking at our own lives and examining how the self-absorbed mind makes us unhappy and how the mind that genuinely cherishes others makes us joyful. When I am talking about genuinely cherishing others, it does not mean doing something out of obligation or trying to please others because you want them to like you. It comes from a place inside of us that respects and appreciates others. We should review our lives and see if that is true or not in our own experiences.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!