Happiness doesn't exist (kind of)

[jducoeur]

My thanks to mindways for the pointer to this fine exposition of the heart of Buddhism. While it's by no means the complete be-all and end-all, this nicely summarizes one of the most central tenets. It's very unintuitive to most folks, because it is *so* contradictory to our upbringing, but more and more I've found it to be quite correct...

Comments

[umbran.livejournal.com]

I think the piece has a flaw.

Just as they say that "suffering" isn't quite the right word, I think they may be off the mark with "happiness". I think "contentment" is probably closer.

[jducoeur]

Could be. The words are squishy, but you may be correct that "happiness" is a bit misleading. OTOH, I suspect most Westerners take "contentment" to have weaker connotations than is intended: I've managed to get there enough times to be conscious that the emotion can be quite strong, moreso than people are likely to expect. So that doesn't seem a perfect match, either.

As usual, semantics are hard. There are times I really want telepathy...