Question: “Would you say that true happiness and peace is something we find within ourselves and not from outside things?
I would say that is exactly what Buddhism teaches us! One of the main teachings of Buddhism is detachment; by detaching ourselves from things that we think will make us happy, we’re actually learning to be happy and at peace with what we already have.
The only way to liberate ourselves is to find happiness and peace within ourselves and not with external materials and circumstances. I mention on a couple of occasions in my book Making Friends With Our Mind the importance of understanding impermanence and how our big houses, fancy cars, and high tech gadgets won’t last forever and they will all eventually age, fall apart, stop functioning, and become dust on the ground. So why do we try so hard to get things that are going to eventually break? We work so hard, create enemies, take advantage of people, screw them over, and do immoral things just to get rich! Then what? You die! You can’t even take your riches with you, so why crave more and more?
The rich only want to get richer, because apparently the millions or billions of dollars they have is clearly not enough. They obviously can’t get by in life with that much money, whereas families who live on less than 20 thousand dollars a year make it work and live comfortably. It’s our greed that causes us to want, want, want. It’s one of the Three Poisons that’s the hardest to overcome.
Instead of seeking these outside materials and circumstances to fulfill our temporary happiness, we need to look inward to find permanent happiness! When we meditate, we concentrate and contemplate on impermanence, detachment, generosity, compassion, and love. Instead of looking at the things we don’t or can’t have, we need to appreciate the things we do have; family and friends who love us, a roof over our head, food to eat, water to drink and bathe with, an education system, Internet and books to educate ourselves with the Dharma, and most importantly life as human being. These are the things we need to be grateful for. There are millions and millions of starving and sick children and people all over the world. Clean water is a luxury. Milk and juice is a luxury. Something soft to sleep on is a luxury. Fruit and vegetables are luxuries. Yet we’re here crying over stupid stuff like not being able to get the latest iPhone, or because our five bedroom house just isn’t big enough.
Happiness is found when we can sit and smile at the things we don’t have and accept dissatisfaction.
Smile and be well!