Charlene+Liu+RP5

RP Post 5 What I’ve learned about my topic thus far is Buddhism instructs people like you and me how to live life to ultimately achieve nirvana or liberation from the cycle of rebirth. The religion focuses a lot on how to construct yourself and control yourself in this world. __According__ to Buddha, through the elimination of ignorance and craving by way of understanding and the seeing of dependent origination, one can achieve the sublime state. I am having trouble with my topic because it seems so broad and the answer is not completely convincing. The purpose of our existence is to seek happiness, to seek a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. How to look for it and where to look for it can be taught through teachings of Buddhism. __Basically__, instead of asking “what is the meaning of life,” we can look to Buddhism to answer the question of “how can we live a meaningful life”. This stems back to what I was saying about happiness. And that a way to live a meaningful life is to seek happiness and cultivating a kind heart. Branching off into cultivating a kind heart, I’ve learned that it is not enough to tell ourselves that we should be nice. We need to know how to actually transform our mind. We must realize the disadvantages of being self-centered. Start the day by thinking, “Today as much as possible, I won’t harm anybody. Today as much as possible I am going to try be of service and benefit to others. Today I want to do all actions so that all living beings can attain the long-term happiness of enlightenment” (thubtenchodron). Continuously remind yourself that you don’t want toharm anybody. Advice that is given is to have a reoccurring event throughout the day as a trigger to call back to your motivation. This allows you to be more aware of what you are thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. __Additionally,__ it helps you not live your life on “automatic”. Living automatically is going through life reacting to things without experiencing what life is about. This is why we feel out of touch with ourselves, sometimes strangers to ourselves. That is an example of practicing Dharma. It transforms your attitude in the midst of daily activities which makes your life become very meaningful. Cultivating mindfulness means being mindful of our ethical values and of the kind heart, so that we can live according to them in our daily lives. That helps achieve both happiness and the kind heart you want to develop. We will no longer be spaced out, simply reacting to things, and then wondering why we are so confused and exhausted at the end of the day. “If we are mindful, we will notice that we have a kind heart and will enrich It and let our actions flow from it. __However,__ we might also become aware that we are upset, irritated, or angry. If we realize that, we can come back to our breath, come back to our kind heart, instead of throwing our negative energy into the world”(thubtenchodron). In addition to that, being mindful of our actions can help calm our minds, decreasing the chances of not being happy. If we discover that we are annoyed, we can stop and observe the situation from a birds eye view. By doing this we recognize that they just want to be happy too and that because they aren’t happy, they are doing something that we might find objectionable. __In this way__ we will become more compassionate and understanding, rather than bitter and unhappy. Even when you are doing something as simple as drinking tea, being mindful of yourself drinking it places an importance of such a simple action that can arouse spiritual feelings. Instead of subconsciously drinking it, when you pay attention to your action, you become more aware of your life at the very moment. This is another type of mindfulness that can help with being spiritually happy(Tea poem).