The 8 Worldly Concerns That Prevent Happiness According to Buddha

The 8 worries that hinder happiness:

1. Enjoying having money and material possessions,
2. Being disappointed, angry or angry when we lose or do not gain possessions.
3. Feeling excited when people praise us, approve of us and tell us how great we are.
4. Feeling very upset and depressed when they criticize and disapprove of us, even when they tell us the truth!
5. We are happy if we have a good reputation and a good image.
6. Feeling down and angry when we have a bad reputation.
7. Feeling delighted when we experience sensory pleasures — wonderful sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations.
8. Feeling down and upset when we experience unpleasant feelings.

Giving up these eight worldly concerns and focusing on enlightenment is what it means to be a spiritual person. Nowadays the word ‘spiritual’ gets thrown around a bit quietly and has lost all meaning, but in ancient India there was a clear dividing line between a worldly person and a spiritual person and it’s all about what you give up and what you try to achieve. Sure, you can try to be loving, kind, and wise in your worldly life, but that’s trying to have your cake and eat it too, and that has limited consequences.

Eckhart Tolle taught me something that helped immensely with this Buddhist teaching when he wrote about letting your ego be beaten. Eckhart said that when you feel ashamed, insulted or angry because you didn’t get something, it is probably your ego that is being bruised and battered and that is exactly what you are trying to get rid of as a spiritual aspirant. So let yourself feel bad, let your ego be disappointed and destroy its hold on your life. Just like the old saying: stick and stones will break my bones (ego), but words can never hurt me (my true self).

The eight worldly concerns consume our lives and before long they dominate our world. We all try to get more and better possessions, we all care about our reputation, avoid criticism and above all try to create pleasant sensations for ourselves, such as eating good food, desiring good feelings and having great sex. I don’t like to generalize, but I think you get my point: these concerns take up a lot of time. The Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Yeshe calls it a constant yo-yo life:

“I’m getting a present! I feel so happy!” “I lost that wonderful gift. I am so unhappy.” Someone says, “You’re great,” and we feel excited; someone says, “You made a mistake,” and our mood drops.

According to Buddha, this is a big mistake and if this was true 2,500 years ago, it is even more true today. Our modern society sells us and promotes these eight worldly things every day. Advertising has been based on our basic desires since the beginning of the last century, when Edward Bernays, a student of Sigmund Freud, used Freud’s ideas about unconscious desires to sell and market commercial products. A great documentary called The The age of the self
explains this brilliantly. Since then, we have been inundated with advertisements that provoke our worldly concerns.

So what’s the problem with these worldly concerns? It’s a trick. It is based on the subconscious and primitive drives that tell us that obtaining these things or avoiding these things will bring us happiness and satisfaction, and this ignores and covers up the sense of where true happiness comes from. As Thubten Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, explains:

“This constant yo-yo mind is dependent on external objects and people and leaves us unaware of how our mind is the actual source of our happiness and misery… Life becomes a battle with the environment and the people in it, while we try to be close to everything we like and stay far away from everything we don’t like, or destroy it. This brings us so much sorrow and suffering because our minds are so reactive.”

The key point here is that external circumstances are always changing and trying to manipulate the environment to achieve happiness is a never-ending battle. We can’t control the world, but we can control our own minds and take responsibility for how we respond and what states of mind we encourage. Ancient Buddhism and modern positive psychology agree that internal states are the primary cause of happiness. Virtuous states of mind such as love, generosity and patience contribute significantly to a happy life. Also mindfulness, an open mind and caring for others are all things that can be developed internally in relationship with the world and can be the cause of a peaceful and happy person.

Without peace of mind, money, fame or pleasure can never bring you happiness. There are rich people who are miserable and there are poor people who are happy. The state of mind is certainly the main cause of happiness. Buddha was a prince with all the luxury and wealth you can imagine and realized that it did not bring him lasting happiness. A modern example is Russell Brand, who was obsessed with and had an endless supply of women, money and drugs, but here’s what he soon realized:

‘Growing up, I thought I would be a lot happier if I was famous and successful and if I had money… when you don’t have those things you feel like you’re not enough… I I realized: everyone has beauty within themselves, and if you find and accept this, then you will be happy, regardless of external qualities or material things.’

I wrote this article in response to a member of The way of meditation
community on Facebook who said he really only needed $10 million to be happy. He was joking, well, but I think the thought on many people’s minds is that if only I were rich, I would be happy. That is why meditation is so important for a happy life. Meditating helps you realize that a calm and peaceful mind brings happiness, regardless of external circumstances or what others think of you. This is a very important realization and the beginning of your spiritual life. If you can be happy staring at a wall, you can be happy anywhere.

Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.