Quotes & Sayings About Happiness By Buddha

So those are the direct answers human wisdom gives when it answers the question of life. "The life of the body is evil and a lie. And therefore the destruction of this life of the body is something good, and we must desire it," says Socrates. "Life is that which ought not be - an evil - and the going into nothingness is the sole good of life," says Schopenhauer. "Everything in the world - folly and wisdom and riches and poverty and happiness and grief - all is vanity and nonsense. Man will die and nothing will remain. And that is foolish," says Solomon. "One must not live with awareness of the inevitability of suffering, weakness, old age, and death - one must free oneself from life, from all possibility of life," says Buddha. And what these powerful intellects said was said and thought and felt by millions and millions of people like them. And I too thought and felt that. — Leo Tolstoy

Now, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness' - then you should enter & remain in them.

[Kalama Sutta, AN 3.65] — Gautama Buddha

A life of both sadness and blissfulness is multi-dimensional; it moves in all dimensions together. Watch the statue of Buddha or sometimes look into my eyes and you will find both together - a blissfulness, a peace, a sadness also. — Rajneesh

I'll suggest that the happiness hypothesis offered by Buddha and the Stoics should be amended: Happiness comes from within, and happiness comes from without. We need the guidance of both ancient wisdom and modern science to get the balance right. — Jonathan Haidt

Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life. — Henepola Gunaratana

Whether our action is wholesome or unwholesome depends on whether that action or deed arises from a disciplined or undisciplined state of mind. It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering, and in fact it is said that bringing about discipline within one's mind is the essence of the Buddha's teaching. — Dalai Lama XIV

Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change. — Gautama Buddha

One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter. — Gautama Buddha

It took me forty years of dealing with buddhism to finally realize that actually Buddha's discovery was happiness and bliss. — Robert Thurman

When we feel happy and peaceful, our happiness and peace radiates around us, and others can enjoy it as well. This is called 'the enjoyment of others of our body of bliss'. — Gautama Buddha

Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. — Gautama Buddha

The Buddha taught that we can feel pleasure fully, yet without craving or clinging, without defining it as our ultimate happiness. We can feel pain fully without condemning or hating it. And we can experience neutral events by being fully present, so that they are not just fill-in times until something more exciting comes along. — Sharon Salzberg

Do not blindly believe what others say. See for yourself what brings contentment, clarity and peace. That is the path for you to follow. — Gautama Buddha

The way to happiness is: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, give much. Fill your life with love. Do as you would be done by. — Gautama Buddha

A more promising hypothesis is that happiness comes from within and cannot be obtained by making the world conform to your desires. This idea was widespread in the ancient world: Buddha in India and the Stoic philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome all counseled people to break their emotional attachments to people and events, which are always unpredictable and uncontrollable, and to cultivate instead an attitude of acceptance. This ancient idea deserves respect, and it is certainly true that changing your mind is usually a more effective response to frustration than is changing the world. — Jonathan Haidt

Happiness never decreased by being shared. — Gautama Buddha

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others. — Gautama Buddha

The greatest miracle is to be alive. We can put an end to our suffering just by realizing that our suffering is not worth suffering for! How many people kill themselves because of rage or despair? In that moment, they do not see the vast happiness that is available. Mindfulness puts an end to such a limited perspective. The Buddha faced his own suffering directly and discovered the path of liberation. Don't run away from things that are unpleasant in order to embrace things that are pleasant. Put your hands in the earth. Face the difficulties and grow new happiness. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddha taught, "Breathing in, I recognize my feeling. Breathing out, I calm my feeling." If you practice this, not only will your feeling be calmed down but the energy of mindfulness will also help you see into the nature and roots of your anger. Mindfulness helps you be concentrated and look deeply. This is true meditation. The insight will come after some time of practice. You will see the truth about yourself and the truth about the person who you thought to be the cause of your suffering. This insight will release you from your anger and transform the roots of anger in you. The transformation in you will also help transform the other person. Mindful speaking can bring real happiness, and unmindful speech can kill. When someone tells us something that makes us happy, that is a wonderful gift. But sometimes someone says something to us that is so cruel and distressing that we feel like committing suicide. We lose our joie de vivre. — Thich Nhat Hanh

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. — Buddha

Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness is the perfect companion to Mindfulness in Plain English. Written with the thoroughness and the masterful simplicity so characteristic of his teaching, Bhante Gunaratana presents essential guidelines for turning the Buddha's teachings on the Eightfold Path into living wisdom. — Larry Rosenberg

All that matters in life is that you are happy with where you are, what you are, and with whom you are. Everything around you will be happy and smile with you. If that isn't success, then what is? — Debasish Mridha

What is the happiness ? Is it really happiness ? Nothing stable, just happen, stay and decay ... Everything is impermanence, dissatisfaction and nothing can ever belong to itself — Gautama Buddha

A man asked Gautama Buddha, "I want happiness."
Buddha said, "First remove "I," that's Ego, then remove "want," that's Desire.
See now you are left with only "Happiness. — Gautama Buddha

Kindnessis giving others happiness.Compassionis removing others' bitterness.Joyis freeing others from suffering. — Gautama Buddha

For those who are always courteous and respectful of elders, four things increase: life, beauty, happiness and strength. — Gautama Buddha

All beings wish for happiness, so extend your compassion to all. — Gautama Buddha

Interpreters package and then sell, rent, or impose upon us artificially flavored illusions of truth, salvation, enlightenment, and happiness that are built upon their goals. That twisted information and those errant goals and are often very different from those of the original teachers that these interpreters are borrowing moral authority from. Following our own inner guidance would yield better results than following the village idiot. Neither Buddha nor Jesus was waiting for a Buddha or a Jesus to come solve their personal problems or those of humanity. The key to whatever we need is within us. The job of uncovering it is ours to do. — Doug "Ten" Rose

The Buddha taught that all human suffering is rooted in desire. Don't we all know this to be true? Any of us who have ever desired something and then didn't get it (or, worse, got it and subsequently lost it) know full well the suffering of which the Buddah spoke. Desiring another person is perhaps the most risky endeavor of all. As soon as you want somebody - really want him - it is as though you have taken a surgical needle and sutured your happiness to the skin of that person, so that any separation will now cause you lacerating injury. All you know is that you must obtain the object of your desire by any means necessary, and then never be parted. All you can think about is your beloved. Lost in such primal urgency, you no longer completely own yourself. You have become an indentured servant to your own yearnings. — Elizabeth Gilbert

The Buddha's message was simple but profound. Neither a life of self-indulgence nor one of self-mortification can bring happiness. Only a middle path, avoiding these two extremes, leads to peace of mind, wisdom, & complete liberation from the dissatisfactions of life. — Henepola Gunaratana

Virtuous people always let go.
They don't prattle about pleasures and desires.
Touched by happiness and then by suffering,
The sage shows no sign of being elated or depressed. — Gautama Buddha

Solitude is happiness for one who is content, who has heard the Dhamma and clearly sees. Non-affliction is happiness in the world - harmlessness towards all living beings. — Gautama Buddha

Whatever suffering there is in this world,all arises from desiring only myself to be happy.And whatever joy there is in this world,all arises from desiring to share my happiness with everyone. — Gautama Buddha

ALWAYS BE HAPPY IS NOT IMPORTANT , WHAT IMPORTANT IS TO FIGHT THE STATE OF MIND WHICH MAKES US HAPPY OR UNHAPPY !! — Tushar Upreti

Learn to ne happy with what you have. — Gautama Buddha

Happiness is sorrow; sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty; difficulty in happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different; in essense they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us. — Shunryu Suzuki

When desire flows,
Pleasure arises.
Attached to happiness, seeking enjoyment,
People are subject to birth and old age. — Gautama Buddha

If a man who enjoys a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let him leave aside the lesser to gain the greater. — Gautama Buddha

Your suffering is my suffering and your happiness is my happiness. — Gautama Buddha

The Buddha actually described at some length what he meant by being a good friend in the world. He talked about a good friend as someone who is constant in our times of happiness and also in our times of adversity or unhappiness. A friend will not forsake us when we are in trouble nor rejoice in our misfortune. The Buddha described a true friend as being a helper, someone who will protect us when we are unable to take care of ourselves, who will be a refuge to us when we are afraid. — Sharon Salzberg

It is by fighting and triumphing over the enemies of the Buddha that we ourselves become Buddhas. — Daisaku Ikeda

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form. — Gautama Buddha

These ... things, householder, are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world:
Long life is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.
Beauty is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.
Happiness is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.
Status is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.
... Now, I tell you, these ... things are not to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes. If they were to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes, who here would lack them? It's not fitting for the disciple of the noble ones who desires long life to pray for it or to delight in doing so. Instead, the disciple of the noble ones who desires long life should follow the path of practice leading to long life. In so doing, he will attain long life ...
[Ittha Sutta, AN 5.43] — Gautama Buddha

Those who are truly wise will remain unmoved by feelings of happiness and suffering, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, gain and loss.They will remain calm like the eye of a hurricane. — Gautama Buddha

If you're respectful by habit, constantly honoring the worthy, four things increase: long life, beauty, happiness, strength. — Gautama Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha — Deena B. Chopra

You will find a blissfulness which contains in it sadness also, because that sadness gives it depth. Watch Buddha's statue - blissful, but still sad. The very word sad gives you wrong connotations - that something is wrong. This is your interpretation. To me, life in its totality is good. — Rajneesh

When we direct our attention toward our suffering, we see our potential for happiness. We see the nature of suffering and the way out. That is why the Buddha called suffering a holy truth. When we use the word "suffering" in Buddhism, we mean the kind of suffering that can show us the way out. — Thich Nhat Hanh

So the place where you should look for the kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha, the place where you should look for your happiness, your peace, and your fulfillment, has to be in the present moment. It's so simple and clear. But since we have the tendency to slide back into the past or to run into the future, we have to recognize that habit and learn how to be free from it to really establish ourselves in the present moment. When — Thich Nhat Hanh

No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed. — Gautama Buddha

the Buddha whimsically pointed out that seeking happiness in one's material desires is as absurd as "suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes. — Rolf Potts

Seek happiness now within you. Don't look anywhere else or for anyone to help bring that happiness to your life. Happiness comes as a reward of battles we win. Happiness will come from the will to be strong minded and the readiness to face the next challenge with a smile. — Sal Martinez

Not merely by rules of conduct and religious observances, nor by much learning either, nor even by attainment of concentration, nor by sleeping alone, do I reach the happiness of freedom, to which no worldlings attain. If you have not put an end to compulsions, nurse your faith — Gautama Buddha

Happiness comes when your words are of benefit to yourself and others. — Gautama Buddha

Our job is to make others feel better and to find happiness. It will ultimately make you happy and abundant. — Debasish Mridha

Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, extremely subtle, and wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness. — Gautama Buddha

Generosity brings happiness at every stage of its expression. We experience joy in forming the intention to be generous. We experience joy in the actual act of giving something. And we experience joy in remembering the fact that we have given. — Gautama Buddha

Success isn't the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success. — Gautama Buddha

The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness by what it chooses to compare the experience with. If it chooses to compare it to something worse then it will create happiness, gratitude and pride but if it chooses to compare it to something better then it will create unhappiness, bitterness and envy. — Gautama Buddha

When you know for yourselves, 'These things are wholesome; these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; these things, if undertaken and practiced, lead to welfare and happiness,' then you should engage in them. — Gautama Buddha

Destructiveness cannot bring happiness; destruction is against the law of creation. The law of creation is to be creative. So Buddha says if you are destructive you will be miserable.If you are envious, infatuated, competitive, ambitious, jealous, possessive, you will be in misery.
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In Buddhist terminology there is nothing like sin, only mistakes, errors. There is no condemnation. You can correct the error, you can correct the mistake. It is simple.

One has to leave the parents, one has to leave the home, one has to leave the past. one has to become totally independent, alone ... trembling in that aloneness, but one has to become alone. One has to become absolutely responsible for oneself, and then only can understand the mind. If you go on depending on others, your very dependence will not allow you to understand who you are. — Osho

If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. — Gautama Buddha

If you help others to be happy, nobody can steal your happiness. — Debasish Mridha

Happiness or sorrow- whatever befalls you, walk on untouched, unattached. — Gautama Buddha

In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom. — Gautama Buddha

Buddha renounced every worldly happiness because he wanted to share with the whole world his happiness which was to be had by men who sacrificed and suffered in the search for truth. — Mahatma Gandhi

According to the Buddha, the failure to recognize the illusion of the self is the source of all ignorance and unhappiness. It is only by renouncing the self, that is, by dropping his ego defences and committing metaphorical suicide, that a person can open up to different modes of being and relating and thereby transform himself into a pure essence of humanity. In so doing, he becomes free to recast himself as a much more joyful and productive person, and attains the only species of transcendence and immortality that is open to man. — Neel Burton

He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after his death. — Gautama Buddha

According to the Buddha's teachings, the most basic condition for happiness is freedom. Here we do not mean political freedom, but freedom from the mental formations of anger, despair, jealousy, and delusion. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Mind precedes all phenomena, mind matters most, everything is mind-made. If with an impure mind, you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal. If with a pure mind, you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs — Gautama Buddha

Go forth in every direction- for the happiness, the harmony, the welfare of the many. Offer your heart, the seeds of understanding, like a lamp overturned and re-lit, illuminating the darkness. — Gautama Buddha

Don't give yourself to negligence,
Don't devote yourself to sensual pleasure,
Vigilant and absorbed in meditation
One attains abundant happiness. — Gautama Buddha

There is pleasure And there is bliss. Forgo the first to possess the second. If you are happy At the expense of another man's happiness, You are forever bound. — Gautama Buddha

Without an abundance of hope and happiness, it will be difficult to accumulate an abundance of wealth. — Debasish Mridha