Are Pleasant Feelings Happiness? | Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh (EN subtitles) #mindfulness

On Thursday, we raised the question,

"If we can't tell

"what makes us happy right now,

"how can we tell what will make us happy
in the future?"

That question is very important.

That question has something to do
with another question, which is...

"Is it possible to have happiness
in the present moment?"

Do we have enough conditions
to be happy in the present moment?

First, let us try defining what happiness is.

Happiness, first of all, is a feeling

—a feeling which we call "a pleasant feeling."

However, a pleasant feeling
is not necessarily happiness.

When we see little ones playing and having fun

very innocently,

not regretting the past
nor worrying about the future,

we see that it's as if they were in paradise.

Certainly, that's happiness. However,

I wonder if these young ones know
that they're happy.

That's why, having a good time

playing and having fun,

not worrying about anything
is not necessarily happiness.

Then, if we don't know
we're having happiness,

that's not yet happiness.

Many people are living
in very favorable conditions,

without any problems, without any worries,
without any grief or sorrows.

They're supposed to be those
who have happiness.

But because they are not aware
that they're happy,

that's not considered happiness yet.

That's why we can't define happiness
as a comfortable feeling

or a pleasant feeling.

We can define happiness as...

being fully aware that one is having

a pleasant feeling.

A pleasant feeling alone is not yet happiness.

Only when one is fully aware that one is having
a pleasant feeling, can that really be happiness.

Those little ones playing in paradise

don't know that they're having happiness.

Only when they have already come of age
and lost that paradise,

do they know they once had happiness.

So,

being mindfully aware

is a foundational factor.

If we're happy but we don't know
that we're happy, that's not yet happiness.

So, we can, for the time being,
give it a definition

—for the time being only,

"Happiness means being fully aware,

"being mindfully aware, that
we're having a pleasant feeling."

But that definition is not fixed or absolute.

It's because, probably we may not
be having a pleasant feeling

but we still have as much happiness.

Let's say, we're carrying
something heavy on our shoulders.

But if we know, that our carrying something heavy
like that can bring happiness to the community,

to our beloveds,

while carrying that heavy load,

we can still have happiness.

At that moment, the feeling is not
necessarily a pleasant feeling.

But with the mindfulness,

the awareness, that we're doing something meaningful

catalyzed by love and compassion,

that moment, although there's something

like an unpleasant feeling
—there's hardship

and not getting enough rest,

but because we're reminded, that
this creates happiness for our beloveds,

and that we're doing something meaningful,

in our heart and mind at that moment,
there's a...

a pleasant feeling.

That pleasant feeling can go hand in hand with...

this unpleasant feeling
that we're tolerating in our body.

That's also happiness.

Many bodhisattvas are...

throwing themselves...

into... into...

situations of suffering

in order to give people aid and support,

in order to pull them out of the fire.

Although they're being...

weighed down heavily by the heat
of wars, oppression, and poverty,

because they have the volition and aspiration of
great compassion and great loving-kindness,

they don't suffer,

they are happy indeed.

For that reason, happiness cannot be defined

as pleasant feelings only.

In the heart and mind of these bodhisattvas,

there's peace and stability,

there's love and compassion.

Once there's such peace, stability,
love, and compassion,

although there are unpleasant feelings,
these bodhisattvas can endure them rather easily

and these bodhisattvas
still have happiness while...

carrying out such taxing tasks

in such difficult situations.

Because, the mindful awareness that
one is doing something worth doing,

that one is doing something virtuous,

meaningful, and beneficial for the world,

that mindful awareness

brings happiness.

So, defining happiness as a pleasant feeling

is a rather...

narrow and oversimplified definition.

You know, our heart and mind
play a very important role.

Our heart and mind are not just
pleasant feelings—not just feelings.

In Buddhist literature,
the word "lạc" (happiness)...

usually goes hand in hand with "an" (peace),
making the term "an lạc" (peace and happiness)

"An" means "peace."

"Lạc" means "happiness."

Happiness usually goes
hand in hand with peace.

That's why, when there's no peace,

there's not necessarily happiness.

Although we're drinking wine,

although we're eating food
very pleasant to the taste buds,

although we've just won the lottery,

if there's no peace in our heart and mind,
that's not necessarily...

happiness.

Some lottery winners,
upon knowing they won the lottery,

just...

passed out.

Because they couldn't handle such good news.

In their hearts and minds, there was no peace.

So, if there's no peace
in the heart and mind, it's just a...

well...

a catalysis, an excitement.

A stimulus.

And, if it's an excitement or a stimulus,

there's no peace in it.

When there's no peace,
that's not really happiness.

While pursuing and indulging...

in sensual pleasures

—say, when we're eating something,

drinking something,

or having...

fleshly relations with someone,

it's very likely that,
while eating that, drinking that,

or having such fleshly relations,
there are...

feelings that we consider pleasant feelings.

When we drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes,

do drugs,

or have sexual intercourses,

there are pleasant feelings.
However, in such pleasant feelings,

try asking ourselves
whether there's peace or not.

If there's no peace,

it's not necessarily happiness

—we're being burned by a fire.

That fire is the fire of desires.

Binge-eating or gluttony,

i.e. being sunk and drowned
in the vast ocean of tastes,

is a kind of desire.

Binge-listening to songs and music
like rock, or hair (metal),

or soulful love songs,

one is sunk and drowned
in the vast ocean of sounds.

That's a kind of desire.

While one is indulging in those images,

fragrances, flavors, and sounds,

one is being smoldered and burned inside.

Being smoldered and burned by desires.

If there's a fire of passion,

if there are fires of desires burning inside,

although we can describe such and such
as pleasant feelings,

those pleasant feelings are not happiness.

Because there's no element of peace in them.

If there's no peace, there's no happiness.

That's why, in the (Vietnamese) Buddhist lexicon,

peace always goes with happiness.

Peace-happiness (an lạc).
Stillness-bliss (yên vui).

If there's no stillness,
there's no bliss.

We also have peace-bliss (an vui).

So, we can recognize what is true happiness,

and what is not true happiness.

Well, worldly people only...

want to have...

pleasant feelings.

Worldly people seldom pay attention,

to tell whether they are true pleasant feelings,
or true happiness.

Because in such pleasant feelings,
there are elements of restlessness

and burning.

That's not true happiness.

Because, that moment of sensual pleasures,

that moment of pleasant feelings,

can pull behind it
many moments of pain and suffering later on.

Let's say, out of great sadness,
we turn to alcohol.

While drinking, the feeling of sadness dwindles.

When the sadness dwindles,
we think there's happiness in drinking.

Fact is, after drinking excessively,

we will have painful feelings.

The same with doing drugs,

or bingeing on sexual stimulation and pleasures.

It's to partly forget one's pain and suffering,

and one's feelings of loneliness.

But after indulging in those sensual pleasures,

pain and suffering show up
even more vividly than ever.

So, those moments cannot
be defined as moments

of true happiness.

Because it creates a context for
and is the cause of...

all moments of suffering later on,
and all painful feelings later on.