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The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

Book by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche · 19 quotes · Buddhism, Enlightenment, Happiness

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The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness Quotes

“Ignorance, vulnerability, fear, anger, and desire are expressions of the infinite potential of your buddha nature. There's nothing inherently wrong or right with making such choices. The fruit of Buddhist practice is simply the recognition that these and other mental afflictions are nothing more or less than choices available to us because our real nature is infinite in scope.”

RealDesireChoicesPracticeIgnoranceExpressionBuddhismInfiniteFruitAvailableBuddhistRecognitionVulnerabilityAfflictionScopeBuddha NatureInfinite PotentialWrong Or Right
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“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”

InspirationalWisdomHappinessChoicesFreedomInspireWise WordsBecomingWords Of WisdomHappyBuddhistBeing HappyAfflictionDiscomfortTrue HappinessWise Man Once SaidFinding HappinessFeeling HappyPower Of ChoiceChoose WiselyHappiness Is A Choice
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“Any attempt to capture the direct experience of the nature of mind in words is impossible. The best that can be said is that it is immeasurably peaceful and, once stabilized through repeated experience, virtually unshakable. It's an experience of absolute well-being that radiates through all physical, emotional and mental states-even those that might ordinarily be labeled as unpleasant.”

MindWellsSaidStatesMightImpossibleEmotionalDirectAbsolutesPeacefulWell BeingCaptureUnshakable
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“If you're determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so. The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”

IfsThinkingKnowsPastOpportunityAvailableDeterminedChosenVulnerableFearfulThink Of YouPast ExperiencesExperience Yourself
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“If you don’t try to stop whatever is going on in your mind, but merely observe it, eventually you’ll begin to feel a tremendous sense of relaxation, a vast sense of openness within your mind - which is in fact your natural mind, the naturally unperturbed background against which various thoughts come and go.”

IfsFeelsTryingMindFactsNaturalVariousBackgroundsOpennessRelaxationComes And Goes
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“…freedom rarely arrives in the form we think it should. In fact, for most of us, freedom feels not only unfamiliar but distinctly unpleasant. That’s because we’re used to our chains. They might chafe, they might make us bleed, but at least they’re familiar. Familiarity is just a thought, however, or sometimes a feeling.”

FearFreedomFamiliarity
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“Compassion is reciprocal. As you develop your own mental and emotional stability and extend that stability through a compassionate understanding of others and dealing with them in a kind, empathetic way, your own intentions or aspirations will be fulfilled more quickly and easily. Why? Because if you treat others compassionately—with the understanding that they have the same desire for happiness and the same desire to avoid unhappiness that you do—then the people around you feel a sense of attraction, a sense of wanting to help you as much as you help them. …In a sense, compassion practice demonstrates the truth of interdependence in action. The more openhearted you become toward others, the more openhearted they become toward you.”

CompassionBuddhismCause And EffectInterconnectedness
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“The essence of the Buddha’s teachings was that while formal practice can help us to develop direct experience of emptiness, wisdom, and compassion, such experiences are meaningless unless we can bring them to bear on every aspect of our daily lives. For it’s in facing the challenges of daily life that we can really measure our development of calmness, insight, and compassion.”

CompassionBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningPath Of The Bodhisattva
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“Nonconceptuality is an experience of the total openness of your mind. Your awareness is direct and unclouded by conceptual distinction such as “I” or “other,” subjects and objects, or any other form of limitation. It’s an experience of pure consciousness as infinite as space, without beginning, middle, or end. It’s like becoming awake within a dream and recognizing that everything experienced in the dream isn’t separate from the mind of the dreamer. – Mingyur Rinpoche”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningOpennessNondualityAwake Within The DreamNonconceptuality
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“We choose ignorance because we can. We choose awareness because we can. Samsara and nirvana are simply different points of view based on the choices we make in how to examine and understand our experience. There’s nothing magical about nirvana and nothing bad or wrong about samsara. If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so, and that the opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”

Happiness
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“The Buddha compared attachment to drinking salt water from an ocean. The more we drink, the thirstier we get. Likewise, when our mind is conditioned by attachment, however much we have, we never really experience contentment. We lose the ability to distinguish between the bare experience of happiness and whatever objects temporarily make us happy. As a result, we not only become dependent on the object, but we also reinforce the neuronal patterns that condition us to rely on an external source to give us happiness.”

HappinessBuddhismAttachmentNeuronal Power
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