Dharma, Monastics, and Happiness

Date: 2022-09-15 Thursday

For this we’ll be exploring a delightful list of positive attributes of monastics, at the time of the Buddha. There’s a lot to learn and absorb here, especially when we see how free and happy those monastics were.

The particular sutta MN 89, includes these lines:

"Here I see monastics living in concord, 
with mutual appreciation,
 without disputing, 
blending like milk and water
 viewing each other with kindly eyes.
"Here I see monastics smiling and cheerful,
 sincerely joyful,
 plainly delighting,
 their faculties fresh,
 living at ease, 
unruffled, 
subsisting on what others give,
 abiding with mind [as aloof] as a wild deer’s."
 
After setting up the context of this sutta we’ll explore the above section line-by-line, with plenty of time for dialogue.

What’s engaging about this sutta is how it puts the fruit of the practice, how we can be in life itself, in human and tangible form.

In short, it’s about being happy.

Click here to listen to or download the talk on the Seattle Insight page.