Four Methods to Generate Joy and Happiness | Thich Nhat Hanh (EN subtitles)

As for the 5th exercise,
we move on to the arena of feelings.

We can look at our own body
as a river.

In that river, each cell
is a drop of water.

Because the body
is in a momentary flux of change.

In each moment, there are cells
that have just died.

And in each moment, there are cells
that have just been born.

It is not an inanimate reality.

It is impermanence. It is a river.

So now, we are sitting on the bank
of the second river,

also within our body,
which is the river of feelings.

There's a river of feelings flowing night and day.
And each drop of water...

Each feeling in that river
is a drop of water in the river.

The feelings arise, stay for some time,
and fade away

to give place to newly-arisen feelings,

and we have a river of feelings.

And the 5th exercise helps us learn
to bring ourselves the feeling of joy.

A practitioner must be capable
of bringing a feeling of joy for themselves.

Because we really need nourishment.

"Bringing ourselves
the feeling of joy."

Or we can make it short,
"bringing ourselves joy".

And the 6th exercise is "bringing ourselves
the feeling of happiness."

It means, a practitioner should be capable
of generating their own joy.

A practitioner should be capable
of generating their own happiness.

And so, we can...

we can call the 5th exercise,

"generating our own joy"

— "generating our own joy,"

and the 6th exercise,
"generating our own happiness."

If you brother haven't been able
to generate joy for yourself,

you're not a good practitioner yet.

If you sister haven't been able
to generate happiness for yourself,

you're not a good practitioner yet.

But how do we generate joy
and generate happiness?

Because we really need moments of joy,
and moments of happiness

in order to be nourished.

Because we all have pain and suffering
that need to be embraced and transformed.

But if we're not strong enough, we won't be able
to embrace and transform our own sufferings.

And for that reason,
the Buddha said,

in order to have enough strength
to embrace and transform our sufferings,

we have to nourish ourselves with the joys and
happinesses that we can generate ourselves.

And so, the 5th exercise
is to create joy.

The 6th exercise
is to create happiness.

Joy, in the sutra, is called "hỷ."

"Chế tác hỷ,"
or "generating joy."

And happiness, in the sutra,
is called "lạc."

"Chế tác lạc"
or "generating happiness."

You know, the Buddha taught us
many, many methods

to bring ourselves the feeling of joy,
and to bring ourselves the feeling of happiness

Anytime we want, we can always have joy,
and we can always have happiness.

It's that wonderful.

First of all,

it's the method of letting go.

Letting go.

Letting go can bring
joy and happiness.

This, in Vietnamese, is called "ly sinh..."

"ly sinh hỷ"

and "ly sinh lạc,"

meaning "joy is born out of letting go,"
and "happiness is born out of letting go."

Here's an example.

Let's say we are living in a big city,
very noisy, very polluted.

And on the weekend, we want
to get away from that cityscape.

We get our car or motorbike ready.

We bring some...

...water and food with us.

And we purposely go to the country
to spend the weekend.

And an hour later,
we leave the city behind.

And we start seeing in the distance
luscious green paddies and terraces,

feeling the wind
blowing against our cheeks,

hearing the birds singing,
and seeing coconut and palm trees.

We feel so happy.

This kind of happiness that we have
is all thanks to our ability to leave behind

that polluted and noisy city.

And so, letting go is one of the practices
that can bring joy and happiness.

It's called "letting go gives birth to joy,"
and "letting go gives birth to happiness."

There are many things
we can let go of.

For example, we have an idea.

We have an idea, like "If I don't have that,
I'll never feel happy,"

or, "If I don't..."

"If I don't get rid of that,
I'll never feel happy."

We have many ideas like that.

And these ideas
don't make us happy.

Because perhaps we have those ideas
but we never can implement them.

"If I can't marry that person,
perhaps I should no longer live."

"If I don't have that degree,
if I don't have that social status,

living means nothing to me."

We put into our mind
ideas like these.

And we end up suffering all the time,
there's no joy or happiness.

But if we can rid ourselves of those ideas,
happiness will naturally flood in.

Joy and happiness
will suddenly flood in.

So, our ideas, our perceptions,
can also be...

the very causes
of our pain and suffering.

So, we should examine whether we have
any ideas, or perceptions,

or prejudices, or stereotypes,
that need to be let go.

The more one can let go,
the happier one becomes.

It's called, "ly sinh hỷ,"
and "ly sinh lạc."

Happiness and joy are there
all thanks to letting go.

The second method that the Buddha taught
to create joy and happiness for ourselves is...

the practice of right mindfulness,

called, "Right mindfulness gives birth
to joy and happiness."

Right mindfulness, as you've already known,
is the energy

that allows us to be truly present
in the moment,

and to be aware of, to merely recognize,
what is going on in that moment.

Right mindfulness allows us to be aware
that "this is an in-breath."

And when we breathe in,

we know we are a creature,

that we are a person
who is still alive.

And the awareness of our being alive
is such a great happiness.

Because how can those already dead
breathe in?

And so, when we breathe in,
suddenly we're awakened

to the reality
that we are still alive.

And being alive
is such a miracle.

And we can celebrate that miracle
with breathing in and breathing out.

It only takes an in-breath and it only takes
an out-breath to feel content and happy.

Because we breathe in mindfully,
because we breathe out mindfully,

the energy of mindfulness allows us
to be aware that we are a miraculous reality.

And around us is teeming
with life in all its glory.

And so, when there is mindfulness,
it means there are joy and happiness.

And we can say that,

"Right mindfulness is an endless source
of happiness."

Right mindfulness brings out...
It brings forth a lot of joy and happiness.

For example, I practice,
"Breathing in, I am aware of my heart."

My heart

is very...

very kind to me.

It works night and day to pump blood
through the body and nourish the cells.

I myself can sleep 5 or 6 hours a night.
But my heart works non-stop.

Yet, I have never cared for,
or paid loving attention to my heart.

I can smoke cigarettes.
I can drink alcohol. I can stay up late.

I've worked my heart too hard.
Poor thing.

So right here and right now,
I take a full breath

and I bring the energy of mindfulness
to recognize the existence of my heart.

Breathing in, my dear heart,
I know you are there.

We embrace our heart with deep appreciation,
with our mindful awareness.

Because we know our heart
has never been treated very nicely

because of our smoking, drinking alcohol,
and staying up late.

And so, naturally, we give rise to compassion,
and we vow, "From now on,

I will stop drinking alcohol,
smoking, and staying up late,

so that my heart
can have happiness."

When we embrace our heart with mindfulness,
we realize something miraculous,

"Our heart is..."

"Our heart is working very normally."

Some people do not have
a normal heart,

and they've always afraid that
they can suffer a heart attack anytime.

They're living
with cardiovascular conditions.

And their deepest wish is to have
a normal heart like everyone else.

When we take a breath, we're awakened
to the reality that we have a normal heart.

And we can celebrate this reality
of our having a normal heart.

It's all thanks to right mindfulness.

Breathing in, I am aware of my heart,
I am aware of the existence of my heart.

Breathing in, I know my heart
is a normal, healthy heart.

And that awareness
brings forth joy and happiness.

It's called, "Right mindfulness gives birth
to joy and happiness."

And the heart is not all there is
in the body.

My liver may still function relatively well.
My kidneys may still work relatively well.

Both of my feet are still strong, I can
still jump, walk in meditation, and run.

So many conditions of happiness
that are available.

But, because I don't have awareness
and mindfulness, I don't have any happiness.

So coming back to ourselves
with the energy of mindfulness,

recognizing all the conditions
of happiness that we're having,

we'll have an abundance of "hỷ"
and an abundance of "lạc."

An abundance of joy
and an abundance of happiness.

And looking out the window, we see
the blue sky, white clouds,

birds singing, pines cheering,
flowers blooming,...

Life has so many miracles.

Our beloveds are still alive, and we still get
to live with them under one roof.

Too many conditions of happiness to count
and to be happy about right now.

We don't have to run
searching for more.

These are all benefits
of right mindfulness.

For that reason, as long as we practice
breathing in and breathing out mindfully,

coming back to be in touch with all the
conditions of happiness that we're having,

as a matter of course, joy is born,
and happiness is born — one after another.

That is the method the Buddha taught us
to have joy and to have happiness.

And we can sum up by saying,

"The energy of right mindfulness
is an endless source of happiness."

And the energy of right mindfulness
can be generated

through mindful in-breaths
and mindful out-breaths.

"Letting go and right mindfulness
give birth to joy and happiness."

And now, "Right concentration gives birth
to joy and happiness."

Right concentration
is also a kind of energy.

When we have right mindfulness,
we're having right concentration.

For example, when we are aware
of the presence of the flower,

we have mindfulness of the flower.

But if we maintain that mindfulness
over a longer period of time,

we start giving the flower
more attention.

And with that, right concentration
is born out of right mindfulness.

And the more powerful concentration is,

the more powerful mindfulness is
and the greater our happiness becomes.

For example, when we drink a...

...a cup of fragrant tea,

if we have mindfulness,
we are truly present in the moment.

When we are truly present, the cup of tea
also becomes something real.

But if we are not present,
if our mind is somewhere else,

obviously, we're drinking tea
but we don't know we're drinking tea.

We're a ghostly figure, not real. And
the tea cup is also a ghostly item, not real.

Because we are being caught up
in worries, sorrows, anticipation.

There's no one sitting there, drinking tea,
and there's no tea being drunk.

Obviously, we drink tea
on autopilot.

Meanwhile, when we're accompanied
by mindful breathing,

naturally we are truly present.

Body and mind are in perfect oneness.

When we are truly present,
the tea cup is also truly present.

Then the contact between us
and the tea cup is life in its true form.

And when we drink tea like that
— in mindfulness and concentration,

tea tastes much better.

Otherwise, the tea cup
is only a ghostly item.

It's the same with our beloveds.
If we do not have mindfulness,

if we're not aware that our beloveds
are still there, they are but ghostly figures.

We're only living
with ghostly figures.

So, with mindfulness and concentration,
everything becomes vividly real.

And that brings forth a lot of joy,
and a lot of happiness — which we call

"Right mindfulness" and "Right concentration"
"give birth to joy and happiness."

The more one-pointed our mind is,
the greater our happiness becomes.

And when we have right mindfulness
and right concentration, we have right views.

Right views mean understanding.

If we have mindfulness
and if we stay solidly concentrated,

we will see very clearly and very deeply,
and we come to right understanding.

That right understanding brings us
a lot of happiness.

It is called, "Right views
give birth to joy and happiness."

So, for that reason,

a practitioner...
a practitioner who is wise,

is capable of creating, of generating

their own joy and happiness, "hỷ" and "lạc",
at any given moment, using the methods

of letting go, right mindfulness,
right concentration, and right views.

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