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| Username | Post |
| Selfexplorer | Posted
on 18-Nov-03 02:40 PM
Buddhists 'really are happier' Buddhism may be good for your mental health Scientists say they have evidence to show that Buddhists really are happier and calmer than other people. Tests carried out in the United States reveal that areas of their brain associated with good mood and positive feelings are more active. The findings come as another study suggests that Buddhist meditation can help to calm people. Researchers at University of California San Francisco Medical Centre have found the practise can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. There is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek Paul Ekman, University of California San Francisco Medical Centre They found that experienced Buddhists, who meditate regularly, were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry compared to other people. Paul Ekman, who carried out the study, said: "The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek." Brain activity In a separate study, scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison used new scanning techniques to examine brain activity in a group of Buddhists. Their tests revealed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced Buddhist practitioners. This area is linked to positive emotions, self-control and temperament. Their tests showed this area of the Buddhists' brains are constantly lit up and not just when they are meditating. This, the scientists said, suggests they are more likely to experience positive emotions and be in good mood. "We can now hypothesise with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy," said Professor Owen Flanagan, of Duke University in North Carolina. Dharamsala is the home base of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. The studies are published in New Scientist magazine. |
| learner | Posted
on 18-Nov-03 02:45 PM
Happiness cannot be pursued J Krishnamurti What do you mean by happiness? Some will say happiness consists in getting what you want. You want a car, and you get it, and you are happy. I want a sari or clothes; I want to go to Europe and if I can, I am happy. I want to be the ... greatest politician, and if I get it, I am happy; if I cannot get it, I am unhappy. So, what you call happiness is getting what you want, achievement or success, becoming noble, getting anything that you want. As long as you want something and you can get it, you feel perfectly happy; you are not frustrated, but if you cannot get what you want, then unhappiness begins. All of us are concerned with this, not only the rich, the poor too. The rich and the poor all want to get something for themselves, for their family, for society; and if they are prevented, stopped, they will be unhappy. We are not discussing, we are not saying that the poor should not have what they want. That is not the problem. We are trying to find out what is happiness and whether happiness is something of which you are conscious. The moment you are conscious that you are happy, that you have much, is that happiness? The moment you are conscious that you are happy, it is not happiness, is it? So you cannot go after happiness. The moment you are conscious that you are humble, you are not humble. So happiness is not a thing to be pursued; it comes. But if you seek it, it will evade you. |
| sewak | Posted
on 18-Nov-03 03:25 PM
Does not surprise me. And Nepal is one of the main center of learning when it comes to Buddhism. Some of the best masters in Tibetan Buddhism are in K TM. NO wonder lots of foreigners come to Nepal. Tibetans in Nepal are good example. |
| lll_lll | Posted
on 18-Nov-03 04:15 PM
I think I am an excecption though. Buddhist but really depressed and sad at times.Think I should go and learn to meditate in the meditation forum in our college. Guess it will help. |
| SelfExplorer | Posted
on 19-Nov-03 10:02 AM
If there is a reason for happiness, then that's not going to last. If you know, you're happy then that is not happiness. Sometimes, in everyone's life there are moments like - looking at the children playing or sky with birds flying or listening to the heavy rain or snow covered mountains etc.. you feel utterly calm and joyous inside and that moment you are totally there... these are happiness of real meaning which is free and is everywhere if one want really. So I think, we all are missing the real happiness due to too much thinking - who acquires more degrees, a knowledgeable person. We are losing our playfulness, joy due to more knowledge which brings more and more ego. |
| bhenda2 | Posted
on 19-Nov-03 10:18 AM
Sajha Budhists pls help me to learn Budhism...I dont know where to start. I am one of those people who is never happy with what I have...and what I do. I am a very angry and frustrated person. I need help. |
| sadabichar | Posted
on 19-Nov-03 11:19 AM
- http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/jotleeds.pdf Start from Theravada Buddhism. If you jump into Mahayana, Vajrayana or Japanese version of Buddhisms, you will get confused. We need to understand the simplest form of Buddhism.. for which we need to meditate. The best recommended is Vippasyana Meditation. Buddhism is not about making things complicated, but to understand oneself. Remember this. Buddha himself told that his teachings are about understanding the sufferings and cessation of such sufferings, nothing more, nothing less. That's the limitation of Buddhism. It's not the scope of Buddhism to cover the topics such as Who Created the Universe, when it started, when it will end. |
| sewak | Posted
on 19-Nov-03 11:49 AM
SadaBichar, I agree Buddha taught about end to suffering. Buddhism has flourished in many forms due to different time and places. Time and again, many remarkable teachers have appeared to expound the dharma to suite different needs. I think it would be difficult to say which one is the best. Buddha advised his disciples to practise what they are capable of mediu, high or average. Of course, one's faith and background also makes a lot of difference. |
| DHANANJAYA | Posted
on 26-Nov-03 03:56 PM
Selfexplorer, I would love to put it like this, the research was not done on Buddhist, but on Dharmik. Buddhist is the one who believe in Buddha and his teaching, and Dharmik is the one, who not merely trust on Buddha but follow his teaching. What do you think hundreds of million Buddhists in the world are less agitated compare to the the people of other religious group? It's not true. If you don't follow the Dharma, the doctrine, the teaching, the path of purification, you won't be peaceful, Buddhist or non Buddhist. But if you follow the Dharma, the law of nature, the doctrine, the teaching, the path of purification, you will be peaceful, Buddhist or non-Buddhist. Buddha taught sect free teaching. His teaching is sublime, pure, law of nature, universal, for one and all. He named his teaching as Dhamma or Dharma. Any person, from any caste, any family, any country, any race, if practice as Buddha wants him/her to practice, one starts go get peace then and there. He was a great teacher. He never stablished a new sect rather he was cousious about this. If Buddha had taught something which makes you Buddhist then the countries other than India would not have accepted it. They had their own local practices. Think, how difficult it is to accepts new ideas, how difficult it is to leave our own ideas or style. But wise people of other countries accepted because it was pure science, practice and get result. Buddha's teaching has to do nothing with this -ism and that -ism. His teaching is free from Dogma, free from rites and rituals. His teaching should be kept free from sects. You can find complete Tipathak (text of Buddhas teaching) in internet. Search for the word Buddhist or BAUDDHA, I bet you won't find. He never said his followers as Buddhist, he said them as Dharmik, one who practices Dharma. It is very easy to be Buddhist but it is very very difficult to be Dharmik. Buddha said many places that, if you come out of your traditional belief, that is one of the great achievements, you open the door for the new ideas. He said that the Drishti, the vision. Your mind is conditioned by the concept where you have been living. Break that conditioned mind first, then you will be able to see new things. You have put on the colored glasses of your traditional belief, so you are seeing colored everywhere, put of the colored glass, then you will be able to see colorless things like pure water. He always ask people to come out of the traditional blind belief, poor people made him founder of one of the tradition and become blind-believers of this faith. The experiment was done with the meditators, who have been practicing Buddhas teaching. What if the experiment were done with general Buddhist, would the result be the same? Certainly not. There is no doubt, the teaching of enlightened one is exceptionally excellent, easy to understand, well explained, result oriented, scientific, but it should be practiced to get peace, peace won't come merely beliveing on Buddha and his teaching. Buddhist are not necessarily peaceful, But Dhammik are necessarily peaceful no matter whether they belongs to Hindu, Bauddha, Christian, Jewis, Muslim sects. Dharmik get peace no matter whether they are Chhetry, Brahman, Baishya, Suddra. Dharmik must have peace of mind no matter whehter they are Nepali, Indian, American, Europian, Austrilian, African. Dharma is law of nature, it does not discriminate, whoever follows, will get fruit then and there. Dhananjaya |