Joy/happiness

We usually think that the route to true happiness is getting what we want. Yet dissatisfaction persists! We'll take a look at this frustrating conundrum, and point the way towards a solution.

Could it be that one key secret to our happiness lies not in getting, but in sharing? We'll look at the early Buddhist practice of muditā, or sympathetic joy.

When we think of Buddhist practice, we usually don't think of joy, and yet joy is central to the path. We will consider ways in which practice can be used to cultivate joy, both in formal meditation and in daily life. We will also…

The workings of karma in Buddhism can reveal some deep psychological insights. One has to do with the role of intention in promoting happiness or misery. We will consider one early sutta to make the point, and look at the example of the…

What if there were something permanent and unchanging we could possess? Are there conceptions of a self, or beliefs that we should look to as permanent sources of happiness? We'll look at an early discourse of the Buddha that answers…

The Buddha recommended we practice certain wholesome states of mind, such as kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy. Many of us find this work difficult. Why should we foster such emotions? I'll give some pointers by looking at what…

Several years ago the eminent scholar and professor Richard Gombrich put forward a controversial thesis: that the Buddha believed practicing kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity could lead us directly to enlightenment. We…

How can we nurture happiness? We'll look at one psychologist's account and how the Buddhist dharma can help us to nurture happiness in our own lives.

The Buddha discussed five tendencies of mind that hinder our progress in meditation and indeed that can get in the way of our living a happy life. They may metaphorically be understood as the "armies of Māra". We'll discuss each of those…

Remaining positive is a great skill to have. We'll discuss practicing positivity with an eye to early Buddhism: some of its advantages and pitfalls, as well as a number of things we can do to add to a positive outlook on life.

Happiness comes partly from our framing of the world. A great practice to help us do this is one of gratitude, particularly nowadays with the Coronavirus. We will look at what the Buddha had to say about gratitude in the early texts, and…

In the practice of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity it is of great value to learn how to distinguish them from other emotions that are similar but opposed to them. We will discuss what are termed their "near enemies"…

Do you come to Buddhist practices in order to find greater happiness? We'll discuss what happiness might be, and some pitfalls with it, then turn to some early Buddhist ideas of happiness, and how they might impact our lives today.…

The practice of sympathetic joy is the third of the so-called Brahmavihāras or abodes of the gods. We will discuss what it entails, why we should practice it, and look at three different approaches to such a practice in the Buddhist…

Is Buddhism pessimistic? We'll talk about why one might think of Buddhism in that way, and whether or not that's really accurate. We'll also look at how Buddhism approaches difficulties that we find in the world, and why it's necessary to…

Today we will look at Antonia Macaro's great new book "More Than Happiness: Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom for a Sceptical Age". We'll consider what it says about the projects early Buddhism and Stoicism have in common, as well as mention some…

YouTuber Casey Neistat and physicist Albert Einstein had contrasting ideas of what might constitute the good life. We'll look at both of them and compare them with some ideas from Aristotle and early Buddhism.

Right effort is one of the more overlooked aspects of the Eightfold Path but may also be one of the most important. We'll discuss the four parts of right effort and how to distinguish effort from "efforting". Images in this video from the…