You see, in our view, up until this time, most of the activity that we have been engaged in was our own effort trying to make only ourselves happy. And that’s really true. In this life, and in our lives previous to this, there has constantly been a kind of self-absorption, a kind of endless grasping at happiness. And it’s the condition of most of the world. It’s what most sentient beings are doing. They constantly are grasping at happiness.
In this life, in this place, our effort is really based on trying to turn that around—to try to generate happiness and, like nectar, pour it out to others; to try to generate a constant stream of virtue and merit and feed sentient beings with that virtue and merit. We don’t even care if they recognize. We don’t care if they know what we’re doing. We hope that they’ll participate because that will help them. We hope that they’ll, you know, offer themselves in some way, their resources, or their persons in some way because that will benefit them. But there’s no recognition necessary. It’s just the constant generation of generous, virtuous activity. And we’re not doing it really because we’re such nice guys. We’re doing it because we know it works, and because it will turn things around, and because it is really the only means by which we can begin to create happiness. It is the seed of happiness and it will bring about the fruit of happiness. Eventually it will bring our enlightenment and the enlightenment of all sentient beings. And that is permanent happiness.
There’s really no other reason to engage in the life that we live. We have to make a lot of sacrifices. Whether we are ordained people wearing robes, or whether we are lay people, we make a lot of sacrifices; but we do so knowing that it doesn’t make us any kind of special person. It only makes us a little more knowledgeable about how to create happiness. Happiness comes through generosity. It comes through virtue. It comes through kindness. It comes through doing what you can to benefit others. It comes through making offerings. It comes through contemplation, through meditation, and through prayer. These are the causes of happiness, and we are engaging in them.
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