What Fundamental Element Leads to Complete Happiness? Episode LXXXVI: Pursuing Happiness

How can we attain genuine happiness in our lives? What is the initial step in the pursuit of happiness? Why is cultivating compassion crucial for achieving lasting happiness? What role do books and wisdom play in the journey to happiness?

In this episode, I will delve deep into the pursuit of genuine happiness, exploring the fundamental elements that lead to a fulfilling life. I will discuss the first steps in seeking and achieving happiness and uncover why compassion is considered the most potent force in cultivating lasting joy. Join me as we explore the wisdom found in books and the insights of great minds throughout history, all aimed at helping you unlock the key to complete happiness.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What is the single thing, the basic equipment that we need for complete happiness?

(00:09):
What is the first step in seeking and achieving happiness?
And why is compassion the most powerful force in cultivating happiness?
Hello and welcome to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, dissect, and analyze various books, thoughts,
and experiences I've had over the last few years.

(00:33):
My name is Joggen, and I'm a student of the human experience, trying to spread some knowledge out to the rest of the world.
And so we're back to the art of happiness by the Dalai Lama.
And so we're going to go into the idea of what is required for happiness,
how to cultivate happiness, and the power of compassion in our overall work-life balance

(00:58):
and our overall thought processes.
So, what is the single most important thing for happiness?
What is the single most instrument that cultivates the greatest amount of happiness?
And the answer to that is our mind.
What's the nuance that once our basic needs are met?
This is not an illustration or explanation of your mind being able to substitute for food, shelter, and water.

(01:27):
But rather, once those are met, once those basic needs are met in our daily lives,
the only basic thing, the only basic equipment we need for complete happiness and contentment is our mind.
And so, there are a few steps to cultivating and seeking this kind of happiness.

(01:48):
And I'll cover the first one in this episode.
So, the first step in seeking happiness is learning.
It may seem contrary when you think that happiness is an emotion and an emotion must be felt.
But in order to cultivate and bring up happiness, we must understand ourselves.

(02:11):
We must learn about ourselves, learn about the negative emotions that resist any positive experiences
and the benefit of all of the positive emotions we feel when we are experiencing bliss or true happiness.
And so, by understanding the weight of your negative emotions and the benefit of your positive emotions,

(02:32):
and by learning more about methods to create these,
by finding out methods to cultivate positive experiences,
getting closer to your positive emotions and positive states,
you allow yourself to seek more happiness.
You provide avenues and you create new paths for your mind and for your body to seek happiness.

(03:01):
Similarly, there is a very powerful weight behind the emotion of compassion.
Compassion can be defined pretty much as showing kindness, showing love, showing gratitude,
and showing more positive emotions to everyone else.
It also means understanding other people's human nature,

(03:24):
understanding what they've been brought up with and who they've had to become,
and what they've crafted themselves into, and having compassion for their state.
May it be ego, pride, inability to communicate.
Having compassion, cultivating compassion, even for those people,

(03:45):
is the best way to increase your own happiness.
And by cultivating this compassion and loving kindness towards others,
something automatically opens your inner door to communicate more easily with others
and create more openness inside of your own self.

(04:09):
And so, as we discussed in the previous episode, in order to also cultivate this happiness,
not only do you need to learn, but you also need to cultivate discipline.
Cultivating discipline, bringing about the sense of discipline in your mind,
encompasses what the Buddha talks a lot about.
Because by cultivating discipline, you exemplify and exonerate your positive qualities,

(04:35):
your positive experiences, and your positive emotions,
and you also work with, accept, and understand your negative emotions.
Not repress, but understand and work with, so that you can accept them, you can see them,
and you can take actions to deal with them in a healthy and emotionally resilient and emotionally mature way.

(05:02):
We also may not know the most wholesome behaviors,
simply just by our ignorance in our lives, in terms of learning.
We simply may not just know what is the best way to cultivate good habits,
good emotions, good experiences, ones based on happiness, not pleasure.
But if we allow ourselves to learn those, we provide new ways, new perspectives, new frameworks,

(05:29):
to see reality for what it is, and learn, understand, and have a real impact and an idea
of how we interact with others, how we build our own happiness,
and how we raise ourselves to a better level in our lives.
And remember, the more sophisticated your knowledge about the happiness,

(05:52):
about what leads to this happiness, and what leads to suffering, and the idea of suffering,
the more effective you will be in cultivating happiness, cultivating compassion,
and increasing your overall mental state in whatever you do.
And the proper utilization of this has the end goal of developing a good heart.

(06:16):
This change comes more from within than externally,
because externally there are material rewards and there are different external interpretations of certain events.
But internally, by cultivating a positive mindset, working with your positive and negative emotions,
and cultivating more positive ones and understanding your negative ones,

(06:37):
you can create positive experiences, lead to positive states,
which overall ends with your happiness and contentment being much higher than it was before.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the necessity for learning and happiness,
the compassion we need to hold, and the discipline that is required to cultivate

(07:01):
and continue building happiness in our daily lives.
If you'd like to hear more content, feel free to drop me a follow at Stoke Spirituality
on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and feel free to drop me a follow on whichever platform you listen to this podcast on.
Thank you so much for listening, and see you guys next time.