tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-12:40129 Students? I like to think of them as "test subjects"..... icarusancalion 2013-05-19T00:50:46Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-12:40129:1067074 2013-05-19T00:50:46Z 2013-05-19T00:50:46Z happy public 0 I've been very happy lately. Inexplicably. Well, almost inexplicably. I have cats. <br /><br />When Yangthang Rinpoche was here, a friend from my retreat in 2011 flew in from California. We'd had a couple of long talks during the retreat.<br /><br />The retreat itself was great. Intense, a lot of work, a lot of personal change--difficult, but in a BOO-YAH! kind of way. <br /><br />So my friend asked me if I was feeling any better. <br /><br />Hunh? <br /><br />Apparently I didn't seem "happy" at the time. Well... no, of course it was hard. But I look back on this retreat as Great and didn't understand the question until I was driving home today. He thought that I was doing better when I was happier.<br /><br />Where did we get the idea that happy = good? <br /><br />I've been happy lots of times, mostly while watching sci-fi with a cat in my lap. Not accomplishing jack. There's nothing wrong with being happy. I enjoy it. But the times I'm happiest *about* are the so-called tough times when I've gone through a lot of personal change. <br /><br />On the way home from work it hit me: <a href="http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/bca_shantideva/translation/engaging_bodhisattva_06.html">that's what Shantideva meant</a>. He didn't just mean that one *should* be happy to have enemies. He was genuinely pleased at his personal change. BOO-YAH!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=icarus&ditemid=1067074" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments