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" The happiness that comes from worldly enjoyments such as eating, drinking, sex and relaxing is not pure or real happiness. It is changing suffering, or just a reduction of our previous suffering. [...] In Four Hundred Verses the great scholar Aryadeva says: "The experience of suffering will never be changed by the same cause, But we can see the experience of happiness will be changed by the same cause." This means that, for example, the suffering caused by fire will never be changed into happiness by that fire, but we can see that the happiness caused, for example, by eating will change into suffering just through eating. How can we understand this? When we eat our favourite food, it tastes wonderful, but if we were to continue plateful after plateful our happiness would soon change into discomfort, disgust and eventually pain. This proves that the experience of happiness will be changed into suffering by the same cause. From eating comes happiness, but also the suffering of sickness. This shows that worldly enjoyments such as eating are not real causes of happiness, and this implies that the pleasure that comes from worldly enjoyments is not real happiness. The reverse, however, does not happen with painful experiences. For instance, hitting our finger with a hammer again and again can never become pleasurable, because it is a true cause of suffering. Just as a true cause of suffering can never give rise to happiness, so a true cause of happiness can never give rise to pain. Since the pleasurable feelings resulting from worldly enjoyments do turn into pain, it follows that they cannot be real happiness. [...] Indulging in (those) pleasures is like drinking salt water; rather than satiating our thirst, the more we drink the more thirsty we become. [...] we never reach a point when we can say, ‘Now I am completely satisfied; I need nothing more.’ Not only is worldly pleasure not true happiness, but it also does not last. People devote their lives to acquiring possessions and social standing, and building up a home, a family and a circle of friends; but when they die they lose everything. All they have worked for suddenly disappears, and they enter their next life alone and empty-handed. [...] We may feel that those who have good relationships and have fulfilled their ambitions in life are truly happy, but in reality their happiness is as fragile as a water bubble. Impermanence spares nothing and no one; in samsara all our dreams are broken in the end. As Buddha says in the Vinaya Sutras: "The end of collection is dispersion. The end of rising is falling. The end of meeting is parting. The end of birth is death" [...] Buddha compared living in samsara to sitting on top of a pin – no matter how much we try to adjust our position it is always painful, and no matter how hard we try to adjust and improve our samsaric situation it will always irritate us and give rise to pain. Pure happiness comes from wisdom, which in turn comes from practising pure spiritual teachings, known as ‘Dharma’ " - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
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January 2023
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