Zen And The Art Of Happiness (NOTES)

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Chris Prentiss - Zen And The Art Of Happiness

Chapter 1: The Way (p. 15)
- Would I want this to be true: "Every event that befalls me is absolutely the best possible event that could occur."
- Truthfully answer: "Will I give that a chance to be true?"
- Imagine god appeared & said: "Even though what happens will sometimes appear unfortunate or hurtful, in the end your life will be wonderfully blessed & hugely benefited by whatever happens".
- Happiness is achieved through an essential understanding of Universal laws & our relationship to the Universe.
- Being happy much more of the time than you have been is an incredibly complex & difficult task. Not in the doing of it once you know how, but in coming to know how and then in keeping aware of what you have discovered.

Chapter 2: We are the authors of every next moment (p. 25)
- All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts ~ The Dhammapada
- We are the authors of every next moment.
- Each of us has a personal philosophy, but few of us have defined what it is. You may have never sat down & defined it, but it is fully operative & working in your life at all times. It deals with what you believe about the world in which you live, about its people & events, about how events & circumstances affect you, and about how you affect them.
- If you believe that something that happens to you is bad, you will react to the events in a way that will cause you more unpleasantness, and the unpleasantness you experience then appears to confirm that what happened was truly unfortunate.
- Your reaction to the event caused the unpleasantness.
- William Shakespeare: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
- Your personal philosophy determines how you respond to events. And it determines what happens to you.
- Acting on the basis of what you believe is what brings about the conditions of your life & degrees of happiness you have experienced.
- Film: "What The Bleep Do We Know!?": "There is no 'out there' out there, independent of what goes on in our minds"
- The answers are never 'out there'. All the answers are 'in there', inside you, waiting to be discovered.
- -> Sandwich Shop Example
- -> Speeding Ticket Example
- You are like a railroad switch. Each time an event occurs, you channel the activity onto a positive or negative track. You determine its future outcome.
- Have you ever had anything happen to you that seemed really bad at the time but later turned out to be beneficial (day, weeks, years later)?
- Look at all events in the light of this information. See it at the moment each event occurs.

Chapter 3: The New Experience (p. 35)
- Every day is a good day.
- Acting as though what happens to you is the best possible thing that can happen to you + the new results = happiness.
- This will determine your new experiences.
- -> Coffee shop example.
- "Everything comes at the appointed time". It's not important to have all the ingredients of a project at hand at the outset. It's only important that you move forward with the project until that appointed time arrives.
- Most difficult part is maintaining our awareness that what happens is for our greatest benefit. Write it on many pieces of paper & place them everywhere.
- Smile
- The Universe doesn't make mistakes. Everything is happening just as it should.
- -> Job Example.

Chapter 4: The Inner Road (p. 45)
- Objects & circumstances are not the cause of our happiness. What our mind thinks about them is the cause.
- -> Arena Example
- Neither happiness nor unhappiness is contained in the event itself.
- Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much.
- Every belief you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from action.
- -> 4 minute mile example

Chapter 5: Mindful Happiness (p. 57)
- Your mind is the most important factor in the outcome of your life. It may be outside or inside your brain, you might even think with your whole body.
- Negative emotions cause diseases; positive emotions are a crucial factor in recovery.
- There's a constant two-way communication between your body & your brain. We even think with our bodies. Our cells communicate with our brain.
- Receptors & their ligands in cells are "information molecules". Most common ligands are peptides. The type of peptide produced depends on what we think & feel.
- Hypothalamus produces peptides for all emotions we experience (joy, happiness, sadness, etc.). Type of peptide produced entirely on what we think & feel (p. 61). Peptides are then channelled to the pituitary gland & then into the bloodstream where they visit all thirty billion cells in your body.
- Peptides on cells create minute physiological phenomena that translate to large changes in behaviour, physical activity & mood. Peptides regulate all life processes. Peptides tell a cell whether to divide or not.
- "What the bleep do we know?!": A new cell is not always a clone of the old cell. It contains more receptors for whatever peptide is received that caused it to split.
- If the cell received peptides for depression, the new cell will have more receptors for depression & less for feel-good peptides.
- 300 million cell divisions occur every minute to replace cells that die (p. 63)
- Each day 2% of blood cells die, each 2 months you have an entirely new blood supply.
- Chain of events: New cells are created according to what you think & feel.
- Feeling depressed for an hour produces 18 billion new cells with receptors calling out for depressed type peptides & fewer calling for feel-good peptides.
- Thinking gloomy thoughts creates a body that is more able to feel gloominess than joyfulness. It also creates the need for more gloomy thoughts & you become addicted to gloominess.
- The more you engage in any type of emotion or behaviour, the greater your desire for it will become.
- We actually become addicted, or dependent on the emotion of anger for the stimulation it gives us, so we fight with our spouses/friends/co-workers.
- Whatever you crave (alcohol, drugs, emotions, etc.) is a result of your bodybrain wanting & demanding it.
- Think about: "What did your cells' receptors communicate to the rest of your body all day today?"
- You create yourself by what you think & feel. Now you can use this information by making yourself feel good.
- The way to create a body that's more susceptible to happiness & less susceptible to sadness is to be happy.
- The importance of holding the right belief is also based on the fact that a part of your brain can't tell the difference between an imagined experience and an actual one.
- Harvard University: Brain scans show imagining something creates the same effect as seeing it. In the same way, when you imagine that what you are experiencing can be cured, everything in you (physical body, immune system, mind, etc.) responds with healing energy & a forward, impelling motion that says Yes to a cure.
- Your mind is powerful: "That which you can conceive you can achieve" or "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right"
- -> Muggers and wound example
- "Even if it is painful and lonely, associate with worthy companions" - Dogen
- "He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way. Company with fools... is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure." - Buddha

Chapter 6: What's true in the Universe (p. 75)
- Understanding nature & the laws of the Universe can help you to understand your own essential nature.
- In this chapter you'll learn how to create a personal philosophy that is based on what's true in the Universe (which will make you happier). You'll know what actions to take to bring desired circumstances & how to not be disappointed.
- We are as integral & inseparable from the Universe as are stars, mountains, oceans, galaxies, etc. The Universe is aware of everything we experience, because we are part of it. Everything is created from the same pool of energy.
- Separation is an illusion.
- "The whole Universe is one Existence" - Swami Vivekananda
- "Our minds create the illusion of separation & our minds can free us from it as well" - Bardo Thodol
- "The core and the surface are the same, works making them seem different only to express appearance" - Lao Tzu
- "Seeing through to essential nature is the window of enlightenment" - Hakum Yasutani Roshi
- Universal laws were in place and fully operative before we were born, they'll remain so during our lifetime and long afterwards.
- We quickly realised: We can't walk through a tree or fly like a bird. Universal laws, unlike man-made laws, can't be broken. We can rely on them to work.
- One law: Law of cause and effect (p. 80). "Every action produces a reaction, and the reaction is always in exact accord with the action" (overeat -> fat; mean -> no friends; stone in pond -> ripples)
- By the consequences you experience the truth will make itself known to you.
- Based on the law, if you can discover the true cause of happiness, you can put that cause to work & be happy.
- Your personal philosophy has to be in accord with Universal law. A personal philosophy that's based on what's true in the Universe will sustain you through every occurrence that life brings to you. It will save you from needless suffering.
- Each life-incident, even painful experiences, provides you with 2 choices: You can either curse it and call it an "accident" or call it a "good fortune". Only one of these can bring happiness. Bad events simply don't happen.
- -> Mud/Ravine example p.83
- -> Chris' stealing mother example
- "One in all, all in one - if only this is realised, no more worry about your not being perfect" - Seng Ts'an
- The "I Ching" contains a lot of wisdom
- All the laws of the Universe are in favour of the continuation of the Universe. For it to continue to exist it can only permit the best possible events, perfect events, to occur at any moment in time. If it were otherwise, the Universe would be in danger of its own destruction because one imperfect event would lead to two imperfect events, to three, etc. until its destruction.
- Imperfect events are not tolerated, not even once. Since billions of years it never permits even the first imperfect event to occur. It goes from perfect to perfect to perfect. This is related to:
- Universal law of conservation of energy: "Nothing can be lost or destroyed, only changed"
- Because the Universe is constructed so that it'll continue to exist, it wants to benefit itself to the maximum amount possible at all times. Since we're an integral, inseparable part of the Universe, the same thing applies to us.
-> Everything that happens to us is for our complete benefit <-
- Even if an incident hurt us or took something from us, that event will work to our benefit since the Universe will not let anything bad happen to itself, and we are part of "itself".
- The Universe is alive & aware, a living breathing entity that has consciousness - that is consciousness.
- Most people refer to a supreme entity like God, Allah, Jehovah, Buddha; we simply think of it as the Universe, a vast energy source of consciousness.
- "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge with it, move with it, and join the dance" - Alan Watts

Chapter 7: Adapting to change (p. 97)
- "Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centred by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate." - Chung Tzu
- A philosophy of incessant change is an essential part of the understanding of the Universe.
- Change is constant.
- "A situation only becomes favourable when one adapts to it" - I Ching
- Adapting to changing events & looking at them in a positive light can create a positive outcome.
- -> Car damage example (p. 100)
- All of life presents us with two basic ways to treat events. We can either label them "good for us" or "bad for us". The event is only an event. It's how we treat the event that determines what it becomes in our lives. The event doesn't make that determination - we do.
- "He who has once known the contentment that comes simply through being content will never again be otherwise than contented." - Tao Te Ching
- "Embrace simplicity... Be content with what you have and are, and not one can despoil you."
- As Westerners we want more of what we want and less of what we don't want.
- Having desired things may make you happy, but there is no certainty that they will.
- "The true source of happiness is within each of us." Happiness comes from our response to the conditions of our lives. It is only past conditioning that has taught us to be unhappy about unfolding events. If you respond by being happy, you are happy.
- -> Workshop example (p. 104)
- It is essential to live according to an empowering personal philosophy, a lodestar, a guiding light that will see us through the difficult times of despair, hardship, grief and despondency that seem to regularly occur to us all.
- Failures that dog your footsteps are always due to a weak or misguided philosophy. As your outlook changes, all the circumstances of your life will change.
- How you conduct yourself along the path that is your life determines how you life unfolds.
- A strong personal philosophy also sustains us daily in everything we think and do. It gives us optimism & hope. It frees us from the "tyranny of events" (Those incidents that come to all of us: The lost watch, stolen wallet, missed bus or plane, etc.)
- -> Workshop example (p. 107)
- "When you can be calm in the midst of activity, this is the true state of nature... When you can be happy in the midst of hardship, then you see the true potential of the mind." - Huachu Daoren
- -> Peters story example (p. 110)
- "If you laugh at misfortune, you will not be overcome by it." - Valluvar.
"Misfortune may rise like a flood; but bold thoughts will quell it. If you refuse to be grieved by grief, then grief itself will grieve."
- A strong philosophy based on what's true in the Universe will save you from playing the role of the victim - a person who has been ill-used, a person who's suffered bad luck or whose life is one of despondency and unhappiness.
- A strong philosophy will sustain you through adversity because you know that the mystery will unravel itself and reveal a happy & perfect ending.
- "Know all things to be like this: A mirage, a cloud castle... Nothing is as it appears." - The Buddha
- -> Example of his son (p. 112)

---

Chapter 8: Stress and your imagination (p. 121)
- Stress comes from the way you relate to events or situations. Neither stress nor happiness is contained in things, events or situations.
- Stress will never be completely gone from our lives because of all the negative programming we have taken on, but we can eliminate most of it. The tricky part in eliminating stress is controlling our imaginations to envision a happy outcome rather than a poor one.
- How? -> Refer to Chapter 6: We are the Universe, a part of it, and because the Universe wants to benefit itself to the maximum amount possible at all times, the positive outcome is the only outcome it will permit.
- "You should not be surprised at whatever you see or hear... If you are ready to accept things as they are, you will receive them as old friends." - Shunryu Suzuki
- To help eliminate stress from your life, now or in the future, rely on your philosophy. Stress will never enter the picture if, as part of your philosophy, you believe that every event will turn out for your benefit.
- If you stay in control of your imagination, it's impossible to feel fear or stress. Your imagination is entirely under your control.
- -> New house example (p. 125)
- Obstacles are in your life so that you can grow from it and become strong.
- A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You're only as strong as your area of greatest weakness.
- The reason that the circumstances of your life are sometimes so painful, so devastating & so difficult is: "The Universe always strikes at your weakest point because that's what most needs strengthening." Your challenges are, in effect, hand delivered by a loving Universe to make you stronger. In order to get the benefit from the obstacles, face & overcome them rather than turning away from them & giving up.
- We need to work on strengthening the inner weakness that is causing us to imagine a bad outcome.
- How to deal with challenges in life: First, recognise that the situation or event has a purpose & that it is meant to benefit you. Circumstances may look/feel/seem like problems, but that's only one possible point of view.
- Look at your problems as "workout situations"
- By working your way through the problem, you'll gain strength, wisdom & knowledge.
- Goals you seek aren't the be-all and end-all of life, even though you might think they are. It's the path itself that is the be-all and end-all. In the path truth is found, destiny manifests itself & it is where happiness lies.
- Your problems & what you've suffered were in your life for the purpose of perfecting yourself.
- If you believe that your existence is just life & death and that everything in between is only a struggle, your life will lack the magic that makes life vital, wondrous, and transcendent.
- We're all on our paths to enlightenment. The progress you make on your path will either be quick or slow, according to your awareness. If you're intentionally seeking it, you'll use your so-called problems as opportunities to learn & you'll progress quickly.

Chapter 9: Healing your past (p. 133)
- "Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has not yet come. Looking deeply at life as it is in the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability & freedom." - Bhaddekaratta Sutta
- We can't undo past events. But we can change how we feel about them so that they stop tormenting us in the present.
- The list of past events is endless: Hurt feelings, being cheated on, lost objects, wrong choices, etc.
- Healing the past enables you to be happy in the present.
- Shine the light of your new understanding on past events that have hurt you. Open to the idea that whatever happened in the past eventually turned out to be a benefit to you.
- Go back with you memory into the time when you were a child. Then, slowly coming forward, remember all key experiences & relive them - except that at the conclusion of each event, you must make it right in your heart & mind.
- Forgive yourself & others. Acknowledge that the events were for your benefit (e.g. strengthen a weakness or teaching you a needed lesson)
- Intentionally supplying your memory with new information causes you to feel differently about past events of your life, which causes you to feel happy when you reflect on the past rather than to feel hurt.
- Each time one of those events comes to mind, use your new philosophy to remind yourself that the event was for your total & complete benefit. This is hard & takes tremendous perseverance, but has colossal effects.
- You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past & leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely.
- This moment we call now is all that exists.
- When we live in the now we don't dwell on the past, don't worry about the future, don't judge events as they come & go.
- "Zen is simply... that state of centeredness which is here and now." - Alan Watts
- Meditation is aimed at that point. It keeps us in our centre & in the present moment.
- Like in martial arts "if you expect something to come in a certain way, you position yourself to get ready for it. If it comes another way, by the time you reposition yourself, it is too late. So stay in the centre & you'll be ready to move in any direction. When living from your centre, in the now, you stand a much better chance of being able to deal with the unforeseen than if you keep worrying about it." - Alan Watts
- Meditation is simple & can be done for 5 minutes each day.

Chapter 10: The language of the Universe
- "To those who have conformed themselves to the Way, the Way readily lends its power." - Tao Te Ching
- Learning to believe that the Universe is alive, conscious ware, and aware of each of us, can change your experience of life. You'll find yourself living in a brand-new world.
- The Universe communicates with us. Events are the language of the Universe.
- The most obvious of those events is coincidence (We think of someone & the phone rings with the person at the other end).
- -> Hawaii example (p. 146)
- Coincidence is a Universal event and it happens to all of us all the time.
- Most of the time we're not aware of these communications or we think of them as luck or quirk of fate. We might miss the chance of a lifetime.
- Just by acknowledging the Universe when we become aware of such an incident, the Universe increases the obvious communications.
- The importance of establishing that type of communication with the Universe cannot be overstated.
- Once the Universe becomes aware that you are aware of it & of its language (events), the communications increase, both in quality & quantity. You receive enormous help & input.
- How to acknowledge these communications: A simple knowing smile, a nod of the head or an inward saying of "Thanks" is enough.
- Statement from Chapter 1 "Be Happy" means choosing to be happy whenever you have the choice. It is a mindful happiness.
- It's as thought you were out walking and lost a hundred dollar bill, but you knew you had a few million dollars in the bank.
- Universal truth: "Everything that happens to me only happens so that I can be benefited to the maximum amount possible."
- "See for yourself." - Shoitsu
- After reading this book you have intellectual knowledge. It's worthless unless you put it into use. The way of Zen is to do anything & everything with a particular concentration and awareness in mind. Think:

Everything that happens to me only happens so that I can be benefited to the maximum amount possible.

Or short:

This is for my benefit.

- Always allow yourself to wonder, with expectancy & excitement: "What good will come from this?"
- Treat unfolding events on the basis of the promise of the Universe.