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How to Foster Happy All-round Living ☼

Good fortune . . . there are many sides to it. Buddha speaks of great blessings that can be worked for.

  • In the Vyagghapajja Sutta (discourse) Buddha speaks of factors that lead to welfare. [Link]
  • In the Maha-Mangala Sutta he speaks of how to get fit for great wealth and happiness - such great blessings. [Link]
  • In yet another, Sigalovada Sutta he delineates a life fit for progress of laypersons [Link]
  • And in the Parabhava Sutta Buddha pinpoints some common causes of downfall in a life. It should be good to know of them, to be warned in time. [Link]

Other routines, steps and measures than these may favour a happy life, they too.

1. Attain, allied with deep rest in between

To enjoy charming conversations without satiety is a boon in its way.

Ample space in some way or other may ward off brutality.

Be warned: even fools can do damage if they bite from behind.

Let many details work together for beneficial ends - and sincerity can build up too.

You can go for lovely scenery.

Aim at goals that can work for your own good and the good of your near ones. Whether you move or stop should be steered from inside.

The road may give way to not very idealised encounters. Try to stay creative enough in smart, handed-over ways.

With practice we can maintain a state of inner calm also in our everyday lives. Both sterling worth (substance) and grace of style matters.

Let afflicted companions stay away, within safe bounds to be taken care of by proper health personal. Besides and otherwise, on some slippery road it is a good thing to be surefooted like a mountain goat.

Fit success is from the source and outwards onwards.

Merely repetitive practices may yet cause delight in living, like ◦TM.

It can help to aim at the kind of success that conforms to being determined and restrained, and, of course, gaining enough as one gets along. Buddha advocates laying aside a quarter of one's earnings to have reserves for "a rainy day". More: [Householder counsels of Buddha]

Little darlings delight to play and should be given ample room and conditions for it.

Good nourishment and proper position-taking is fit also, and lovely scenery.

2. Let your good heart's discerning findings serve more than rudimentary balances along with Buddha's all-round counsels

Cooperating partners need a proper balance of work and play, rest and work, privacy and social living.

Establish fit habits free from satiety, and proper arrangements.

Get skilled to be productive, and learn how to make wise and wiser choices. Some parts of Management theory is fit for laypersons too.

Never smother your heart for any reason. Seek to remain open inwards, even Awake, Enlightened in that.

Get downright prudent as time goes by.

Fair items tend to bring on many happy encounters.

To get over anger as quickly as it comes is hardly easy, but Buddha-advocated all the same.

It should help to be assisted or joined by interior decorators, perhaps even fashion composers to get bulwarked against nuisances.

Take off from as deep rest as you are able to.

Remain well equipped to work with young people. They carry some parts of the future, remember.

3. Learn to let your rest work for your attainments too - Higher yoga teaches it

Learn how to choose between suitors and remain fond at heart. Don't be over-idealistic. on behalf of that future partnership and its ramifications, possible in-laws and much else.

Not to waste any time getting into a well-founded project can be good for you.

Let life adjust well enough to love and its surprises, as it may be within your power.

Open to new ideas - like yogic attainments a la Patanjalis sanyama - try to master other sides to self-motivated activity too.

Dignity soiled is very bad, and is going to have future repercussions (bad karma ensues).

Stilling one's body and mind one reflects.

Advancing old age can be good too, and rest works well, then. ✪ 

Allowing oneself and others sufficient space or room can work for good.

Getting fitly determined and yet achieving a quiet heart can be a life goal in its way.

Fit and childlike love of fun and games and pranks marks great humans, even though all may not need to wear caps with large animal ears to be surrounded by joyful, laughing children.

So

Attain a lot from a good source for solid and worthy attainments. Much education is for just that. There are many sides to it, and many problems too.

  Contents  


Living happily, happy living, Literature  

Baer, Ruth A. Practising Happiness. London: Constable and Robinson, 2014. ⍽▢⍽ A fine book.

Epictetus: The Discourses and Manual, Together With Fragments of His Writings. Tr. P. E. Matheson. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1916. ⍽▢⍽ Epictetus was born into slavery. Once freed, he established a school of Stoic philosophy. The Stoic stresses how human beings may can gain some control over their responses to life. That is just one side of the issue; one part of the whole picture. Some like his ideas.

Epictetus and Sharon Lebell. The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness. New York: Harper and Collins, 1995. ⍽▢⍽ His Enchiridion (Manual of Epictetus) is a compilation of practical precepts. The author Sharon Lebel "interprets" and summaries 93 sayings of the classic work.

Ginott, Haim G. Between Parent and Child. Rev. and updated by Alice Ginott and H. Wallace Goddard. New York: Three Rivers, 2003. ⍽▢⍽ Dr. Ginott was a school teacher in Israel, moved to the United States where he earned a doctorate in clinical psychology. Known as a child psychologist and psychotherapist and a parent educator, he pioneered techniques for conversing with children that are still taught. This popular book sets out to give "specific advice derived from basic communication principles that will guide parents in living with children in mutual respect and dignity."

Ginott, Haim G. Between Parent and Teenager. New York: Avon, 1971.

Ginott, Haim G. Teacher and Child: A Book for Parents and Teachers. New York: Avon, 1975.

Rajan, Chandra, tr. Visnu Sarma: The Panchatantra. London: Penguin Classics, 1995. ⍽▢⍽ Great teaching stories from India.

Templar, Richard. The Rules of Life: A Personal Code for Living a Better, Happier, and More Successful Kind of Life. Expanded ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2011. ⍽▢⍽ Richard Templar is the pen name of a British author who has written several self-development books. He shares a "path to success" in a series of simple rules, as he calls them. He has written over a handful of such books by now. The "rules" are mainly plain old common sense, as Barbara Weil puts it, with these two examples: "Rule 1 . . . is 'Keep it under your hat' - meaning don't preach, propagate, try to convert or shout from the roof tops. Rule 2 says people may get older but not necessarily wiser.

Templar, Richard. The Rules of Love. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2009. ⍽▢⍽ A third edition from 2016, with ten more rules, has appeared too.

Symbols, brackets, signs and text icons explained: (1) Text markers(2) Digesting.

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