The Art of Happiness

The Dalai Lama quickly clarified, “When Ispeak of the unsatisfactory nature of existence,one needs to understand that this is in the contextof the overall Buddhist path. These reflectionshave to be understood in their proper context,which is within the framework of the Buddhistpath. Unless this view of suffering is seen in itsproper context, I agree that there is a danger, oreven a likelihood, of misunderstanding this typeof approach as being rather pessimistic andnegative. Consequently, it’s important tounderstand the basic Buddhist stance towards thewhole issue of suffering. We find that in Buddha’sown public teachings, the first thing he taught wasthe principle of the Four Noble Truths, the first ofwhich is the Truth of Suffering. And here, a lot ofemphasis is placed on the realization of thesuffering nature of one’s existence.