Are Buddhists always happy?

I was surfing reddit.com the other day found this Venn diagram:

It’s based on Google’s search as can be seen to the left. And that got me to thinking, why do people think Buddhists are always happy?

I blame this guy:

His name is Tenzin Gyatso, better known as the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism (kind of like the Pope to Catholics). A Google image search will turn up ZERO pictures of this guy with anything but a smile on his face.

I think people believe Buddhists are always happy because when thinking about Buddhists, people think about monastics. As in, live in a monastery and protected from the pressures of everyday life. Sure, if we could all just focus on our spiritual practice and not have to worry about anything else, we’d all be smiling too.
People also assume that all Buddhists are somehow magically endowed with calm and peace of mind. What people fail to realize is there are very few of those Buddhists around. Most of us struggle through life like everyone else. We have to deal with job pressure, family life, mortgages, braces, flat tires, traffic, etc. And like everyone else, we deal with those things in varying degrees of calm.

Psst: a secret. Buddhists are human. Buddhists have emotions. Buddhists are not always happy.

That's going to leave a mark

So I was doing what I do best (wasting time on the internet) when I stumbled across this blog entry from World of Technology. Although first reported last year, this has been making the news aggregate rounds again.

It’s about a Buddhist monk that has prayed in the same exact spot for the last twenty years. If that isn’t enough, he has done up to 3,000 prayers a day. He has done this so many times in the same spot that his footprints are now worn into the wood floor. The Venerable Hua Chi has definitely left his mark, literally.

When you look at your footprint, what mark will be left?

The source story courtesy The Buddhist Channel

What's in a name?

As human beings, we love to label things. We are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist. But that isn't enough so we have Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Anglican, Southern Baptist, Episcopalian, Orthodox, Conservative, Re-constructionist, Theravada, Mahayana, etc. We get all wrapped up these labels because we feel we need to identify with a group.

So for my first official blog entry, I'll answer the question: "what's in a name?" and I'll do it courtesy of Belief.net's Belief-O-Matic. The BoM is a great quiz that can be eerily accurate. What it does is analyze your answers and determine which belief system most closely matches your answers. Then, just for fun, it gives you the next twenty-six matches as well. Yes, twenty-six.

Here are my results:

1.	Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.	Theravada Buddhism (88%)
3.	Mahayana Buddhism (84%)
4.	Neo-Pagan (84%)
5.	New Age (76%)
6.	Liberal Quakers (73%)
7.	Secular Humanism (69%)
8.	Hinduism (69%)
9.	Sikhism (64%)
10.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (63%)
11.	Taoism (61%)
12.	Jainism (60%)
13.	New Thought (54%)
14.	Scientology (50%)
15.	Reform Judaism (49%)
16.	Nontheist (46%)
17.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (36%)
18.	Orthodox Quaker (35%)
19.	Orthodox Judaism (26%)
20.	Baha'i Faith (25%)
21.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (22%)
22.	Seventh Day Adventist (18%)
23.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (16%)
24.	Eastern Orthodox (14%)
25.	Islam (14%)
26.	Roman Catholic (14%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (10%)

 As anyone can tell from the name of the blog, I self identify as a Buddhist. I actually refer to myself as a Theravada/Soto Zen Buddhist with Taoist tendencies. But Buddhism is not my first result according to the BoM, Taosim doesn't rate the Top Ten, and I certainly do not consider myself New Age.

So, what's in a name?