A Weekend with Teacher Jianshe Part 2 – Happiness from Nothing

During the August workshop Teacher Jianshe focused an afternoon on the subject of happiness. When he introduced this subject the studio felt full of subtle energy and due to our deep relaxation and expanded awareness it felt effortless to absorb this wisdom:

“Happiness from nothing lasts forever.” –Teacher Jianshe

 Jianshe went on to describe that our natural physical state is relaxed. Our natural emotional state is calmness. Our natural mental state is clarity. When all these states occur together we call it happiness.

We long to capture happiness, making it a permanent, never-ending experience. The longing creates a desire for the present to be different. This erases present time awareness and our happiness becomes misplaced.

When Jianshe remarked that Westerners “cherish their emotions,” many chuckles were heard, some perhaps sheepish. This ‘cherishing’ gets in the way of our happiness.

Even though our emotions are relentlessly demanding our attention, we can simply allow them to be experienced as part of this moment. Jianshe explained that when we “do nothing, the state of happiness is always present.” In these moments of experiencing nothing, a sense of ‘foreverness’ within the happiness is realized.

To support us in finding greater depth from the lectures Jianshe led  movement practices throughout the day. Many of us had tangible experiences of integrating the ideas he shared such as a deepening awareness of happiness permeating into our physical, mental and emotional levels of being.

Qigong and many wisdom traditions encourage us to stop identifying with our personal dramas and simply let them be. This generates abundant space to cultivate more generosity, compassion, and kindness for ourselves and others.

Teacher Jianshe inspired us to take time to pause, relax and just be in the unfolding of each moment. When we do it becomes effortless to experience happiness.

Next month Part 3.