The Ministry of Happiness

Patience part II and a little bit about work

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Michael Kane

Patience acts as a counterforce to anger. In fact, for every negative state, we can identify one which opposes it. Humility opposes pride; contentment opposes greed; perseverance opposes indolence. If we wish to overcome the unwholesome states which arise when negative thoughts and emotions are allowed to develop, cultivating virtue should not be seen as separate from restraining our response to afflictive emotion.

~ Dalai Lama

I posted on patience the other day and can’t believe I didn’t include the quote above from the Dalai Lama. So I’ve rectified that little error and also provided you a quote from Albert Camus about work, given that most of you will be seeing this for the first time on Monday morning when you’re on your way or at work. Remember it is in all of our life where we need to search for happiness, if you find happiness in your job that’s fantastic. For those of you who don’t, then it’s time to seriously sit down and consider when and how you can change the work you do.

For me in many ways this was the first area where I started my quest. As I grew up I watched a lot of the adults around me working at jobs they did not like. Many of them felt caught because of the situations they were in, married with children, unable to move, not enough education to find another job, or the opportunity to get an education. As I moved through my college education I worked a lot of the time, much of it in jobs that were terrible, clerk, receptionist, Burger King, custodian and even personal shopper at Talbots. However when I completed my education I made a promise to myself that I would no longer work a job I wasn’t happy in. I’d gotten an education, the experience I needed and I have an array of talents and skills. That was my path, the way I got to do the type of work I do today.

I again find myself looking forward, my work has lost its fascination, so what do I do now? Our journey is never-ending friends and as I move forward in my search this time I’ll bring you along as it happens and maybe help you find a path to improving yours as well.

A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
~Albert Camus

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged dalai lama, happy, personal happiness, work | 1 Comment

The Language of Happiness

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Michael Kane

The Language of Happiness

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. ~ Jean Houston

At one point while living in Sacramento California I took a raft trip down the American River with some friends. Now to be clear this was more of a float than serious rafting and accompanying me were five of my friends including two couples. The one couple consisted of a friend of mine and his girlfriend from Germany. Now there was some drinking going on during this little trip and the girl from Germany didn’t drink so I thought it was important that I be able to call for help in German, should I need her assistance. She patiently taught me the phrase,” help I’m drowning” in German, and laughed like hell when I repeated it. I assumed I was somehow butchering the accent, but we were communicating and I felt safer.

During this trip one of the most amazing things I ever saw happened. At one point while were playing around in waist deep water, the other woman with us on the trip was sitting on the edge of the raft drinking a cup of beer. The raft was bucked by her boyfriend so violently that she actually bounced up and did a full flip landing feet first standing in the river. That was not the amazing part, throughout the entire bounce, flip and landing she never spilled a single drop from her cup. It was truly beautiful.

Everyone smiles in the same language.
~Author Unknown

Throughout the day I kept playing around and yelling in my butchered German, “help I’m drowning!” My friend’s girlfriend continued to laugh and laugh and then at the end of the day she came up to me and explained what was making her laugh so much. Apparently a slight mispronunciation on my part had changed the phrase from help I’m drowning, to the more appropriate, “help I’m drinking!” We all got a great laugh out of that and this story and that phrase has gotten me a lot of laughs from a lot of Germans I’ve met. So remember to laugh my friends, even if it is at yourself.

I live by this credo: Have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. Even in your darkest moment, you usually can find something to laugh about if you try hard enough. ~ Red Skelton

A Daily Meditation from Deng Ming-Dao

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Michael Kane

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post I read from a book each day, Deng Ming-Dao’s 365 Tao: Daily Meditations. I have always liked today’s entry so I thought I would share, as I’ve mentioned each day starts with a poem and then thoughts on the poem.

Black and Orange butterfly –
Flying joyously
Wings like a nuns hands:
First folded in prayer
Then open in offering.

The world moves toward war. Leaders increase their rhetoric. Armies mass along the border. The world, it seems, never tires of conflict.

We should remember the innocent in life. The delicate, the gossamer, the beautiful. A butterfly lives for a day. It comes into the world with very little reason except to fly and mate. It does not question its destiny. It does not engage in any alchemy to extend its lifespan or to change its lot. It goes about its brief life happily.

A butterfly is always attracted to the beautiful. Whether it is the sun on a blade of grass or the edge of a deep ruby rose, the butterfly spends its brief time dwelling on loveliness.

Even the angry and insane leave the butterfly alone. Why can we not learn to honor the innocence in one another? Maybe we spend too much time dwelling on the ugly. In the name of practicality and realism, we think about strategy, defense, territory, gain, and advantage. We are too late to be like the butterfly. But at least we can honor it, and move as closely as possible to its simple existence.

~ Deng Ming-Dao

Other Pieces You Might Enjoy!

Advice from the Dalai Lama

Wisdom from His Holiness, both of them and of Course Steve

A Quickie from the Dalai Lama

Posted in Deng Ming-Dao | Tagged be happy, deng ming-dao, happiness, meditation, positivity, tao of steve, taoism, wisdom | Leave a comment

Quickie from the Dalai Lama

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Michael Kane

Dalai Lama Everybody wants a happy life. But sometimes people, in order to achieve a happy and successful life, rely entirely on external means like money and power. I think this is a mistake. Ultimately, the source of happiness and joyfulness is within ourselves. And once our mind is more calm and joyful, then our activities can be more effective.

Posted in Dalai Lama, personal happiness | Tagged dalai lama, happiness | 1 Comment

Happiness is Loving Yourself

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Loving Yourself

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. ~Margaret Young

I love this quote, probably because it strikes so damn close to home for me. You see she’s dead on and we all know it, money can’t buy you love or happiness, the big job, the nice car, the McMansion, they don’t do it. Happiness is something that is derived from self, which emanates from your ability to be comfortable with yourself and be at one with the world around you. To find joy in every living being and to see the magic that resides in the world. Different religions and philosophies have different names for it, joy, bliss, enlightenment, nirvana or maybe just simply, happiness is the word we should use. But it all starts from the same place, inside of you, you must come to terms with who you are and learn to love yourself. Once you’ve done that happy is an easy leap and the degree to which you’ve accomplished that is the degree to which you can become happy. It’s a trip we’re all on, but remember to enjoy the journey as much as the promise of the destination.

For me, this understanding came out of great pain and confusion. Earlier in my life I struggled with pain and anger that I carried around with me constantly. The only way I knew to deal with these feelings was suppression and once I left home I found my release through drugs and alcohol. I had the ultimate college party experience and became ever more deeply involved with the altered states of consciousness these chemicals could provide. In some ways it was the best time of my life, I had absolved myself of any responsibility and was leading a purely hedonistic existence, it was wonderful. But there is a cost to everything and the cost for my hedonism and denial was an inevitable crash, and my life crashed. I lost friends, was kicked out of college, had to move home and watched some of my friends go to jail for dealing drugs. It was the darkest and most important time of my life, a time that scared people close to me half to death, some convinced I was on the edge of suicide.

However, after I crashed I had that moment of perfect clarity and saw my life for what it had become. I then spent six months tearing myself down and rebuilding myself brick by brick. In the end, what was left of me might not have been what others would have chosen, but it was who I wanted to be, who I am. That comfort has allowed me to care little what others think, unless they are people whose thoughts and opinions I respect. That comfort has allowed me to make choices that have seemed crazy to others but have made me happy. My crash was the best thing that ever happened to me and I owe where I am and who I am today to those dark days.

My hope for you is that you won’t have to crash to find a way to be comfortable with yourself and like the person you are, or to find the strength to become the person you want to be. Maybe reading this is a start, I hope so.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ Lao Tzu

Wisdom from his holiness, both of them and of course Steve

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Michael Kane

I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.
Pope John Paul II

I really like what the Dalai Lama has to say on most issues. He seems like someone I would really love to have a one-on-one conversation with, someone who could give you some amazing feedback and counterpoint to the way you see the world. I’ve seen documentaries featuring him and even talked to the director of one of them who somewhat confirmed this idea. Then, while hiking in the Himalayas last year I was fortunate enough to hike with one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, a Hungarian woman named Kati, so naturally we called her Steve. Amazingly she embraced Steve and for any Tao of Steve fans, her innate Steveness. Well, of course, Steve had actually been fortunate enough to have spent thirty-minutes with his holiness and fully confirmed how amazing that experience was for her. In my life I’ve had two people described to me a person who seemed to emanate light and peace. The first was a description of Pope John Paul the second by my aunt a nun and the second was Steve’s description of the Dalai Lama.

So for your little bit of happiness today I give you quotes from both:

To develop a sense of universal responsibility – of the universal dimension of our every act and of the equal right of all others to happiness and not to suffer – is to develop an attitude of mind whereby, when we see an opportunity to benefit others, we will take it in preference to merely looking after our own narrow interests.

~Dalai Lama

Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it.
Pope John Paul II

My true religion, my simple faith is in love and compassion. There is no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine, or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are – these are ultimately all we need.

~Dalai Lama

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.
Pope John Paul II

The simple recognition that everyone else wants to be happy and not to suffer, just as I do, serves as a constant reminder against selfishness and partiality. It reminds us there is little to be gained from being kind and generous while hoping to win something in return. Actions motivated by a desire to earn a good name for ourselves are still selfish, even if they appear to acts of kindness

~Dalai Lama

Posted in Dalai Lama | Tagged buddhism, catholic, christian, dalai lama, happiness, john paul, pope, wisdom | 1 Comment

Happiness Resources: Interesting Sites

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Michael Kane

Happiness Resources: Interesting Sites

Did a little digging around on the net to come up with a few resources to help you along your path to happiness. Each link is posted with a little description of what the site is about have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Greater Good

This blog is mostly science-based parenting advice. I’m a sociologist and happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and since I’m reading all the research related to raising happy children anyway, I thought we might as well make it useable to parents. My intention is to bring a scientific framing (what does the research actually say?) to our opinion-based parenting debates and advice. As a parent myself, I know that sorting fact from fiction can be confusing when it comes to parenting.

Positivity Blog

The Positivity Blog is focused on positivity and opening up new possibilities for happiness and awesomeness through motivating and practical articles on how to improve your life.

The Art of Loving Yourself

The Art of Loving Yourself is the Guide for the LIVING THE BEST TIME of Your life! It is written to bring your lost smile back on your face. Explore and understand yourself. And don’t forget to share this site with the world because its the best kept secret that only sharing and giving brings the most love in life. Start to share and give others whatever you have. Do not control yourself. If you see deep down in your heart, you want to share but you don’t share because it feels you are being cheated. Share for yourself and your happiness, not for others. Forget your dead past and start a new life today.

Everyday Happiness Blog

Joy is important. Joy needs to be experienced. Then, joy needs to be spread around. These simple, easy ways to have fun with life are sure to bring more joy to you.

Zen Habits

Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.It also happens to be one of the Top 25 blogs in the world, with about 200,000 readers, is uncopyrighted, and goes well with anything chocolate. Zen Habits features three powerful articles a week on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment

Advice from the Dalai Lama

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Michael Kane

As long as we observe love for others and respect for their rights and dignity in our daily lives, then whether we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in the Buddha or God, follow some religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.

Posted in Dalai Lama | Tagged dalai lama, happiness, meditation, responsibility | 1 Comment

The Wisdom of Children

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Michael Kane

The Wisdom of Children

Jumping for joy is good exercise. ~Author Unknown

I was once involved in a long distance relationship, one that had taken me quite by surprised and a relationship which burned hotter than I ever expected. I had fallen in love with an incredible woman, mostly through online conversations. We had a brief period of time together before I had moved away from her and literally across the country. As the relationship developed the time had come for me to visit, the trip was planned and I was both excited and quite frankly nervous as hell. At work, days before I was to leave for the trip I got a simple e-mail telling me not to come, no explanation, just that it wasn’t right. I was blind-sided and devastated and unfortunately at work. I bolted out of my office, no real direction in mind but I needed to move to just not be in one place and I walked. I walked for almost an hour and the energy that was driving my steps was not subsiding but I had to return to my office.

As I came back through the center of campus on the main quad there was a little girl about six years old hopping like a bunny on the lawn with her grandmother watching. She looked at me and said hello and I did the same and then she stared right into my eyes and said, “you need to come hop with me.” It was utterly ridiculous, my world had just shattered, my heart-broken, energy bubbled and flowed out of me like a volcano but this little girl was taking me, my pain, my energy, my suit and tie and my hand, and leading me out onto the lawn. Then, we began to hop, and as I hopped the weight began to lift, the pain subside, and we hopped like mad people on the lawn in the center of campus. I didn’t care what I looked like, or how ridiculous the situation was, it just felt wonderful to hop.

I thanked that little girl for what she did for me and I walked on to my office. I still hurt, my heart was still broken but that little girl had done me a magnificent service. The lesson I took away from that meeting was that sometimes the greatest wisdom can come from a child. So my friends don’t forget to look to the little ones when you need an answer.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
~Kahlil Gibran

You might like these as well

Happiness and the Wisdom of Children and Dogs

Happiness & Children

Deng Ming Dao on Laughter

Fear is Killing Your Happiness

Posted in The Wisdom of Children | Tagged children, dogs, happiness, kahlil gibran, ministry, pets, positivity, wisdom, wisdom of children | 4 Comments

Existential Boredom

Posted on March 23, 0201 by Michael Kane

Existential Boredom

Dho Assembly in the Potola Palace, Tibet

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time ~ Marthe Troly-Curtin

So existential boredom is a term I thought I came up with, unfortunately after doing a little research I’ve come to realize that I wasn’t the first to get there. Happily, the definition I’ve read isn’t too far off from the one I’d imagined. Essentially, I use this term to describe the idea that the passion has gone from someone’s life. Most of the definitions I read connect this mood to the idea that you have decided that life is pointless or meaningless. To me, that idea seems a little too freshman philosophy class and way too depressing.

For me existential boredom is where I find myself right now, I have a great life, people who care about me, good health, sufficient finances to do the things I want to do and a good job. I also count myself lucky for my time with you my friends and the opportunity to help a bit with other people’s happiness. My existential boredom is that right now I don’t have anything I truly feel passionate about. I have a range of things I enjoy, but nothing that is the first thought when I wake up in the morning, the last at night.

I liken it to someone you go out on a couple of dates with, you have a good time but they just don’t flip that switch, drive you too insanity. So right now that is the thing I’m looking for to add to my happiness, to find that one thing I can be truly passionate about each and every day.

This is the one aspect of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project

that I really admire, that once she identified the reality that the, “days are long and the years are short,” she attacked her life with purpose. I continue to work toward that same process and hopefully sharing my journey can help you with yours.

In starting down this new path I found a piece in the most unlikely of places that I really like and seems to be a helpful starting point, check it out. Five Creativity Exercises to find your Passion

And as always, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

The Ministry of Happiness

Patience part II and a little bit about work

The Language of Happiness

The Language of Happiness

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

A Daily Meditation from Deng Ming-Dao

Other Pieces You Might Enjoy!

Quickie from the Dalai Lama

Happiness is Loving Yourself

Happiness is Loving Yourself

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Wisdom from his holiness, both of them and of course Steve

Happiness Resources: Interesting Sites

Happiness Resources: Interesting Sites

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Advice from the Dalai Lama

The Wisdom of Children

The Wisdom of Children

You might like these as well

Existential Boredom

Existential Boredom

Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

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