Finding Happiness in an Uncertain World | Geshe Lakdor | TEDxDharamshala

I always greet people by saying good afternoon good morning good evening and so forth and if there's enough time I also try to get the names of some people through which I'm able to know how much people are desperate in being good good morning good afternoon nobody says bad morning put up bad afternoon and so forth and everybody has a good name all this shows that we want had real peace so therefore I always the first thing that I ask people is do you want happiness then I'm asking this question to you although I am unable to see you but I would like to hear your voice you said yes okay I have not forced you you said yes my next question is you said you want happiness how long you want that happiness in peace for how many days you want it very greedy so this is interesting thing you know we want happiness and also long-lasting innocent peace and this wish to have long lasting peace and happiness is not something that you learnt from your religion it probably is not something that your parents taught you you are born with that wish with that arch in Buddhism we talk about the life's different stages and experiences and we explained that by saying birth is suffering aging is suffering illness is suffering and finally death is suffering but ordinary people like us we say happy birthday the Buddha said birth is suffering we need to find out who is right what is the first thing that the child does after the birth laughing or crying crying interesting very interesting because if it's really happy birthday then the first thing that the child should do after the birth is hahahahaha you know but what we find is what we find is crying be it an american tibetan child chinese child indian child doesn't matter the first thing that the child is does is crying and what do you think the child is asking by crying I don't think the child is asking for a lengthy discourse on Buddhism or on Christianity or on any religion the child is asking for unconditional love unconditional care from somebody this are I think extremely extremely important life lessons that we should all be aware the child is asking for unconditional love because the child is in need of their long lasting peace and happiness and the child is so able to kind of figure out based on the type of physical state that the long source for long lasting peace and happiness is unconditional love unconditional love unconditional love why I need to repeat these lines I need to repeat this because when we grow up that unconditional love disappears into thin air and what we come up with is business love you love me I love you so long as you love me I call their business so therefore I choose this topic finding happiness in an uncertain world now when we say finding happiness in in an uncertain world people do get some sense of finding happiness in the uncertain world so what they do they marry somebody then after a short while they say Oh things are changing I might change I should change my wife this wife didn't work this husband didn't work this furniture didn't work this car didn't work but I change it the next car the next wife the next husband is sure going to give me their long-lasting peace and happiness so you end up hold your life changing your furniture changing your wife changing your husband changing your relationship and then you die this is exactly what is happening in today's world and we are not able to get there long lasting peace and happiness what the Buddha taught was you need to realize things are changing but in order to get there long lasting peace and happiness in that uncertain changing world is not change in the external situation circumstances by changing yourself it is not changing the external but changing within the internal through which you can get long-lasting peace and happiness and why the way this is so because if you try to change what is outside of you beat the even beat the situation be the people you have no control over these people this even the situations and if you try to control them it's wrong you need to respect other people's life the life of that other person is not for you to entertain you the beautiful tree that is growing outside there is not to entertain you it has its own life respect to their life be it a human being be it a tree whatever respect their life and try to learn in learn to live in harmony with the nature so they were to get that long-lasting peace and happiness there are many many different steps one step is living in harmony with everybody living in harmony with nature living in how many with your thinking and your body and so forth so let me give you few illustrations one is when this TEDx talk was introduced this young lady said there will be people who will be talking about like mind-blowing things you know things like that but honestly speaking I don't have those kinds of mind-blowing things because you know there's a Tibetan saying which says all actions all activities are imitations and whoever does the best imitation is called a scholar so I am here to imitate the Buddha imitate his holliness Lama but I am imitating not in a stupid way but I felt that these are really good ways of thinking good ways of life so I'm imitating them so therefore it is important to realize the fact that if you want that genuine long lasting peace in happiness learn to live in harmony with nature as I said earlier and I give you an example in order to live in harmony with the nature you need to understand nature and that's why the first teaching that the Buddha gave after his enlightenment was teaching people live in harmony with nature so the first teaching that he gave us on impermanence uncertainty change which is so relevant in today's world everything is changing everything is in a flux and out of that first topic of impermanence the first thing that he taught was dead how many of us are here who meditate and contemplate about death I doubt I doubt everybody is preparing to live even if you ask an old man 95 years old are you going to die soon yes yes I am very old I am going to die soon are you going to die too today maybe not that is the situation that is the situation now why this teaching is important this teaching is important if you are somebody who is this clear understanding that today may be must my last life last day there will be quantum live in changing your life if you don't have that understanding then there will be hatred corruption exploitation resentment leg of a concern to other people's well-being and so forth if you understand your life will be completely transformed I tell you a short story of encounter of a mother with her child who was very sick and the mother brought their child to the Buddha and immediately the Buddha said oh this child is going to live only one year and that the child started crying and there was no way to really console him so after several months the child came back to the Buddha and the Buddha said what have you been doing during the last few months did you do anything that's harmful to other people did you kill anybody did you say any nasty thing to other people that the child said I'm going to die so how can I do those things that is the point that is the point that's why one of the Buddhist teacher likes and either way he says you don't have to kill people they will die from that you can get a sense of how stupid we are how stupid we are in that same way and we can say you don't have to bring suffering on others they're already suffering now look at what we are doing in the world coming up with the extremely extremely accurate sophisticated machines to kill an element people and people who are supervising that are called the great leaders who walk on the red carpet it may be because of smallness of my mind but I am completely shocked completely shocked how come then we have only few lives few years to live together I'll tell you another story which is theirs that's my like kind of inspiration that I'm trying to give you it's not coming from me it's coming from great teachers there's it in one of the Buddhist mind training texts there is a teaching which talks about three criminals who are caught and to be killed tonight let us say 10:00 p.m. so they have only a few hours to live together how they should behave towards each other exploitation corruption trying to bully each other in each other if they do something like this we will be shocked and some of us who have tender heart might cry mighty wave how come these people they are going to be killed at 10 p.m. and still they are so mean to each other how come is that clear so what they should be doing within this few remaining a verses they should be praying together consoling each other and then this the writer of this text he says we are no different from these three criminals they have few hours to live and we have how much even if I give you a big discount even if I give you a big discount we will live another 70 years not more than that sorry sorry very sorry nor more than 70 years so within this 70 years how should we be doing and I've already told to you but we don't don't think about these things we don't think about this there's why we never get happiness so there's way in the Buddhist teachings it is repeatedly said suffering is introduction to happiness suffering means challenges when you encounter challenges you learn you get new experiences but what I'm really trying to drive it is that unless you change your attitude you are never going to get happiness not only that you are going to destroy this earth so that's why I'm so happy did this young people with full of energy made this initiative of exchanging ideas exchanging culture transforming the mind normally what we do is as I already said we try to get that happiness from outside from house from marriage from cars from these from death and we are so much after this material pursuits today everybody's running walking is to slow train is to slow cars to slow flying still slow I'm shocked to learn this all this week supposed to be facilities all this technological product are supposed to be facilities if this efficient it is then why are why do we have to run so much today this should the facilities should give us more time to engage in more human creative activities more time to spend the families are we getting that we are not getting there we are running and running everybody everybody says I am busy I am busy if to be busy is very important I want to remind you to be busy it's not important what is important is what are you busy about what are you busy about and it is because of this rush toward the sensual pleasures material object there we are now destroying the whole planet because the so-called concept of development in model war is material development material has to come from external physical objects external physical objects have limitation how can you make unlimited progress from limited resources so we are already destroying the environment so it's so important to help this kind of exchange program and then make initiate event discuss how to solve this problem and we are so good in coming up with a you know destructive weapon which is so accurate that you can hit the enemy in the right or left eye where we are none able to remove the garbages in the street we are unable to you know do away with the pollutions because there is no concern there's no genuine care if you have this genuine care general concern why can't we'll deal with these flirts which comes in a place every year why do we have this choked drainages which is happening every year why can't you solve these problems why can't you reduce these pollutions because we have no concern and care for other people we are only fond of doing the show business so therefore I'm these days I'm actually not very fond of speaking and especially to people like you because you're to speak to you is like preaching the convert you're all good people those people who are engaging in more destructive it needs men may not be here so the question is how to reach them and then in Buddhism we talk about ignorance is the root cause of suffering but this nasai aid another sentence by saying yes ignorance is root cause of suffering but inaction is also cause of suffering so it is important to not only talk speaking is very good so next time you come up with an idea of doing something concrete so that people are able to see that you are not just talking but also doing thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 86,835

Rating: 4.9529057 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Anthropology, Behavior, Buddhism, Charter for Compassion, Compassion, Culture, Emotions, Ethics, Faith, Happiness, Hope, Impact, Life Development, Love, Mindfulness, Morality, Motivation, Pain, Positive Thinking, Religion, Self improvement, Society, Spirituality, Teaching

Id: cH-zXL5FvkU

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 19 2018