This is the place where compassion - real compassion, not mere pity or sympathy - intersects with happiness, I think. And it implies that happiness, like love, is a far more active state than many of us give it credit for. It takes work, and it takes accepting the world as it is, in all its imperfection and pain, and choosing to be happy anyway.
The Buddha understood this, and the meditations based on his first noble truth (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/truths.html#first) are meant to bring that true, full acceptance of life's pain as a pathway to compassion and ultimate joy.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-02-22 03:01 pm (UTC)The Buddha understood this, and the meditations based on his first noble truth (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/truths.html#first) are meant to bring that true, full acceptance of life's pain as a pathway to compassion and ultimate joy.