Sometimes You Just Want To Run and Hide. How To Reconnect To Happiness?
Even as a BPFer committed to furthering world peace, I’ll be honest: I’m sometimes tempted to turn off the news and go hide in a cave. (Not even meditate. Just hide.) The teetering precipice of nuclear disaster in Fukushima, monks murdering in the name of Buddhism in Burma, Renisha McBride killed in Detroit for seeking neighborly help while Black. It all feels like too much.It’s even tougher to stay present with social strife amidst a strenuous day-to-day life – when your paycheck isn’t covering all the bills, or you’ve been jobless for a long while; when you’re worried about your kid withstanding bullying at school or violence in your neighborhood; when you’ve been hit by a flu bug or diagnosed with cancer. Rocked in a stormy, endless sea of suffering, we seek just a little relief, a scrap of happiness, a break in the weather. What really leads to our happiness, in the midst of personal challenges and a world in peril? Consumer capitalism would have us believe we can buy our way to happiness. Even our beloved Buddhadharma has been “hijacked by the happiness industry,” in the words of Stephen Batchelor. Mindfulness is marketed as a panacea for our troubles.It’s hard not to wonder if our very desire for happiness is manufactured. Can we trust it?
“The desire for true happinessis nothing to feel ashamed about.”
–Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The Buddha’s teachings show us how to cultivate happiness with our hearts and minds. What we find is that happiness is a community effort; it’s not something we can do alone.
“We need community.”
–Harsha Walia, author ofUndoing Border Imperialism,on a BPF phone call.
Buddhist Peace Fellowship is building a network of activists, bodhisattvas, and caring warriors who delight in stirring up “beautiful trouble”: crafting ornate protest signs; locking down in joyous blockades; planting guerilla gardens; stepping up as strike leaders. As BPF elder Joanna Macy reminded us this year, supportive community helps you move through despair to re-engage your gratitude and happiness. It’s this happiness – not a passive, solo bliss but an active, connected love – that sustains your work for collective liberation. Can you make a donation today to help grow this joyful community? This special voice for dharma and social justice exists because of your heartfelt generosity, and I’m so grateful to be in community with you.
Support a new year of dharma, joy, & justice.
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With love & happiness,
Dawn Haney
Co-Director, Buddhist Peace Fellowship
[divide style="2"]P.S. Thanks for all you do to accept the world as it is, and fight like hell to change it!Donate today – your tax-deductible gift helps promote this precious balance of joyful resistance.