Hi Everybody
I've had two pieces of news recently that really, well lift the spirit. One is that the Spanish version of Buddhism and the Science of Happiness is about to be published. It has the extraordinary title in Spanish of El Budismo y la ciencia de la felicidad! It's a real squeeze do get it on the cover. And the other is that there ha sbeen a repeat order from the Dominican Republic for the Spanish version of The Reluctant Buddhist. The Dominican Republic. I would never have thought in my wildest dream as I was sitting in my study writing those books that they would eventually reach out to so many corners of the world. It's difficult to express just how much that means to me. It is immensely humbling.
I had intended to get on to Chapter Four today, which opens up the discussiuonm of what we really mean by happiness in Buddhism, but I think it's worthwhile rounding off Chapter Three because it does make a couple of important points. So here goes;
' There is no question, countless people in the western world today will attest to the fact that the combination of self-belief and the determination to achieve personal change that can be generated through the daily discipline of Nichiren's practice, can be a very powerful beneficial and life-changing force. And once again it is quite surprising, and very affirming to find similar views expressed in very similar terms in modern,secular, scientific literature; tha tis it very much a question of self-belief and of effort and determination. As one psychoogist among many has expressed it for example;
'...enjoying a real increase in your own happiness is in fact attainable, if you are prepared to do the work. If you make a decision to be happier in your life- and you understand that this is a weighty decision that will take effort, commitment, and a certain amount of discipline-know that you can make it happen.'
So it could be argued that the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is offering you the opportunity to put the claims that it makes to the test in your own life. Make the decision it says, summon up from within this self-belief, this determination that you are prepared to tackle the things about your life that you wish to change,...' exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study...' as Nichiren puts it, and observe the results in your own life, to see whether or not it delivers it's promise.
And that ' whether or not' is crucially important of course. Both options are wholly valid. It's not a practice that one could continue on the basis of someone else's belief. But basically that's the process that I went through some 20 odd years ago, with no small measure of doubt and scepticism as I've mentioned! But there's nothing wrong of course with a dash of healthy scepticism, or even a heavy dose of it. Scepticism is a great asker of difficult questions that demand answers. In the event, I've travelled, as I'm sure many others have before me, and since, from a profound scepticism, to an equally profound commitment to a practice that has brought immense value and joy into my life. And, I have not the slightest doubt, into the lives of those around me. People frequently ask me, ' where do you get your constantly positive spirit from?' I have only one answer, from the daily practice, the daily living, of Buddhism. '
That's it for today. Next time we move onto Chapter Four Buddhism and Happiness. Do we really need a discussion about the nature of happiness you might ask? it's such a slippery and elusive emotion to define, and so intensely subjective, that we're in grave danger, aren't we, of just going around in pointless circles? and in any case, however difficult it may be to pin down in a definition does that really make any difference? Isn't it very much like the taste of the strawberry, we may not be able to describe it, but we all know it well enough when we actually experience it.
But those arguments clearly cut both ways don't they? It's precisely because it is so slippery and elusive a term, that we might get a great deal out of even a brief discussion of what we really mean when we talk about happiness in this world. And personally I think there's a great virtue in being a bit tougher on ourselves, so that we take the time and the trouble to think our thoughts through more completely and set them down more precisely . Not least because this particular word is, in my view, in danger of being so immensely overused, that it's meaning become sgravely diluted. And I'm by no means alone. The renowned Martin Seligman for example, Professor of Psychology, one of the founding fathers of the growing school of positive psychology, is driven to exclaim in his latest book, that the word happiness...' is so overused that it has become almost meaningless....!'
There we have it! The reason for our discussion that begins in the next episode.
Thanks so mucnfor reading up to here.
See you next time.
William Woollard
The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon.
People frequently ask me, ' Wh
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