Brain Scans: Buddhists really do know secret of happiness

Can't wait to see what kind of glow eminates from Asherman this weekend.

You are correct, Buddhism is the ultimate religion- Mainly because it is the most respectful and realistic of the major religions.

So many people blindly want 100% happiness, like it's a drug.
I'd rather be human.

I think that this writer paints with too broad a brush. I have done yoga, and have gotten into this blissful mode. I used to go to a yoga center, where there were people who lived there, and they exuded this same quiet blissfulness.

I think that there are neurological changes that you can train your mind to attain. The reason that the devout Buddhists display these changes that you can see in their behavior, is that they make a lifetime quest of it.

zman136- Welcome to Able2Know!

I'm inclined to agree with Phoenix absent any information about what type of Buddhism was being practiced. If everybody they looked at is doing yoga, it does not surprise me at all that they are more serene -- or "happy," if you will. I know the differences between stretches in my life when I am doing yoga contrast sharpy with the stretches when I am "happier," not in terms of the external indicators of happiness, but simply in terms of the amount of anxiety I carry with me, the pace and rhythm (great word, that) of my thought patterns, my ability to deal with difficult situations.

Even more generally, I carried less stress when I was a teenager, playing basketball or working out every day and smoking loads of pot, but I think lack of responsibility may have been a big thing there...

I have been a practicing Nichiren Buddhist chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo for 22 years. I must say, Buddhism has brought me fullfilment, superb mental and physical health and supreme joy! The best part is, you can attain happiness as you are. You don't need to shave your head (you can if you want to), become a vegetarian (again, you can if you wish) or adopt a bizarre or unusual lifestyle (that's up to you). I have all my hair, eat the occasional burger and enjoy the occasional cocktail.

Happiness is not the absence of troubles. It's the supreme confidence that any problem can be surmounted or any dream fulfilled. If you'd like to find out more send me an e-mail. [email protected].

truth
In my humble opinion, I think Codeborg hit the nail on its butt. The buddhists I have known have not focused on the ACQUISITION of happiness, if that means feeling good all the time. That's what dope addicts want. Buddhist, if they are happy, are enjoying their existence because they do not engage it dualistically, showing little concern for pleasure vs. pain, happiness vs. sorrow, truth vs. delusion. What they do IS a result of meditation when it is not an attempt to grasp happiness, but to see/accept each moment exactly as it is (whatever that means). The goal of buddhism is simply, as I understand it, to be completely human. To be in this sense whole (wholy).

JLNobody

to be completely human


Wonder what that means......



(:

!
THIS

art
Sorry, I was called to dinner just as I was attempting to answer your question about the meaning of being "completely human." I decided to leave my partial answer "this", stand as is, hoping it would stimulate some kind of discussion of the nature of mystical experience--in the zen sense as I think I understand it. If you were to have asked me "This what?" I might have answered something like "this 'this'". I don't know for sure, depends on the moment. But I do think that in this "zen sense" the more I tried to rationalize or render my expression ("this") justified, the more I would have rendered myself less complete. In my self-consciousness, in my self-objectification (meaning treating my"self" as someTHING to be validated and defended), I would have denied my true nature. That nature--at that precise moment (not in terms of some abstract generalization)--WAS my experession, "this."

what is the sound of one hand chopping logic?

THAT

truth
What's logic got to do with it?

om shanti shanti shanti

Logic is Love.

Oh, chop logic with one hand and listen.

I hear it, do you?

Good answer JLNobody.