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Ekliptix
12-06-2003, 11:37 PM
Feel free to discuss the following subjects.

Topic 1:
Happiness

"There is a differnence between happiness and contentment, the second of the two being a more fullfilling and longer lasting feeling, though it too can be temporary. Pain and ellation are two halves of the same sense stimulus. They are mental creations that signal when something has changed. When your mind likes the change, it signals pleasure, and when it dislikes it, it signals pain. I think emotionally these manifest as ellation or aversion. One of them clings the other one pushes away. You can also have attachment or aversion to a state, rather than a change. I don't regaurd them as being opposites though, but rather two differnt forms of experssing the same thing

Now contentment, is the middle place. It happens when there isn't any clinging or pushing away. Love is one aspect of this. It's just being at peace with what is. For instance when you love a person (when it is real love imo), you love them as they are, without wishing they were a certain way or expecting them to become a certain way, or wishing that they wern't a certain way. You just love them as they are (which is a process of course. Every person is a process). A person can have contentment which produces a more sublime form of joy, which is a much longer lasting experiance. Just imo though." - some guy


Topic 2:
Reality, Consciousness, and The Holographic Universe

http://www.hlhologram.com/hologram%20knowledge.htm


I found this really interesting.

girlRACER
12-07-2003, 02:02 AM
Topic 1:
Happiness can be summarized in 4 simple teachings:

1) In The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living the Dalai Lama says that the ultimate goal of every single being is to seek happiness.
2) Buddha Sakyamuni expounded in the Four Noble Truths that the cause of all suffering is desire.
3) My Guru, Sheng-yen Lu, says nothing in the world last forever.
4) Lao Tzu said that in order to attain the Tao one must be cool and go with the natural flow of things.
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In other words:

-We all seek the goal of happiness.
-When we get the things we want we are happy. When we lose the things we want we suffer.
-Thus, the cause of all suffering is wanting more and more.
-Since nothing in the world lasts forever we will never get the things we want without losing them at one point in our life.
-Thus, Lao Tzu advocated that we should just be "cool" and "go with the natural flow of things"
-To not seek is also to not lose.

That is the key to happiness summarized by all the East Asian sages and the central theme of all religious works in Buddhism and Chinese Spirituality.