my buddhist blog number 65

Hi Everybody,

What we've been doing over the past 6 to 7 episodes is to look at the kind of understanding and learning that has come out of a huge amount of sociological and psychological research over the past ten to fifteen years say, about the qualities and the behaviours that help us to build a meaningful and satisfying and creative life, for ourselves and those around us. So it's not remote and academic stuff. it's real and everyday, and affects every one of us. In fact it's worth pausing I think, to enable us to be absolutely clear what we have here. We have modern social scientists, defining in great detail, the kinds of values, the kinds of choices, the kinds of behaviour that they now have not the slightest doubt, can enhance and improve people's lives. They also make it clear that their work represents a very considerable addition to our understanding of what it is that makes people feel good about their own lives, and what kinds of values and modes of behaviour help people and societies work harmoniously and creatively together.

And that's what we all want don't we, when it comes down to, it? We want to live in peaceful, cooperative and supportive societies, in which people genuinely care about what happens to their neighbour, and fully respect the lives of others.

The key point I would want to make, indeed then key reason for looking at this work, is the sheer extent of the overlap, the similarities and the echoes between what buddhism has been teaching for so long, and the findings of these modern sociologists and psychologists. As I've said before, we shouldn't seek to adopt the research as a sort of scientific scaffolding around any particular Buddhist perception, because it patentlky isn't.

What the research does it seems to me however, is to open up a whole series of immensely illuminating and interesting new perspectives, when we are discussing things of the very greatest moment to all of us: what do we really mean when we are talking about happiness in this life, or about creating value in our relationships? Or when we are trying to answer that profound question, how should I live?

It can only be immensely heartening, immensely confirming I suggest, to any practising Buddhist, to learn that the kinds of answers that modern sociologists are coming up with, are so close to the kinds of values and principles and modes of behaviour that lie at the very heart of a Buddhist approach to life.

That's enough for today I think.
Thanks so much for reading it.
If you know any one else who might be interested it would be great if you could bounce it on.
And if you do you have my heartfelt gratitude.

See you next time around.
William
The case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and can be downloaded from Kindle, as can my other books, The Reluctant Buddhist and Buddhism and the Science of Happiness, in English and Spanish.