Happyish Buddhist New Year

Buddhism can be a serious buzzkill. If you are really enjoying your New Year vibe, trigger warning — read no further.

The coming year will not be much different than any preceding year. Okay, some years are arguably better than others. In 1945, World War II ended, albeit with nuclear bombings of two cities in Japan. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration Reform Act, two laws that have had a dramatic impact on the United States, so dramatic that “white supremacists” now want to undo them. In 2020, Donald Trump lost in his attempt to have a second term as president.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

We have seen that the Buddha’s core message, in some sense, is that it’s not going to get any better, so the best way to be happy is to give up your expectations that it will. That deep seated, apparently very human, incessant hope that the future will somehow magically improve over the past is precisely what keeps us stuck in the circle of death and rebirth.

The good news is that the only solution, according to the Buddha, is to bust out of the cycle entirely and just give up on it.

With wisdom comes compassion. We should strive to be as kind and compassionate as we can…