Practice Smiling

We become what we focus on. This is how the mind works. If you’re just focusing on unhappy things all day long, unhappy states of mind, then you will become unhappy. When you genuinely smile, however, it’s very difficult to focus on anything but positive and happy.

If you spend time smiling and focusing on happy states of mind, hopeful states of mind, then it will grow in you. We, as human beings, aren’t anything in particular. 

“You can generate whatever state of mind or ideas you would like, and that’s what you’ll live in, my friend, that’s the quality of your life.”
–Dr. Frederick Lenz

     There is no self. There are only ideas and states of mind. We can generate whatever state of mind or ideas we would like, and that’s what we’ll live end up living in. That’s what will define the quality of our lives, the inside of our minds.

     Most people don’t generate it, they just experience whatever happens to be lying around. But in Zen, you’re going to begin to gain control of what you experience, not necessarily externally, but internally — your reaction to things, how you interpret reality, how you see the world around you.

     And smiling will be another tool in your arsenal to gain that control over your experience, something you can use any time you like.

How to do it:

 

     Happiness comes not from external things, as we’re really taught as children. It doesn’t come from Santa Claus bringing you a good present, nor is happiness lost in unfortunate circumstances. Happiness is not dependent upon circumstance. Happiness is from within your mind. And just realizing that in itself will change your whole life! If you just meditate on that, if you just ponder that statement: happiness does not come from external circumstances, but comes from within your own mind — then you’ll stop trying to do things to make yourself happy, and you’ll start to see that happiness is a state of mind.

Meditation goes very well with smiling. Practice meditation, but don’t stress about it. Check here a quick description: Rama Mediation Society. 

So what does this have to do with smiling? Dr. Fredrerick Lenz (Rama) had the following recommendations for getting started on helping us get to that state of mind:

“So to start with, I’d like you to practice smiling for five minutes a day. When you practice meditation, take five minutes of the meditation and concentration practice and devote it to smiling and focusing on happiness, while you’re smiling, of course. Take five minutes of your day and practice being happy while you’re sitting in meditation, which is a very powerful time. Everything you do in meditation is amplified. If you meditate for five minutes, totally, with your complete mind focused on happiness, that’s like focusing on happiness for several hours as you’re walking around. Everything is so intensified. And that happiness will carry over into the rest of your life.”