After listening to the Youtube video that Beth brought in (posted below) by the Buddhist nun Anuttara our group had a lively discussion. Many thoughts from our members on suffering and happiness. Such as “Even joy is suffering because it is impermanent.” To which Rob added “Back in the dark ages there was so much suffering and death that Christianity had to invent heaven to create the hope of happiness. Being shocked that we are not happy is relatively resent. Happiness and suffering are both impermanent and can be good. We don’t want to live forever! Just wait for the next moment to arrive and things will change.” Suffering is also called Dukka in Pali, which means unsatisfactoryness, or “putting up with things you don’t want or not getting what you do want”, Dave reminded us. Brendan added that “we are all searching for the perfect place and in reality, the closest we can get to the perfect place is realizing that it doesn’t exist. The closest to perfect is in the present moment.” Jen added that “you can’t pursue happiness, it just happens” Rachel spoke of responding to complex situations with skillful or unskillful means is sometimes not that clear cut and often is a combination of many motivations. To which Mike commented “I can’t be skillful with anyone in this room if I can’t be skillful with myself.” Simply put, Steven added “Compassion and kindness take more effort. People so easily hate”. One thing we all agreed on was that we are jealous of Ali Kat's Facebook photos of her trip out west and miss her presence in the group!