Tenemos un tema interesante esta mañana, se remonta a los recuerdos que quizás algunos de

ustedes tienen de nuestro viejo amigo el reverendo Suzuki, Suzuki era en parte mongol y en parte
japonés, era un muy buen amigo de la sociedad, ayudó a clasificar las religiones chinas y japonesas
para el turismo, etc., y tenía un pequeño lugar donde él mismo se formó, era un hombre santo y
creó lo que llamó el jardín de los mentores en San Francisco, el jardín de la mente Zen, y lo
relacionado a ello.

Lo que vamos a discutir esta mañana es la idea de un hermoso jardín que vino al mundo con el
hombre, nos pusieron aquí con todas las ventajas posibles, tenemos todas las posibilidades de una
maravillosa y hermosa existencia en un entorno natural creado divinamente, pero nos metimos en
problemas por la forma de actuar de los seres humanos y finalmente perdimos nuestra
participación en esta mejor forma de vida y para compensarlo se nos fue dado otro jardín, el jardín
de la mente, si se pudiera poner la mente en orden y moverla de un terreno infértil podríamos
restaurar la belleza de nuestro propósito divino original, si la mente se pone en orden el hombre
podrá volver a poner el mundo en orden, por lo que el jardín mental debía ser un lugar donde el
ser humano después de haber reconstruido, reformado y regenerado su propia vida interior esta
se vuelve como un jardín,

una parcela de sustancia mental, ahora, lo que sucede con esa parcela depende de que el
individuo pudiera olvidarla y dejarla desértica, podría descuidarla un poco y dejarla a las malezas y
a plantas que no tienen un valor esencial para él o para nosotros, pero aun así vale para el plan al
que ha sido llamado si el hombre no hace nada al respecto, o podría cultivar su parcela y plantar
flores que le agraden, o podría plantar un grupo de verduras y alimentar a su familia, hay todo tipo
de cosas que podría hacer con el jardín y, de la misma manera, hay muchos usos que puede darle.

El jardín de su mente, el jardín en el que pueden crecer todo tipo de flores pero también en el que
las malas hierbas podían hacerse cargo, así la idea del árbol de la mente, el maravilloso florecer de
los árboles, se convirtió en el símbolo del hombre tomando el dominio sobre sí mismo, si tuviera el
coraje de cultivar este maravilloso árbol de la felicidad a medida que envejece podría sentarse
bajo su sombra, y descansar, y pensar, y tener un ambiente hermoso en sus últimos años, o como
creía el budista, podría llevárselo a la otra vida y su árbol estaría con él en el paraíso porque era su
árbol el que hizo que ese lugar fuera un paraíso,

y todos los que estén allí que tendrían un árbol de la felicidad pudieran vivir maravillosamente,
hermosamente, graciosamente, mientras los ángeles y los pájaros les cantan y los maestros sabios
les instruyen porque en el cielo budista no hay gente perezosa, no aprendes a tocar instrumentos
no tienes talento para ello, en el mundo del más allá vas a la escuela de nuevo para tomar el
próximo grado, pero lo obtienes si has desarrollado la mentalidad adecuada para la dedicación
necesaria, los ideales adecuados, tienes el maravilloso árbol de la felicidad que se ha cultivado en
tu naturaleza,

Ahora, algunos pueden sentir que la persona sentada tranquilamente bajo su propio árbol de la
felicidad sería muy egoísta porque hay muchas personas que no están sentadas debajo de árboles
de la felicidad y que tal vez nunca deberíamos hacer cosas así, que nunca deberíamos tener
felicidad de esa manera, pero estas personas no se dan cuenta de los hechos de la vida.
En primer lugar, no puedes cultivar tu propio árbol de la felicidad hasta que hayas servido de todas
las formas posibles a las necesidades de los demás, el árbol de la felicidad no es algo que puedas
cultivar determinando hacerte feliz a ti mismo, este árbol debe crecer y dar fruto según las
semillas que has plantado y esas semillas son los buenos pensamientos, las buenas acciones, la
comprensión y la ayuda que has compartido con otros seres humanos,

las semillas de los árboles, por lo tanto, son las virtudes que has cultivado en el servicio práctico
hacia la humanidad, cada palabra amable planta una semilla, cada mala palabra hace que la
semillas mueran, cada hermoso gesto de servicio ayuda a que crezca el maravilloso árbol de la
felicidad, cuando te volteas y rehúsas aceptar las necesidades de los demás entonces una helada
temprana daña tu árbol de la felicidad, todo lo importante en forma de compensación por las
acciones realizadas está simbolizado bajo la figura de este árbol, cada buena acción lo ayuda a
crecer, cada mala acción es un gusano en su fruta, todo lo que se hace de manera desinteresada
es una bendición, todo lo que se hace de manera egoísta surge a la larga en dolor y sufrimiento,

así que los budistas y el taoísta chino tienen la sensación de que tenemos que hacer un esfuerzo
definitivo para cuidar de este mundo interior que es un jardín hecho con nuestros pensamientos y
emociones, no se puede ver, pero está ahí, y se manifiesta en la forma en que suceden las cosas
en la vida exterior, así que cada persona tiene una porción de potenciales y estos potenciales, y
estas son las semillas de su árbol de la felicidad, si no hace nada con ellos, el árbol no tendrá vida,
si los usa mal, el árbol se seca, si descuida las malas hierbas, que representan pensamientos
negativos y los hábitos perniciosos, estos se apoderan del jardín y matan las plantas buenas, para
lograr que al árbol le crezcan flores y fruta solo se requiere dedicarse a principios, no a grandes
logros, si no salir al jardín, quitar la maleza y vera una gran compensación,

solo se necesita hacer que todo crezca, sin cuidado no se puede mantener el jardín, sin cuidado no
se puede mantener la vida, todo lo que sucede tiene un significado y cada persona debe encontrar
formas de hacer que este significado sea constructivo, útil y provechoso, ahora el árbol de la
felicidad surge en la vida de la persona, y hoy en día la mayoría de las personas no son muy felices,
hay tristezas, preocupaciones, ansiedades, todo tipo de malentendidos, violencia y anarquía,
conflictos y competencia, todas estas cosas son profundamente molestas para el individuo, dañan
su tranquilidad, estorban en su vida personal, pueden destruir su hogar o alienar a sus hijos,

por lo tanto, la persona promedio tiene un jardín que no está en buenas condiciones, tal vez
cuando era un niño pequeño plantó hermosas flores en su jardín pero con el tiempo dirigió su
atención a otras cosas, y las flores se secaron, y las malezas tomaron el control, y en estos casos
las malezas representan conductas negativas, representan cosas que no son buenas, que no traen
felicidad sino que crean hábitos y, como el césped, se extienden a través de nuestra atmosfera
mental y emocional, destruyendo la mayoría de la tranquilidad que buscamos fortalecer, así que
tenemos que empezar por darnos cuenta de que hay dos formas de vivir, una es controlar la vida
por medio de integridades y la otra es dejar que las cosas sucedan como sea, y el resultado es un
jardín que se llena de maleza,

no pueden haber grandes logros sin intención, no puede haber una gran virtud que no esté
respaldada por principios, no hay forma de arriesgar la vida sin pérdida, definitivamente debemos
respetar las reglas, es posible que deseemos hacer ciertas cosas pero el hacerlas podría interferir
con los propósitos esenciales de la vida, por lo que el hombre Zen con su árbol de la felicidad, trata
de visualizar una magnífica planta con flores, algo que es más glorioso que cualquier planta que
puedas ver en este mundo, en los diagramas y en las pinturas budistas, estos árboles de joyas y
gemas, sus tallos son plateados y dorados, y tienen todo tipo de pájaros cantando y hermosos
animales en sus ramas, y están llenos de sonidos y canciones maravillosas, y con los más gloriosos
perfumes de plantas maravillosas, estos son los símbolos de la vida en orden, estas son las señales
de una persona que ha encontrado valores interiores, los pájaros cantando pueden ser sus propios
hijos, pero están allí si tiene el árbol de la felicidad adecuado, si por una razón u otra que no tiene,
entonces los resultados no son tan beneficiosos,

ahora pensaríamos, después de ver la historia del mundo que nos rodea por un período de casi
diez mil años, que empezaríamos a darnos cuenta de los hechos de la vida, nos daríamos cuenta
de que hay valores que debemos cultivar si los queremos tener, y que es muy fácil meterse en
problemas, es muy difícil salir de ellos y lo mejor es evitar el problema en primer lugar, de lo
contrario dedicamos nuestras vidas a los remordimientos, las frustraciones y las consecuencias
negativas de la conducta, para comenzar con el pensamiento general, para comenzar con esto,
asumiremos que cada persona nace con estas semillas a las que se hace referencia en el budismo
como las semillas y los campos de Buda donde se plantan todas las virtudes e integridades de la
humanidad, en cualquier caso, tenemos dentro de nosotros mismos la semilla de la felicidad, la
cual es un derecho divino,

todas las personas tienen derecho a ser felices, a veces esta felicidad es más obvia en algunas,
algunas personas son felices haciendo cosas que a otras les harían sentir miserables, pero cada
persona que se realiza a sí misma, que lleva a cabo lo que es su destino natural y disfruta
haciéndolo, tiene bien enraizado su árbol de la felicidad, sin embargo si actúa con buenas
intenciones, su educación es adecuada, sus habilidades son moderadas y adecuadas, pero no hace
nada para mejorarse a sí misma, toma la actitud de que tendrá un trabajo y mantendrá el trabajo y
además hará solo un poco y sentirá un poco y le gustará un poco y lo amará de vez en cuando y lo
odiará de vez en cuando hasta que la muerte los separe, ese es el final que va a ocurrir, aquí
parece que no hay sentido de control, al individuo le han sucedido cosas sobre las cuales
aparentemente no se puede hacer nada, el hecho de que él mismo estableció una causa perfecta
de ello nunca parece entrar en su mente mientras enfrenta dicho dilema, por lo tanto, llega a la
conclusión de que es víctima de las circunstancias, no se da cuenta de que las circunstancias están
dentro de sí mismo, 13:48

now if we want happiness to come in terms of the ordinary commonplace that has been generally
accepted we will have to face the simple fact the happiness as we generally think of it has never
been successful, the individual says if I had a million dollars I'd be happy, he has a million dollars
and he isn't happy, another individual says if I can get an executive job and come and be the
manager of my company I'll be happy, he gets the job and his reward is a nervous breakdown, he
is not happy, another one says I want a career in theatre if I can get an agent that will get me a
million dollars a year I'll be happy, so that happens and they get the million dollars a year and from
that time they're in the weekly and *fire with their problems to the rest of their, lives all the way
along, the individuals ideas of happiness nearly always are gratification of appetites of some type,
ambition can be an appetite, fame can be an appetite, domination can be, the gradual competitive
method by which we can gain control of other people's lives may seem to be just wonderful, but
these things are all wrong and the result is they do not end in happiness, and those who have the
most material things are not the happiest, those in high station are not happy, those in public life
are in constant danger of assassination, all these goals that we have once thought would fulfill us
have proven to be nothing but snares, the causes of sorrow and misery, and in the desperate
effort to maintain what we think is happiness we become not only miserable but sick and finally
died in the quest of that which is beyond our reach,

therefore we have to begin to decide what happiness is, how can we be happy, that means in one
sense of the word that we must fulfill something, we must in some way become what we ought to
be, this doesn't mean that we're all going to be alike or that we're all going to believe the same
things but each one is going to find the way to make his own happiness tree grow, he would have
to use the fertilizer of his choice but you will still have to decide what he is trying to do, what he
really hopes to gain,

well most of the Mystics including the great teachers of the world have said that happiness cannot
be achieved by direct effort, it is a byproduct, it is the result of other things, happiness is a reward
for something that deserves happiness, earns it, is entitled to it, if we perform a beautiful gracious
deed we feel good at least for a moment that's the reward and that's how happiness gets into the
picture, happiness is the result of usefulness, of the love of beauty, the forgiveness of our
enemies, trying this to those in sorrow and need, patience with situations that are difficult, we're
not be going to be able to fight our way through all these situations but we can take the statement
of the old face age who said suffer it to be so now this too shall pass away, and the things we do
not like will pass away if we don't nurse them the world of the worlds of better things can open to
us if we will let go of the things that make life unpleasant or unfortunate,

now in most people I think in this modern world suffer from a little bit of hypersensitivity, we are
so sensitive of what other people do to us that we've done completely forget what we do to them,
therefore we are constantly bruised but we do not realize that we also give boozers, and in the
development of our happiness tree the only way we can get rid of the unhappiness which we feel
if others are responsible for is to be very wise and loving and make sure that we are not
contributing to the unhappiness of someone else, now in the law of karma it may be that you did
an unhappy thing to a person who is gone that you can never ask forgiveness at least in this life
and therefore this must stay forever is a black mark on your record, not necessarily, the individual
can dedicate a good deed to the memory of a bad one and by making a real service accomplish
what is practically the purpose behind the idea of confessional, confessional involves penance, and
the individual can create or decide upon the proper penance that he should exercise or practice at
the consequence of his own conduct, if he knows that he has done something at some kind just
simply to apologize for it no one do again is nothing, but if we have made a mistake we have the
right to prove we've learned a lesson and outgrow that mistake and the first degree of penance is
not to repeat it, if we find that we have a sharp temper we can stop it, but we can't stop it by
claiming that other people are so impossible we have to get angry at them, this is where the
mistake is made, the other person's bad disposition is a blight on his happiness tree when we
become indignant at him and have to return his discourtesy that's a blight on all happiness trees
and if we want that tree to grow properly we cannot afford the damage it and everything that is
negative interferes with the *comic consequence which we want called happiness,

now happiness has a great many interesting problems involved, in it happiness is not necessarily
having what you want, perhaps it's really more likely understanding what you have, if you think
there should be more then you can be also grateful that there is as much as there is, always the
happiness problem involves the best adjustment to a situation an adjustment in which the person
is perfectly willing to go as far as necessary as far as you can go with integrity to cure a situation
that has arisen, one of these classic solutions in the time of the Greeks of the pythagoreans was
that every dispute should be solved before sunset if there was a big fight the two combatants
must sit down before the end of the day and make it up, this was mandatory, no grievance should
be taken into bed and slept on, if we do that then we are really putting in insecticide in their own
place, we have to be careful about this type of thing the Indian chief Sitting Bull who was the
medicine chief of the you Goliath Sioux when two young Braves had an argument, he told them to
dig a hole so they dug a hole in the ground now he says shout your hate into the hole, they did so,
he said now cover it up and forget it, so they did so and because he was the big man and no one
could go against it they had to do what he said but the best thing to do with a bad scene of some
kind is to dig a hole and bury it because if you don't it'll ultimately bury you,

so we start in and we say here is a nice little plant we want to really love it it's like if one of these
bonsai trees, your mind and your thoughts have to be controlled by discipline, and in Japan and
even here now there are exhibitions of the bonsai trees, these miniature trees are things of
exquisite beauty but the perpetuation of them and the perfection of them is a daily task there are
trees that maybe only 12 of 15 inches high and look like a magnificent full-grown oak in a little
shallow bowls that tree has been lovingly guarded, protected, water, the roots cleared, and
trimmed everything done to it daily watching for a period of 300 years, it has come down through
a family from generations every member that has guarded it as found in its the secret of a
discipline, the discipline of protecting that which you have received in good faith, protecting the
labors of the past, and preserving the objects for the service and glory of the future,

so discipline becomes the way of protecting beauty, preserving life, and making possible to *pass
more joy love and thoughtfulness to those who come after us, so we start in and we say what if we
got here now what does each individual feel for instance in his own life as the thing that is most
beautiful, most necessary, most worthwhile, having decided on something maybe the individual
says I've always wanted to paint a picture, a beautiful picture, this is my dream now having a
dream of painting a picture the individual can go through all kinds of experiences in the collecting
of an artistic career, he can study with a successful artist, he can pass on to the integration of his
own thoughts, he can gain a certain amount of talent, but then he has to watch out because
ambition is going to sneak in, also competitiveness and a desire for profit and little by little his art
is going to be profaned if he is not extremely watchful, he's not going to paint the beautiful things
he wanted to paint, he's going to paint strange and eccentric and absurd things because they sell
better, and there's the end of art, and a nice little happiness tree dies,

the moment there is a misuse, the moment an ulterior motives corrupts the Integrity's of a desire
the individual is in trouble, I have known to please two cases of persons who have made an
obligation to themselves, if they ever had a million dollars they would devote it to the works of
good, they would help other people, they would take care of the children that didn't have the
funds, he would they would educate young people, when these two persons got the million dollars
each not one of them ever spent it on any of the projects he had promised, the money took over,
from that time on he was struggling desperately for a second million, and we're using it entirely for
the fulfillment of his own ambitions when he had nothing he was ready to share it, when he had
something he was ready to keep it, and the little tree died again, and so it goes on all kinds of
levels of activity, now most people are not involved in large enough projects to make it impossible
for them to take care of a small backyard kitchen garden, they have always the right in themselves
to keep certain beautiful thoughts and ideas, I know people have a small plot of land maybe 25
feet square and they raise all kinds of beautiful flowers on that little piece of land, they'd ever
expect to win prize, they're not out competing for glory, they're not selling the flowers for profit,
but they love to work with the earth and to make beautiful things happen, and these people have
a physical symbol of a successful happiness tree, they are doing the things that fulfill their own
love of beauty, their own protection of life, they become aware more and more of the Magnificent
problems of growth in nature, they see the wonders of things the average person overlooks, and
they develop greater faith in the divine plan simply because of the variable she's in their own
garden, it's all in an attitude, either this attitude helps the little tree to grow or it gives it an early
frostbite,

so wherever you are working with yourself in any way and anxious to gain a little insight I think it's
necessary to realize that religion is not here to make people miserable, philosophy is not to make
people so heavy nobody else likes them, a wisdom is not something that makes you obnoxious to
other people, it's what you do with these things that determine whether you are building a
healthy garden or whether you're planted something that will never amount to anything when it
does develop, so the person who wants a better religion must find a religion which has with it
happiness and this is a problem we're particularly confronted with now, at the present time we
have several first grade wars largely over what is it best to believe, what faith do you want to
follow?, are you going to do what I believe or is it going to be very painful duty to eliminate you
because you do not?, these kind of things do not always come out in major conflicts but I noticed a
great many people who have what they call deep religious convictions who simply are not having
any happiness out of it, being right should be the greatest source of happiness in the world, and
being right should give us the insight to know how to handle the problems of those around us who
do not agree with us, there is no reason why any belief should break in and interrupt the normal
flow of human relationships, we have a perfect right to our belief and they have a right to there's,
usually there's no problem arise until somebody tries to sell something to somebody else, when I
can't be happy with my faith until you accept it there's a heavy frost in the garden, people are not
going to buy this, they're not going to change, therefore you cannot be happy because happiness
depended on these other person's doing what you're required of them off those happiness and I
know cases where happiness died for three generations over circumstances like this, the individual
is not happy even when he believes he has the right religion because then he begins to worry
about the people who have another religion, the same time they are worrying about him but he
know that and doesn't have the goals happiness goes to nothing the same is true in a great many
other areas of activity, the person who has artistic skills it isn't necessary that every musician has
to gain Top Billing for something, music is a satisfaction of the soul primarily, a person who is
creditable at it it has made a very definite contribution to life, now a creditable musician is
probably one who would not last five minutes on a professional stage but he is making himself
happy by being able to do something and his relatives and friends if they had happy to his trees of
their own are glad to let him sit under the shade of them,

the point of the matter is that the person has to be happy by doing something, by expressing
something, not by arguing and batting and refuting, and in other fields it's the same thing,
stylisation the way people dress, the way people think, these things are always important to
others, the eccentric person makes a career of being eccentric or perhaps even a religion of it but
he does not really have any happiness tree because his religion is not based upon his love of God
and the service of his fellow man but this content with his own peculiarities, as he does as he
pleases this is freedom, but the money's free people are absolute slavery to what they please, so
this isn't the answer to happiness, eccentricity is not an answer, belligerence is not, revolution,
rebellion and Anarchy or not, even though the principles may be declared to be right, there is no
great virtue in nature in doing right the wrong way and each person has to live what it does to
these inner part of his own life, so we have to begin gradually to follow the Zen idea so if we
suddenly come to the realization the taking care of this little tree is not exactly easy but it is very
gratifying and it fulfills almost immediately great needs in human nature, it gives each person the
ability to live with others in a gentle kindly relationship,

so if you want to get into the idea of this Zen mental garden, this garden of the mind you just took
over what you're doing, what kind of books do you read, what kind of people do you have for
friends, what kind of educational aspirations do you have, what are your hobbies, what are your
pleasures and privileges, how are your attitudes towards your children your friends, how are your
business attitudes to the office in which you work, you start constantly competing to try to get a
higher job away from someone else, all these things are constantly in the mind and they are
always cause of sorrow,

now in the story of the happiness tree there is the problem of the fruit now ever most everybody
when they have a nice fruit dream and it's apples or pears or peaches kind of looks forward to
having some fresh fruit someday and maybe putting up a little preserve against the future, so
when we get the point where they are various forms of fruit forming on the happiness tree or
when they decide we'd like to eat them and then we taste them and we may have an unhappy
surprise because of the way we have lived and thought the fruit is sour, bitter, and not pleasant to
case, that is consequence coming back from cause, if you won't do a happy healthy fruit that
makes good Jam we have to put it in there in the form of thoughts, emotions, and actions that
have harmonious consequences and will bring happiness to all who are concerned,

a lot of people don't worry too much about happiness until they get to the age where they do not
have other immediate objectives, while we live in a sphere of ambitions and responsibilities where
our first thoughts must naturally be to families and friends and to the job we have, the future
seems a little far away and we are we say busy enough so that the problem of happiness doesn't
sit directly on us perhaps we haven't even gotten time to plant the tree back there yet, or perhaps
we had a good piece of ground and we water it and put a lawn in but we intended to put some
flowers in some day and that is the way in our mental and emotional lives things ago, but when
the time comes and we did to settle down a little bit and we want a little peace of mind the Zen
monk goes to his bamboo grove which he has been taken care of for years and that Taoist monk
may go to his happiness tree which is now in full bloom and very pleasant and covered with
delicious fruit and settle down quietly to enjoy the rewards of a good life, if so then we find that
the happiness tree as its fruits in the form of interests that linger on to make us happy good
relations with other people who don't who do not find us impossible as it come cases, and with all
the joys and happiness of grandchildren and lovers and all kinds of good friends and neighbors and
civic activities and contributions to good causes and taking a day off to serve the public library all
of these things become pleasures, they add up to happiness because there are things we're doing
we've always wanted to do, there are things that have no particular rewards we're not working for
money, we are working because it an inward joy, it helps us to live always in the shade of our own
happiness tree because the things we are doing other things we want to do, isn't the problem of
profit is a problem of fulfillment, so this is what you can do if you get started right, now when you
get started you probably will find out a religion or philosophy will have an influence in these
decisions that you make, these are the factors which more or less lead people to attempt to
improve their lives so if you get a religion be sure you get one that basically is happy, happy in the
sense that the persons involved in it believe in the good, in God, believe in the joy of a good life,

believe that the things that are proper according to the teachings of the master are also the things
that make us happy here and now, and we find that to be friendly with one another, each to share
the problems were of one another, these things ultimately have a rich deep happiness it may not
be so funny at the moment and it may be a nuisance sometimes to be called a way to help
someone in trouble when we would rather be doing something else, but if we really have the
happiness tree in there we will say the greatest happiness is to serve this person who needs and
we are happy, we control direct and censor what makes us happy, and simply refuse to accept
false values in happiness, to take attitudes in which the things that make us happy are not doing us
any good, the alcoholic says that a good drink makes him happy we know this is not true, we know
that all forms of negative attitudes for labor a certain self-centered satisfaction contribute nothing
to the integrity and happiness of the person, so at any moment we feel like it we can even find
somewhere perhaps a little potted plant then we can have *nouse-mouse we don't have to have
acreage in order to work this out what we have to have is intent this one small potted geranium
can do it it has done it for millions of *New Yorkers and I guess it would hurt here also,

but something that is a symbol of life, something that asks us for protection, something that if we
neglect it it fades, and a joy of its own beauty disappears, something of this nature to become a
symbol of thoughtfulness if the individual is thoughtful enough to take daily care of a pet animal,
take daily care of a fish in the bowl, take daily care of a plant and a part, if this is a service that is
recognized as a symptom and symbol of lovingness toward life, it will help, it is part of the process
of gradually outgrowing in differences which arise out of ignorance and self-centeredness,

now many people has been also profitably sit down and look over this ambition matter a little
more closely, in most instances as the individual is reached middle life without the glamorous
fulfillments that he has hoped and he is not obviously going to be a unique person with a destiny
beyond imagination then it is time to represent ourselves as in search of peace, search of realities,
after all peace is one of the great forms of happiness but an individual who is not properly trained
inside can't stand peace therefore he can't obtain happiness, he must be constantly irritated or
agitated otherwise he's lost because he has nothing inside himself he cannot go out and sit under
the tree which is shading in visits own virtues which are his own good works, so if we find then this
as time goes on then all probabilities we're not going to be removed from the labors we have until
the right time comes and we're not going to be able to change destiny as far as the fulfillment of
outside worldly conditions may be concerned,

therefore now we must reorganize our sense of happiness to begin to look for the things that
other source of real happiness and find out if we can if we shot any of them off to find out
whether or not in selfishness or indifference or thoughtlessness we have closed our minds to
something that could make us very happy, then we have no time for some little things that would
make others happy and make our own lives more simple, more direct, more peaceful, also the
time begins to come in where we should take account of what has happened to us most people
who are very fretful have simply overlooked many good things that have helped them and they
don't even realize it,

I remember the little story of an elderly lady who considered herself accident-prone, when she
was 12 years old she fell in the barn and broke her wrist, when she was 84 years old she slipped in
the barn again and broke the rest the second time, as he was being said she said that's my life
nothing but trouble, only 70 years between the troubles but they were still very tightly connected,
now in the same way when all these problems come along to look back and see what we have
really accomplished in the form of deserving happiness, what have we done that we could really
get up and be proud of?, what have we done that we know has been a value to others besides
ourselves?, if we've kept good responsibilities and taking proper care of them this is a good cause
for happiness, happiness is never from evasion or avoidance, the individual doesn't want to work
and loves to play we'll find play worse than work because of wrong understanding, but if means
individual finds doing good things the greatest vacation in the world then he will begin to
understand life, you will finally come to the conclusion that the world is filled with happiness that
no one recognizes or we have armed ourselves against, we are so afraid that this happiness will be
considered sufficient to justify our having a better disposition than we do have and the reason why
we are impossible people is the way the right has treated us this type of thinking can block
everything that is worthwhile,

so we find in the Chinese philosophy also that there is somewhere the world beyond, the world of
the of the Saints and the sages, this wonderful world of horizon-- it's the same spelling as thwe
word *arisen but it's a Chinese title for the world beyond and the world beyond is a very beautiful
place it is a place where great mountains rise up as beautiful waterfalls break over the rocks
below, where there are great meadows and forests of stately trees and little shrines and tea
houses hidden among the rocks, there are little shelters where the scholars and sages live in
constant enjoyment, and there are the beautiful jewel trees under which the wise seek peace and
happiness, everything is beautiful everything is joyful everything is wonderful in the land which is
called horizon-- or the land the Blessed, now of course, no one has really been able to discover just
the physical location of that particular spot it is a little like bacons New Atlantis it doesn't seem to
fit on the map, and if it ever was it sank beneath some ocean as a result of mail of mines failure to
live, or do the things that were necessary,

so anyway in this beautiful land, we have the inner life of the person horizon-- is in every one of us
horizon-- is the beautiful world that came to us in the beginning with the divine nature with which
we were endowed horizon-- is the inner life changed my weed patch into a gradient garden it is at
the inner world of man's personal life which no outside situation can injure or destroy, the
individual may die for his convictions but his happiness cannot be lost, once he has achieved it
within himself,

so in this beautiful world of things in our own lives we come out gradually with certain attitudes
which change the psychic chemistry of the individual, today psychic chemistry's are loaded with
hatreds, loaded with conflicts, and fears, and desperate attitudes toward life and living, there is a
result is that we are by our own negative thinking bringing upon us the very things we feel the
most, because if we think negative long enough the negative things will contagiously distribute
themselves throughout society,
on the other hand if within our own lives we do not agree with these terrible negative conclusions
if we believe with the Bible that though there be thousands that fall upon the right at hand
thousands upon the left that the just person cannot be moved, if we know that the happiness in
our own hearts is above and beyond anything else and this happiness is not just plain humor, this
is another point we've got to understand the word happiness, the way it is understood by the
Chinese it should happeness is actually godliness it is the individual who has found the joy that is in
deity itself, deity is a symbol of a radiant fulfillment, God is that which cannot have misery because
in itself it is all that is good, and all it is not good is simply no adjustment of circumstances,
happiness then is not just fulfilling of appetites, it is the fulfilling of aspirations, it is the individual
living as nearly as he can live the life of the divine, this is however not reviewed or considered as
some form of penance it is not a going off into some distant monastery for the rest of our lives, the
happiness of God is the joy of living itself, the joy of the song of the bird, the joy of the morning
and the evening, the sound of the rustle of the woods and the XXTran wood in the trees, all these
things are the happiness of nature in a strange way nature is forever smiling and man is forever
groaning, simply because he cannot have everything he wants and yet actually if he doesn't if he
didn't make his mistake he would realize that he already has everything that he wants, but he does
not know how to use it he does not know how to clean it and he does not know what to do with it
so he hurts himself with it every time it comes his way,

so the happiness problem is really one of the joy of life itself, a deep fulfillment based upon a
perfect faith, the faith of a happy child is not yet become subject to worries, man has been subject
to worry can't be a child again, he can no longer be chil but he cannnot really rise above his
worries,

and thereby in this way become child right in the spiritual sense of that term,

so we're always our happiness tree just to get away from a lot of nagging and fussing and fuming
briefs and beefs that seem to make up our daily lives, actually in this land where we live now most
people live better than they ever had before and in spite of the mistakes that we make and we
make plenty of them most everyone in the world would like to be here because of the plenty
privileges we have, now when they get here they are happy, but the moment they get here and
are happy they spoil it for themselves,

time after time these people begin to be unhappy because the achievements that they've made
are not enough they are here they will be able to live here but then comes the problem how long
will it take to be a millionaire, right back to the same old problem again, that the fulfillment of
ambition is regarded as happiness, but it really it is the fulfillment of aspiration, it is not what we
have but what we become, that is the clue to happiness that is real and this is the type of
happiness we're still fighting for and not too successful in finding,
51:31

now your happiness tree in the Zen function also is a matter more or less of visualization, so in a
way we can have a kind of mandala that represents our happiness tree, now we can have some
special thing or some special picture or something of that nature, or else simply have it in the
mind, but the mind that we're looking for is a beautiful internal life of God in which all values are
beautiful so we can look out at the valleys and the fields around us and see in them the outer
symbol of our own happiness tree,

we can see all the flowers in the fields and then realize whether we know it or not that there is a
flower there of a certain sense a certain color, a certain shape that is equal to and associated with
one of the stars in the sky, there is many stars in the ground as there are in the sky, each of these
flowers is fulfilling its own destiny, it is useless to save the other ones our prayer than the red ones
they're not, and they're still *Betty that do not have any blossom at all that are the most perfectly
shaped and formed and the most useful of all, so we can't say that they all have to be alike all the
same size or of the same sense, each of these things that grows is a life in itself and whether we
know it or not each of these things is a medicine for the healing of the nation's, out of them out of
the valley and out of the fields will come ultimately most of the medications necessary for the
solution of all human health problems,

these beautiful things are the beautiful necessities of life, they are the source of practically all of
the securities that are valuable to us, it never becomes necessary to say I don't like the blue ones
or to say that I think the tall ones are prettier than the short ones, these are differences which are
perfectly proper because each of these plants is itself a happiness tree, it is doing that which is the
fulfillment of itself, man apparently is the one creature that can go against his own fulfillment,

the beautiful flowers and trees are beautiful because they simply fulfill their purpose, they are
beautiful because they are happy probably without knowing what happiness is, what happened is
in the strange way is fulfillment, it is being the thing you're supposed to be, it's doing the thing
you're supposed to do, and to serve the cause that you're supposed to cause they'll serve, Luther
banker bank maybe the number of the idea is very firmly, he spoke about the training of the
human plant how the children should be taught to recognize the wisdom of nature's laws about
growth, about things being forever fulfilling and that fulfillment in all cases results in the leaf, and
the tree, and the bud, and the blossom finally bearing the fruit for each thing in its own way must
carry the seeds of its own eternity,
so each one of these plants is fulfilling something and it fulfills because it can't say I don't like it or
it can't say I want to be more like one of the other plants, there is no comparisons in these things
in nature all things of doing what is best for them and this if we can get any to our own
consciousness that each one of us has a potential plant, a natural inbuilt, a reality which says
exactly what will make us happy and help us to fulfill the purpose for which we were intended,

many people probably already sense that such a plan exists but do not have quite the courage to
live by it they are aware that they are here for some reason so there is nothing more miserable
than a person without a reason for existence and there is no proof that nature will tolerate
anything there has no reason for existence, we are here because there is a reason, and for the
individual the reason is the improvement of self and the improvement of self must be
accompanied by a definite improvement of disposition, the individual cannot grow naturally until
he can grow happily and little by little many of the problems that we face today could be cured by
a different mental approach to life, we know definitely on the levels of psychology of various kinds
the disposition is closely related to infirmity, the individual has a happiness tree and it has it in
good condition and it might almost end up a *Sequoia you might go on indefinitely and there are
much there are many discussions now that it wouldn't be too much more trouble to get the world
into condition where the average length of life would exceed a century, we at least would have a
little longer start time perhaps to be miserable but nature probably won't let us have that extra
time if we can't use it for anything better than misery, we have no reason to be alive if these days
that we have are not blessed additions to our purposes for existence,

so it would be very easy to imagine that the happiness factor would as the well most of the
oriental positions the Chinese the Japanese the Kohli and even the Hindu doctors, all make a great
emphasis upon mood, upon the attitude of the person, and even in modern medicine we know
that a person with a bad attitude is a bad risk if there's anything seriously wrong with them, the
happiness tree would leave the individual mentally emotionally normal, even if the body had an
affliction of some kind, and that the inner life healthy there is a much greater probability that the
outer life will restart respond to treatment, if the inner life goes bad then there is very little to
support anything that can be done by the physician from the outside, healing like all other virtues
of life must begin in the self, it must be something in which we use the faculties that we know as
wisely as we can, now no one knows everything, no one is perfect and everything, therefore the
problem of simply taking an attitude and saying this will cure everything simply isn't true, but
there has to be some kind of a broad pattern of purpose, and I think the old Asiatic people with
the idea of the tree did very well, use the tree a ideal,

in the first edition of the King James Bible 1611, we find the tree or genealogy of Adam takes up an
entire page, respond all of the descendants of all of Adam arising out of a tree is planted in ours
heart, and it is a symbol of the genealogical tree of mankind every science has its trees, trees of
mathematics, trees of alphabets, trees of astronomy, it has all kinds of diagrams which state tree
form, the tree of heraldry for families, the tree of the elements and science, all these things can be
classified and organized in the forms of trees, the reason being that each diffused function arises
from a single root and most of the things we see above-ground are branches, but the root is
concealed and this is true also of the great mystery of life itself we see all kinds of living things
during all kinds of living things but the root that is the cause remains unknown,

so out of the unknown comes forth a variety of known things and out of the unknown mystery of
the depth of our own consciousness comes patterns arrangements and lawful designs which can
be of service to us, the mind is intended to put plans in order it is presumed that it is going to act
as a disciplinarian, now we train the mind not to do this, we train the mind simply to be a
computer for our own convenience, we train the mind never they interfere with our personal
feelings attitudes or ambitions, we want the mind to help us to do what we want to do whether it
is right or wrong, Buddha was one of the first to point out therefore that the mind is the Slayer of
the real, none of its natural Authority the mind is perfectly good a perfectly wonderful
indispensable part of our economy, but by the time we have Mistrained it by the time we have
bound it as a slave to our own personal ambitions and appetites it is an enemy, it is a fallen angel,
instead of a luminous spirit of light,

so each person has to more or less get control of this mental structure and plan something plan if
it's only for a few days or a few years the plan can be made to do something worthwhile, and the
first type of thing you have to have I think is out of the mind there will come a discipline, but the
reason motive and cause of the discipline is deeper than the mind, this tree of the happiness has a
mental stem stalk and branches but the life in that tree is deeper even than that, but the true lives
finally because of the love that flows through it, the root the invisible root of the tree of life is love,
and it is this there flowing through it makes all the rest possible, therefore if we can't do anything
at the moment in the form of a grand Reformation are one of our first jobs can be to recover from
all kinds of animosities and antipathies, this doesn't mean we have to fall on anyone's neck but it
does mean that we should have loving relationships in consciousness, that we should be glad
when other people succeed, that we should happy be happy when other people have better days
that we should enjoy the virtues of others and not be jealous of them, and that in all the various
emotions of life that we are grateful for life itself, grateful for the people we know, grateful for the
world as we know it ,and realize that it's up to us to do something with, it if we therefore have at
the base of all our relations an unselfish sense of unity of life that we are all actually when the last
analysis each one of us is a little bud on the happiness tree,

there is one great tree of humanity all of the various races, nations, languages, sex, cults and
creeds, are one vast (steem-stand), the one that one like mr. per banks famous tree that grew all
majors a fruit, he had a year in the Santa Rosa he had a tree in his front yard on which he had
grafted five different fruits, so he call most felt that he had gotten up with the Bible but in any
event one by one cause or another we are all one tree, the tree of life, and this tree of life in the in
the Bible goes from the north are another Tree of Life in Kershaw's mark a from North which is
another Latin study of the subject, The Tree of Life rises out of the heart of Adam, but this tree of
humanity makes us all one people, and the problem to try to find out how to make this a reality,
now we can't make other people agree with us about this we can't make them all say we think
you're wonderful, many of them will probably say you just have sense enough to hate people, this
isn't the problem, the real problem is in yourself have you conquered these negative attitudes, in
yourself can you say fairly, honestly, and honorably that you are without prejudice, that you
recognize all persons according to their merits, and not according to any other factor, and that
having no animosities and no antagonisms you can live in harmony with whatever situation arises,
this does not necessarily mean you to have to break any social rules, or to do something that will
bring unpleasant condemnation the primary purpose in your own heart is to be free from those
basic attitudes which can break out into antagonisms without a moment's notice,

if within yourself there is a placidity you also have the best chance for judgment that there is, no
one who is in an emotional space can think straight, the old stain was and that no parent to punish
a child is the parent themselves is mad or angry, never try to correct a situation with hate, hate
cannot be cured by hate and hate as an authority generates hate, therefore in all of these
problems your problem of your happiness tree put the quietude upon the dissatisfactions of life,
also it is an open door to a part of your own internal that you may not never have met when you
are a complete peace with the world you are also at peace with yourself, and when you are peace
with yourself the door opens into a larger in a lie than we have ever experienced up to the present
time,

peace is the road of growth, it is the road that leads to the integrity's of life, it is by peace and
peace alone that we have the contemplation of realities, it is only in peace that we can relax into
the reality of the divine, we cannot take our hatreds to heaven, we cannot take them anywhere
except to the hospital or the cemetery in the meantime the problem always is that in the
happiness tree we are no longer bound to anything, the it doesn't mean we have nothing you are
not happy because you give it away, you're not happy because you keep it, you are only happy
because in your own soul unconsciousness you know that what you are doing with what you have
is best for all concerns,

the accomplishment of a non selfish understanding which is also disciplined by intelligence and
internal judgment all these factors gradually enable you to like yourself, you can get over the
tendency of dissatisfaction with your own nature, you can be sure for once and for all that you are
the person you really want to be, and having accomplished this and everyone recognized this you
can go out in a bamboo grove and sit in peace with all mankind, the Chinese have as I've
mentioned before they saying that in ancient days when there were sages of the in the earth the
wise slept without dreams, now a dream in most cases in a psychological description of something,
dreams are things that come to those who cannot completely relax, who are not free from internal
pressure, the pressure is locked so tightly that you can't do anything with it in the daytime, but
when the willpower lets go then these patterns break through and produce a series of neurotic or
abnormal symbols, if you have your happiness tree and you go to sleep under it you will sleep
without dreams, you will wait in a world that is fair and happy and the shadows of fears and so
forth will not be there,

the demonology in witchcraft of the Middle Ages was very largely if a dream and nightmare
phenomenon, it was individuals who in what they thought were trances or in somnambulism had
terrible it's horrible experiences and these poor people were taken out and burned at the stake
without ever knowing why, however having any understanding of the subject, actually all of this
witchcraft is simply the fact that you haven't got the roots of your happiness tree, you have not a
solid foundation of integritys, if you have you will not be shaken off by some symbolic
circumstance, the temptations that lead most people to misery have no effect upon the person
who is want 'less, who no longer desires these things, but is happy in the full development of his
own internal resources,

and the last word before we get through this human civilization we're going to come to the
inevitable conclusion that we are not all here to be rich, we are not all here to conquer somebody
else, we're not all here to vote for this candidate or against that candidate, and we're not all out to
make as much we as we can about of everything that we do and shadi our goods to do it, we are
here to be happy, and until we are happy we can use these false satisfactions of appetites, but
when we are trying to be happy the wrong way the world just gets into further difficulties, and if
we try to get happy the wrong way we will ultimately tear down civilization entirely,

happiness is not any of these gratifications, the happiness is a fulfillment, it is the individual being
all they ought to be, that the human being has found the real purpose of existence, and he never
knows what the purpose is until he is able to say the real purpose of being here is to get
something or to achieve something which I can take with me when I go, nothing that has to be left
behind is worth dishonesty to accumulate, and the only thing that we can store up in heaven is the
treasure of our integrities, the treasure of the good things we have done, the happiness we have
had, and the happiness we have shared, so if we do these things and do them well then we will
enjoy properly the blessings of being able to sit down quietly under our happiness tree and see the
proper proportion and arrangement of the divine purpose, if we do that we will all be healthier,
there'll be fewer crimes, to be fewer narcotic addicts, fewer divorces, and fewer pressures and
tensions that arise simply from the fact that the individual has no foundation within himself, he
has to have the root of his happiness tree set in his own soul, when he does that and takes care of
the tree he will find that it will have a happy blessed and useful life,