Do cheerful people only have happy feelings and don't have any unhappy feelings?

Being cheerful doesn't mean that there is not any unhappy feelings and there's only happy feelings all the time.

There's nothing wrong with happy and unhappy feelings. It's part of the normal function of the mind to react upon coming in contact with the objects of the senses that the mind likes and dislikes, agrees and disagrees with. Or, due to mood swing caused by hormones imbalanced. But cheerful people know that all these feelings are impermanent. They do not have clinging or craving towards happy feelings, or aversion towards unhappy feelings. When happy feelings are absent, they are still cheerful as they are. When unhappy feelings arise in the mind, they are still cheerful as they are.

Those who know non-attachment towards happy and unhappy feelings, they are not being determined by all these fleeting happy and unhappy feelings to be who they are, to be happy or not, to be confident or not, and to feel meaningful or not.

Cheerful people might have unhappy feelings when their minds come in contact with the objects of name and form that the mind dislikes and disagrees with, or when they are not getting the names and forms that the mind likes and wants. Or, when their hormones are imbalanced. But, they know how to let go of unhappy feelings more easily and quicker than those who have attachment towards all the perception of names and forms to be determining them to be who they are, to be happy or not, to be confident or not, and to feel meaningful or not.

The lesser and weaker attachment towards any names and forms, there will be less reasons or lower chances to be unhappy, and vice versa.

Those who have less demand and less expectation, who are less fussy and easily content, who are patient, tolerant, generous, forgiving, adaptable, adjustable and accommodating will have less trigger of unhappy feelings, and vice versa.

Go beyond the identification of 'happy being' and 'unhappy being'.

Keep practicing non-attachment without expectation until the mind is completely be free from any impurities that derived from ceaseless reactions towards objects of name and form influenced by the desires of craving and aversion.

We will realize unconditional peace that is beyond all kinds of happy feelings, and undetermined by any qualities of name and form, when we are free from the desire of want to feel happy and want to be a 'happy being', or don't want to feel unhappy and don't want to be an 'unhappy being'. But, allow all the happy and unhappy feelings to come and go without generate attachment or identification, without craving or aversion.

Love ourselves as we are even though the mind is not being happy all the time.

Be free.

本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。。。

人生本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。。。

本来无烦恼，却爱自寻烦恼，搞得自己多愁善感，且给他人带来忧心不安。。。累己累人。

祝大家抛开忧愁悔恨，丢掉过去累积的 “狗屎拉圾” , 潇洒笑看人生本来一场空，不须执着过去与未来。珍惜目前这一刻所有难得因缘，开开心心，欢欢喜喜。。。利己利人。

Try changing the habits of the mind by learning another foreign language or adopting new interests...

For those who are being troubled and influenced strongly by negative emotions and feelings (such like anger, jealousy, depression, anxiety, fear, worry, low self-esteem and etc...), and don't know how to come out from it because we don't know how to stay detached from all these activities in the mind, then we may try to change this stubborn habit of attachment in the mind towards these negative feelings and emotions by learning and speaking another language that we are not familiar with, or adopting new interests...

It will shift something in the brain and without any expectation, we might find ourselves suddenly or gradually becoming more positive and cheerful...

If we are not interested in learning languages, then we can try to learn something new and interesting that we are not familiar with (of course these new interests should be something that will bring positive effects and peaceful harmony to our body and mind)...

Or gradually break a long term stubborn habit of our behavior (such like switch on the TV as soon as we step into the house, or open the door of the fridge even though we know there is nothing that we want from the fridge, or looking at the watch frequently, or have the need of a cup of coffee at specific time, and etc)...

Or try to perform some selfless service (to ourselves and other beings without discrimination and attachment) without asking any rewards in return. Just give and let go...

It will still give the same effect of changing the habits of the mind. Of course it takes time, patience and perseverance to see any result (without expectation).

Give it a try, if we are tired of negative feelings and emotions that persistently troubling us, and we really want to make a change of ourselves, want to be kind and compassionate towards ourselves, and want to live to the fullest, be more positive and cheerful...

Be happy.

Keep smiling and be grateful even though life is not easy for us...

Some people may think that when a person is always smiling and cheerful, it must be because his life is very "good", there's no obstacles, difficulties or undesirable happenings in his life, everything is just what he likes and how he wants it to be. But in truth, no body's life can be free from the law of impermanence which gives rise to all suffering due to selfless impermanent changes, but we still can be grateful and thankful for all the good things that we had before and what we have now.

Everyone has to go through impermanence, fear, worry, disappointment and dissatisfaction, as well as discomfort, pain, weakening, decaying and death upon this physical body, regardless of whether we are rich or poor, knowledgeable or not knowledgeable, healthy and fit or not, happy or not, having good behavior or not, speaking certain language fluently or not, intelligent and hardworking or not, and having whatever we want in our life or not.

Some people might want to know how come I can still be smiling, cheerful and grateful when my mother had passed away, my father is sick and paralyzed, and my entire family has financial and health problems, my siblings have lots of resentment about life and responsibility, the world has so much problems, our living environment has problems, my close friends also had their own personal problems, many people that I come across are suffering from restlessness, anxiety and depression, and people here and there also have their own different problems?

But, whose family has no problems at all? Whose family and friends had never lost somebody that they loved and closed to? Who has never been sick or unhappy in life? Who has never encounter any discomfortable situations or difficult moments in this life existence?

Some people think that why should some people be happy when there are so many other people in the world are depressed.

Why not?

My life also encountered many different kinds of problems and difficulties before. On and off, there will always be some kinds of difficult moments may arise here and there. But I never see all these happenings as "problems". I don't have "problems", why do I need to be unhappy?

About other people's problems and unhappiness, I would be compassionate towards all of them, but I don't need to be unhappy and depressed for someone else's "problems and unhappiness", how could I? I could try my best to help them to come out from suffering and unhappiness if possible. But if these people don't want to help themselves, or don't want to come out from miseries, and are enjoying being upset, unhappy and depressed, then there is nothing much that I can do about it. Everyone is a free person to live their live the way that they want it to be, the way that they are comfortable with, and do whatever they want to do with their body and mind. I cannot stop anyone from damaging his own life even if he is the dearest person to me in my life. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own self.

Who said that we cannot be cheerful and smiling when we encounter different kinds of difficulties or problems in our life? And why do we want to make small little problems into huge problems? Why don't we make big problems into small problems, and make small problems into no problems? Undesirable happenings are always happening whether we like it or not, but why do we want to see everything as a problem and be disturbed by it?

Who said that when our body is sick, or when our family and friends are sick, we should be moaning and is not appropriate to smile and be cheerful? Cheerfulness is the best natural medicine to cure any physical and mental sickness. Even if our body is so sick that it cannot be cured, we still can be cheerful and enjoy the very last moments of our life and live meaningfully, as it is.

Who said that everyone should become depressed since the world is so depressing?

Who said that we cannot enjoy life when there are unhappiness and suffering everywhere?

Being depressed about things that are depressing is not going to help to ease depression nor can it make the depression go away.

Being unhappy and worry for undesirable happenings cannot help things to improve or help the situation to get better, nor can it make undesirable happenings disappear or not to be happening at all.

Why do we want to waste energy and time into being upset, unhappy, moaning, fear and worry, while we can turn these energy into something constructive and productive that can help to make some positive changes if possible, and to accept the reality as it is if changes are not possible, and let it go?

When true compassion present, there is no unhappiness or depression, no craving or aversion, no attachment or expectation, no disappointment or dissatisfaction, and no fear and worry, but only unconditional love and wisdom to perform actions that can be done for the well-being of all and everything, for ourselves and for others.

If we haven't realized compassion, then we need to have forgiveness and forbearance to accommodate ourselves and other people for being imperfect.

If there is no attachment, there is no need of letting go. We need to let go of "something" only if we had attachment towards something.

Non-attachment will lead us to become undisturbed or unaffected by all the selfless impermanent conditions of names and forms in the world, but that doesn't mean that we are feelingless, loveless, cold-hearted, or cruel.

Having mental and emotional resentment towards the law of impermanence and the law of cause and effect will not help anyone to feel better, or to be free from the law of nature.

The existence of this selfless physical body and the selfless thinking mind is an inevitable truth of the suffering from restlessness under the law of impermanence. We are creating suffering for ourselves if we cannot let go of things and human relationships when impermanence strikes.

It is okay and nothing wrong to feel sad, to cry, and to show respect towards the dead and the sick, but there is no need to create extra suffering onto the existing suffering.

When suffering arise, we observe, be aware, and let it go.

Patience, Perseverance & Cheerfulness - Basic Yoga Practice

Most of us will either be angry with ourselves or with "God" when we encounter difficult situations in life or encounter sickness and injury in the physical body... There is nothing wrong with being angry when things turn out not the way that we want it to be... It is very normal to feel frustrated.

We will blame ourselves or criticize ourselves for being weak and helpless or being unfortunate or being sinful, and give ourselves all these reasons how come our life is in bad condition, and why our body is sick and is in painful suffering...

Or we will be angry with someone else, trying to blame somebody for the cause of the difficult moments in our life...

The point is, being optimistic, patient, persevere and cheerful, undisturbed or unaffected by all conditions, are the basic practice of yoga. If we are full of negative thinking, being impatient and depressed most of the time, easily giving up and being disturbed and affected by all the conditions, then what is the point of all our "yoga practice" that contains asana, pranayama and meditation?

We don't have to judge or criticize ourselves or anybody for whatever is happening to us in our life. It's because by doing so, it won't change the fact of the reality that we have been through and are going through. But it will create more negative energy into our system and into the surrounding people and environment that are connected with us in our life existence. This won't help to solve any problems nor make our problems disappear.

If we want to realize yoga, we need to have great patience, perseverance and cheerfulness to go beyond or to transcend all kinds of physical and mental agony and other obstacles or difficulties in life.

Having a weak or sick physical body cannot stop a person who is endowed with patience, perseverance and cheerfulness from being happy nor can it stop a person from attaining yoga in them.

But if we have no patience, perseverance or cheerfulness, then it will be very difficult for us to go beyond all the attachments, clingings, egoism, craving and aversion that are constantly happening in our mind. And hence, it is difficult for us to be cheerful when things went wrong, or it's difficult to attain yoga even though our physical body is very strong and healthy and is performing all kinds of yoga practices for a long time, but without the real enforcement of the yoga philosophy about non-attachment, non-identification, non-reaction, non-dualism, namelessness and formlessness...

People like to ask about how long we have been practicing yoga. This is a common question that people like to ask, either the teacher will ask the students, or the students will ask the teacher.

The truth is, whether we will realize yoga or not, it has got nothing to do with how long we have been "practicing" yoga. Time and duration is really not the factor that will determine how much we understand about yoga or what level of consciouness that we have attained.

A person can be practicing "yoga" for many years but is still attached strongly to the body and the mind, and the mind might still be full of impurities, attachments, clingings, egoism, craving and aversion, and is unhappy and unpeaceful, being disturbed and affected by the condition of the world, the life, the body and the mind. This person may call himself a "yogi" but is not really a yogi at all.

A person can be never practice any "yoga", didn't know anything about yoga practice, but still can be free from impurities, attachments, clingings, egoism, craving and aversion, and is happy and peaceful, not being disturbed or affected by the condition of the world, the life, the body and the mind. This person is truly a yogi...

Yoga is here at this very moment if we can let go of any attachment without craving and aversion at this instant moment...

Be prepared to let go of the selfish ego and be very open minded to receive the knowledge that will lead us to our inner peace, love, compassion and wisdom...

"A person may know how to be happy and is full of love, but he cannot make others happy nor can he gives anyone love"... If this can be done, then in truth, this world should have no unhappiness and hatred at all, but why are there so many people are not happy and full of hatred?

If a person says to somebody, "I want to make you very happy and I will give you lots of love", but this doesn't mean that the other person will be happy and will have lots of love, and is free from unhappiness and hatred... That's why lots of love relationship didn't work out very well.

True love and true happiness is coming from within ourselves... Love and happiness that come from the outside condition springs from craving and clinging for things that the mind likes and wants, and is subject to changes and impermanence...

Everyone must realize this love and happiness that is within ourselves by our own self...

May all realize this and be free from all conditions.