Hi Everybody,
Brilliantly beautiful spring day today. Just a complete joy to be out in the park early this morning with Gatsby...and huge gratitude for the pleasure of being alive. Mind you I had done an hours daimoku before I left the house...that might have had something to do with it!
This episode really only makes sense if it's read in conjunction with Blog 21. We're right at the end of the chapter on happiness and in 21 we raised the issue that is so relevant in today's ultra materialist, consumerist, acquisitive culture...the belief that we can buy it!! So we talked about the materialist dead end, and induced dissatisfaction and the widespread modern syndrome of reference anxiety. All good sociological stuff. Today we ask the question...what does Buddhism have to say about it?
What does Buddhism have to say to help us re-balance ourselves in the face of this constant materialist onslaught that affects all of us, and can deeply undermine our sense of welf worth? Nichiren Buddhism makes it clear right from the start tha tit's not about rejecting material possessions. It's not about self-denial, or giving things up, since that of itself, doesn't achieve anything. Nichiren Buddhism fully embraces both the material and the spiritual dimensions of our life, since both are clearly important to us. The absolute key it argues to establishing a durable sense of well-being is awareness. Self-awareness. Recognising the situation for what it really is, seeing the threat to our stability, and understanding that we need to establish a meaningful balance.
So for example, in taking up the practice people are positively encouraged to chant for, and of course to take action for, whatever it is they believe they need to achieve full and fulfillingn lives. And that might certainly include material things from a better income and financial security for example, to a better home, and everything in between. Why? Because they are an integral and important part of all our lives and can't simply be left out. But undoubtedly as we continue with the practice it radically changes our perspective. It puts the constant wanting of things into a broader, deeper, whole-life context.
While acquiring new things can undoubtedly be an extremely pleasurable experience...and why shouldn't it be indeed...it cannot be the basis for the solid, lasting, resilient sense of well-being that we all seek. The pleasure in new possessions soon wears off, very soon in fact, and the nonly way to re-ignite that sort of pleasure is to get out ther eagain in a fresh bout of retail therapy. We've all been at least some way down that road. Look at the level of global credit card debt that was exposed in the crash of 2008. All we need we repeatedly persuade ourselves, is that something else in the showroom window or the shopping mall...andwe'll be really truly happy. promise. And then somethingelse catches our attention...and on and on.
Since it lies at the root of a great deal of self-inflicted pain and suffering...and that's a key point to note, it is self-inflicted, it is our choice...Nichiren Buddhism considers it important enough to flag it up for us, by giving this itch-to-acquire-more -stuff a name. it's called the life state of Hunger.( see appendix A ) Basically this is a state of more or less constant, restless dissatisfaction with our lives, because we convince ourselves that our happiness lies in having something, or experiencing something, that is just out of our reach. and in this life state there's always something that is just out of our reach. This restless dissatisfaction is not limited of course to material things, it reaches out into all the fields of human activity you can think of. from the desire for particular relationships or partners, to the desire for just a bit more wealth than we happen to have, or status or fame, and on to regaining youth or beauty through plastic surgery. There's always something to want. And it's by no means uncommon for people in this life state to fix their gaze on one thing after another in their environment, in the sure and certain knowledge...each time...that this will satisfy their deep hunger, and bring them the happiness that has so far eluded them.
The extraordinary thing...and I use that phrase advisedly because it is I think genuinely surprising...that modern psychology recognises something very similar indeed to the Buddhist life state we've just been talkingn about. The term it uses to describe it is ' hedonic adaptation.' Hedonic comes from the greek root that means pleasure. Adaptation speaks for itself. So put simply this somewhat esoteric phrase means that we adopt with astonishing speed to new stuff, to any new material goods that we acquire. They simply become the new norm. As one psychologist puts it;
' The things that we get used to most easily and most take for granted are our material possessions- our car, our house. Advertisers understand this and invire us to ' feed our addiction' with more and more spending. '
But the key point is that the acquisition changes nothing in terms of how we feel in the depths of our lives. Nothing changes in terms of our fundamental sense of well-being. So whatever external, material thing we desire in the belief that it will bring us greater happiness, however much we are convinced that we need it, however profoundly life-changing it might seem when we desire it, and indeed when we initially acquire it, they turn out to be not so life-changing at all. Indeed not at all.
There's no question that can be a very difficult lesson for us to take on board. We are so powerfully attached to the idea that these kinds of acquisitions will make us so much happier. But the Buddhist wisdom, and now the body of research to the contrary, should give us pause.
So hedonic adaptation would seem to be the modern psychological explanation for a factor in our lives that Buddhism has been talking about for so long, namely that the external circumstances of our lives, or changes in those circumsatnces, even if on the surface they are quite substantial, have a remarkably small impact on our enduring, long-term sense of well-being. It is indeed a delusion to believe that deep-seated happiness can be acquired in this way, externally as it were, as a result of some possession. Any possession.'
Enough I think for today. That debate about whether or not we can buy happiness into our lives has of course been going on for centuries, and it's still as tough as ever to take on board isn't it? Because we all want so much stuff that we see around us all the time. But if we can really grasp the truth of it; the sheer destructiveness of the life state of Hunger, and the powerful reality of hedonic adaptation...then it's totally life-changing and immensely liberating. Suddenly we're released from everlasting wanting.
See you on Saturday.
William
No comments:
Post a Comment