Goodwill
April 06, 2024

Close your eyes, and think thoughts of goodwill. Goodwill is a wish for happiness—your own happiness and the happiness of others. We spread goodwill to ourselves to remind us of why we’re practicing: We want to find happiness. Everybody is looking for happiness, but we want to find a special kind of happiness, a happiness that doesn’t disappoint, a happiness that doesn’t change. This means we also have to look for happiness that’s harmless, because if our happiness harms other people, they’re not going to stand for it.

So, we try to have goodwill for everybody. We take that into consideration every time we say something, do something, or think something: “Is this going to harm anybody at all?” That doesn’t mean that we love everybody. After all, there are a lot of people out there who are not very lovable. Fortunately, the Buddha didn’t have to love everybody before he gained awakening, he just had to have goodwill. Goodwill translates into compassion for those who are suffering and empathetic joy for those who are happy.

But you have to stop and think: What does it mean for people to be happy? They have to happy because of their actions. They have to act skilfully. So when you’re extending thoughts of goodwill to other people, you’re basically saying, “May they understand the causes for true happiness and be willing and able to act on them.” That’s a thought you can have for anyone. Of course, you should also have it for yourself. You have to stop and think: “If I really have goodwill for myself, I have to act in ways that are skilful, too.”

So, if you have any resentments about what other people have done in the past, you have to let those resentments go, for your own sake. You don’t have to ask whether they deserve your goodwill. You deserve your goodwill: You can tell yourself that. You want your goodwill to be strong so that you can protect yourself from your unskillful thoughts, your unskillful words, your unskillful actions.

So the Buddha is not talking about love here. He’s talking, basically, about a wish for other beings to be happy. And, part of that wish is: “May they look after themselves with ease. May I look after myself with ease.” In other words, may we learn how to develop within ourselves the causes for true happiness.

When you have that thought in mind, then you meditate. Try to get the mind into concentration, because if you want to see your mind more clearly, you have to get it still. Otherwise, it’s just like stirring a pot on the stove. You stir and stir and stir, and as you keep on stirring, it’s hard to see what the individual ingredients in the pot are. But if you let the pot sit, and then you look into it when everything is still, then you can see, “Ah, there’s this. There are the mushrooms, there are the asparagus, there’s whatever.” Then you can decide whether you want asparagus in your meal. If you don’t, take it out. If the mushrooms are good, well, then encourage them.

In other words, if there are skillful thoughts, you want to learn how to encourage them. If there are unskillful thoughts, you want to let them go. You don’t just watch things coming and going, and accept whatever is coming and going. When something unskillful comes, you want to make sure that it doesn’t take over the mind. If something skillful is not there, you’ve got to find it. You’ve got the potential within yourself, so; you’ve got to find it and then develop it.

So, there’s work to be done in looking for happiness. It’s not just relaxing, not just taking your ease, not just “being without doing.” But it’s good work. When the Buddha talks about generosity, talks about virtue, talks about meditation, these are all good things to do, honorable things to do—things that you can be proud of, in that you’re looking for happiness in a way that harms no one at all, and it actually lifts the level of your mind. All too many pleasures in the world pull you down. But the happiness of meditation is a skill that lifts you up.

So, think these thoughts every day. They get you in the right frame of mind for living a life that really does lead you to your happiness and the happiness of other people around you.