Do You Believe Happiness is Entirely an Inside Job?
March 11, 2024
“If our mind is peaceful, we will be happy all the time, regardless of external conditions, but if it is disturbed or troubled in any way, we will never be happy, no matter how good our external conditions may be.”
– Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, How to Transform Your Life
Buddha’s most essential message to the world: happiness is an inside job. It arises naturally from a peaceful mind.
By practicing meditation, we can come to understand and experience this profound truth for ourselves – that it is our mind, not other people or circumstances, that determines how happy we are. When we recognize this, we’ll appreciate the power of meditation to heal us at the very deepest levels.
Right now we depend upon external things to make us happy – our relationships, our health, our reputation, and our career, to name just a few. We grasp at these things as the source of our happiness. While they may make us happy temporarily, they can also cause us much unhappiness, especially when we lose them.
By training in meditation we can become so familiar with our own source of inner peace that we never have to be unhappy again. Circumstances will change (as they always do), challenges will arise (as they always do), we’ll be “up” in life, then “down” again…and yet all the while we’ll feel completely happy and content.
We may find the idea that we can be happy all the time unbelievable, since it’s so far outside our current understanding of what’s possible. It’s good to remember that Buddha’s teachings have survived in this world for over 2,500 years now. Maybe there’s some truth to what he’s been saying . . .
Check out this video from one of our recent General Program classes where our resident teacher, Kadam Morten, explores this idea based on Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s teachings:
Other Blog Posts
![hanna-raschl-mcronald-kadampa-nyc-education hanna-raschl-mcronald-kadampa-nyc-education](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/hanna-raschl-mcronald-kadampa-nyc-education-1024x1024.jpeg)
Hanna: Born and Raised Kadampa
HANNA is the newest member of our KMC NYC Education Team. Check out our interview below where she shares her lifelong journey (yes, lifelong!) in Buddhism. Welcome, Hanna! Right from…
![open-mic-open-mind-kadampa-nyc open-mic-open-mind-kadampa-nyc](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/open-mic-open-mind-kadampa-nyc.jpg)
Open Mic Open Minds
Blog Center Happenings Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Email Share on Reddit An evening of transforming enjoyments and celebrating our precious dharma center with…
![france-roy france-roy](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/france-roy.png)
Inner Peace is True Mental Health
Meet our new Tuesday evening General Program class teacher, France Roy and hear what he has to say about meditation and mental health.
![Gen Menla in NYC 2024 6 Gen Menla in NYC 2024 6](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Gen-Menla-in-NYC-2024-6-1024x768.jpeg)
Three Public Talks in Three Days – Gen Menla’s 2024 Visit to NYC!
Blog Center Happenings Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Email Share on Reddit In early March, we had the pleasure of welcoming Gen Menla at…
![how-to-meditate-kadampa-meditation-center-nyc how-to-meditate-kadampa-meditation-center-nyc](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/how-to-meditate-kadampa-meditation-center-nyc-1024x1024.png)
How To Meditate – A Guide
How to Meditate When practiced correctly, meditation is a scientific method for increasing happiness. Buddha discovered that we each have a natural reservoir of inner peace in our mind which…
![change-your-mind-change-your-world-kadampanyc1 change-your-mind-change-your-world-kadampanyc1](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/change-your-mind-change-your-world-kadampanyc1-1019x1024.png)
Change Your Mind, Change Your World
“We may think that our suffering is caused by other people, by poor material conditions or by society, but in reality it all comes from our own deluded states of…
![limitless-potentials-limitless-possibilities-kadampanyc limitless-potentials-limitless-possibilities-kadampanyc](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/limitless-potentials-limitless-possibilities-kadampanyc-1024x1024.jpg)
Limitless Potential is Our True Nature
“Each and every living being has within them the seed, or potential, to become a Buddha, a fully enlightened being – this is our Buddha nature. In Buddha’s teachings we…
![heart-centered-relationships-course heart-centered-relationships-course](https://meditationinnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/heart-centered-relationships-course-1024x1024.jpg)
Healing All Our Relationships
“Purifying our mind of delusions through spiritual practice fulfills our deepest longing for true, lasting happiness.” – Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, How to Transform Your Life According to the…