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Transforming Suffering
The topic “the art of happiness” is presented as a garden in which the practitioner knows how to both plant “flowers” of joy and take care of the “garbage” of suffering, using suffering as compost to cultivate happiness. The art of creating and maintaining happiness is intimately linked with the art of handling and transforming suffering—two sides of the same reality. Happiness is the absence of suffering; suffering is the absence of happiness. The practitioner must contemplate body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind, recognize the 51 mental formations (wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral), see clearly the deep roots of each feeling, and transform them right in the present moment.
The body is like the river of form, feelings are like the river of emotions, mental formations and objects of mind are like the river of perceptions flowing ceaselessly. When anger, craving, or pain arises, it is necessary to recognize them, look deeply into their nature and roots—from body, perception, cognition to mental formations—before we can handle them. Practicing walking meditation is a living contemplation: each step carries the joy of being present and the bitterness of impermanence, like the lotus blooming from the mud. Through contemplating the presence and absence of mental formations, the practitioner realizes that happiness does not lie in external circumstances but in the way we look and live with each moment.