1;AABCDE  HOW to LIVE a HAPPY LIFE by Dhamma Master Daito Zenei Thompson If you are NOT happy with your life, this means your life is incomplete. To become Happy, you must learn how to become Whole. You only become Whole the day you are ready to expose your whole being. The path of the Precepts, Disciple and Puja- teaches you how to Live a Happy Life. People will tell you that if you want to be happy you must do "this" or "that". Your family will give you advice. Your spouse or lover will offer you advise. Everyone will tell you how to become happy. But, in reality, these people- their advice is well-intended, but will not make you happy. Happiness is standing right in front of you! She is beckoning you to come! Yet, you remain unaware, unhappy. The more you accumulate of the 3 POISONS of greed (grasping), anger (hatred) and ignorance (delusion) in this very life- the more your precious life is wasted and your unhappiness will never turn into happiness. Why? Because all these frivolus things are purchased at the cost of your very life itself. Trading your "life" for "money". Trading your "money" for "things". You end up becoming more and more unhappy with your life. Death comes nearer. You continue struggling. Your possessions become more and more. And inside your very being, you become less and less. Here, there becomes the greatest fear. Like many before you, you may ask of yourself, "my life is almost over, yet what am I achieving with my life, anyway." You cannot go back in time and rectify your life's mistakes. Time that is wasted cannot be returned to you. If you go on continuing to chase foolishly after happiness- the farther away it becomes. It will always elude you. The same is true of anything you desire in your life. Great sex. Fantastic relationships. Happiness, Fame and Fortune. Then, sickness, old age and death approaches. If you continue to listen to this nonsensical logic that your Mind keeps on incessantly spewing forth, encouraging you, seducing you- you will continued to be played as the fool. You will keep trying and trying and trying, and in the end, you will still NOT be happy- except that... there will come death. And, you will not even be happy to die! Look at how many people are unhappy when they think of their own death. Do you want to know why? Because these people do not understand what great JOY there can be in death. They do not actually understand this critical point, because they cannot understand what great JOY there is in life! So they go through life- fearing both life and death. Remember this always: NOBODY IS A GOAL FOR YOU- EXCEPT YOUR OWN AWAKENING. You are the only goal. Not your spouse. Not your family. Not your Country. Not even your Religion. Only yourself is your goal! You have to attain yourself in this very life! Everything else in your life is secondary to your goal of attaining yourself! Buddha taught that all beings experience great suffering. Why do all beings suffer? It is because all existence is in a state of flux, change. This is known as the Law of Annica, or the Law of Impermanence- as Buddha proclaimed in the Law of the Twelve Co-Dependents. You can live with the illusion that you possess a home, a spouse, children, a career, fame and profit, and so forth. But this is only an illusion. You can never possess anything. Stop wasting your precious life seeking after that which eventually decays and ceases to be. There is only one goal in your life if you truly desire to be happy. And that goal is for you to seek that which is "unchanging". And that which is unchanging is known as that which is "deathless". What is that which is "deathless"? Your VERY BEING! How do you experience the "deathless"? MEDITATION. Meditation is needed to give you a rest from the outer world- the world of others and outside activity. Slowly, steadily, through your meditation, an inner-transformation occurs within your very being. This inner-transformation is like a "seed". A seed must be transformed to mature into a giant tree. Although we say that a tree is not a seed, and vice-versa, yet, without the seed, there cannot become the giant tree. Meditation doesn't need any words. Meditation is in the realm of the "deathless". Words are in the realm of the living. Just quiet your mind. But since very few people can truly quiet the mind- the teachings (of meditation) are not working (for many meditators). There are millions of books, millions of teachers. Why don't they work? Because the books, the teachers, cannot penetrate into the realm of the deathless, the unchanging, the eternal Bliss. Only one who has gone and returned from this unchanging, this deathless, this eternal Bliss. Only that Master can transmit this "silence" directly to you. It is like Jesus said to the woman at the well. Once you drink from IT, you will never thirst again. Unless you become COMPLETELY disillusioned with and renounce the others, the outer world- there is very little chance to break your endless cycle of unhappiness. True Meditation, Precept-taking, Discipleship and devotional Puja- your surrendering of your egotistical-Mind to the Master- brings you gently to a boiling point- to the highest, peak "threshold" experience that you could never imagine possible... YOUR OWN AWAKENING. You become REBORN. And in this rebirth is Great HAPPINESS, JOY and EQUANIMITY. You must become like a seed and die: and suddenly (through the rebirth) of the tree, true Happiness, Joy and Equanimity appears of its own accord. HOW TO GET STARTED TODAY: 1) Write or visit Dhamma Master Daito Zenei Thompson. c/o LIFE ABUNDANCE ZEN BUDDHIST SANCTUARY 1124 Market Street #2, Kirkland, WA 98033 USA telephone/fax (206) 827-9544. 2) Make an appointment to take Precepts (panca sila). 3) Once you have received Precepts, make a commitment to become a Disciple by taking the Discipleship Ceremony and commence training. 4) After you have become a Disciple, begin PUJA- devotional training with the Master. DANA (GIVING) Aware of the therapeutic and spiritual value, those who have begun the practice of Zen also give donations to support the Venerable Dhamma Master Thompson's peripatetic Dhamma teaching within our community, and to support the ongoing activities of the the sanctuary to ensure its continuance. 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