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Transforming Emotions and Inner Happiness
“Peace and happiness” consist of two main elements:
- Peace (An): calmness, tranquility, the absence of turbulence—this is the basic condition for happiness.
- Happiness (Lạc): true joy, genuine happiness.
Practicing the Dharma correctly must bring both peace and happiness; if you sit meditation, eat mindfully, walk meditation, or attend tea meditation without experiencing peace and happiness, then your practice has not yet succeeded.
There are two complementary methods of practice:
- Stopping (samatha): calming anger or pain, bringing about concentration—a state of mind as still as calm water.
- Looking deeply (vipassanā): looking deeply into the roots of suffering in order to transform it at its source.
For example, when a baby cries out of unease, the mother holds the baby (stopping) and then observes to find the cause (looking deeply); in the same way, mindfulness and mindful breathing help us to hold our anger, calm it, and then understand it in order to transform it.