.Happiness Lessons

Joy is a choice, says Buddhist teacher James Baraz.

For many of us, the very idea of joy presents a challenge. “Perhaps
you can’t imagine yourself skipping through a meadow with childlike
exuberance,” James Baraz writes. “Don’t worry. Truly happy
people are not happy all the time. They feel sad and angry and have the
whole range of human emotions.” In the “Awakening Joy” course he
created and for which he is best known, Baraz isn’t “talking about
having a syrupy facade or being in denial,” but rather invoking “a
general feeling of aliveness and well-being that is characterized by
engagement with life, meeting its ups and downs with authenticity and
perspective. It can look very different from person to person, from a
quiet sense of contentment to bubbly enthusiasm.”

A cofounder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County,
Baraz has practiced Vipassana meditation since 1974. And right
about now, “the planet is ready for a change of consciousness.” As
others throughout the burgeoning happiness movement avow, that change
is in the smiling-and-laughing direction.

“Nobody can bring you happiness,” Baraz warns. “Nobody can
manufacture happiness for you. You can’t get it outside of yourself.
There are things that will trigger it,” but it nonetheless comes from
within: “The happiness and joy that you’re looking for are right inside
you. We were born into this world with it.” The longtime teacher points
out that when babies’ basic needs have been met, “they squeal with
delight,” gazing around happily. “We were all like that at some point
— so what we need to do is remember how to access it.”

Baraz’s day-long meditation retreat on Sunday, July 12 at the
Berkeley Buddhist Monastery (2304 McKinley Ave., Berkeley) is
based on mudita, which translates to “sympathetic joy” or “joy
in the happiness of others.” Its activities include silent sitting and
walking meditation along with discussion of daily practices to help
cultivate this kind of delight — which is basically the diametric
opposite of envy. Participants are asked to bring their own lunches; in
keeping with the monastery’s traditions, these must be devoid of meat,
onions, and garlic. Tea is provided, but participants must bring their
own cups.

Learning to be happy sounds simple, but it’s often difficult: “If
you’re going to be stretching yourself, if you’re going to be finding
new ways of being, then you’re getting out of your comfort zone,” Baraz
concedes. “But that’s how you grow. And it’s worth it, because it might
be awkward now, but you keep on doing it and you keep on doing it and
then it just becomes something that’s more natural to you.” After all,
we weren’t born with guilt, stress, or resentment, Baraz notes, yet
those emotions feel natural to most of us now — and “it feels
better to grow than to just stay the same and play it safe.” 9:30
a.m.-4:30 p.m., suggested donation $20-$40. BerkeleyMonastery.org

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