Saturday 17 December 2016

my Buddhist blog number 160

Hi Everybody,
We ended the last episode with some words from a very wise Buddhist teacher who put it to me once that if we think in terms of pursuing happiness in some way then we are very much on the wrong track. Where do we start? In which direction do we run? We come much closer to it he argued if we think of happiness as a sort of by-product, a quality that comes into our lives when we take action to create value in some way, particularly in ways that have beneficial effects in other people's lives.

It's fascinating to find that view echoed directly, even down to the choice of words, by a modern psychologist, when she writes in her recent book, The How of Happiness;

' ...even the familiar phrase ' pursuit of happiness ' implies that happiness is an object that one has to chase or discover...I prefer to think of ' creation' or ' construction' of happiness because research shows that it's in our power to fashion it for ourselves.'

So we are getting a closer fix on what we mean when we use this happiness word aren't we? It's certainly not just forcing ourselves to be cheerful regardless of what is going on. We don't get much joy if we try to chase it. And it doesn't just happen to us as a result of good fortune.

The kind of durable, deep-seated, and above all resilient well-being that we a re talking about can't simply be dependent upon the play of external events. This happens and we like it...and we're happy. That happens and we don't like it...and we're unhappy! A bit like a cork in a swell. Now up, now down, dependent upon what comes our way.

It can only come, we now understand, from one place, it has to come from within. We have to make it, through the values that we hold, and the choices that we make, and the kind of value-creating actions and responses that we fold into our lives.

Enough for today.
Thanks for reading.
Back next week asking the question...can we buy happiness?
See you then I hope.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle

Monday 12 December 2016

MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 158

Hi Everybody,

We're in the middle of this chapter that is exploring the nature of happiness, which Buddhism goes so far as to describe as the ultimate motivator in human life no less. And we've reached the point where we're looking at two fundamental qualities that are deeply interwoven into the Buddhist understanding of well-being, both of which seem to be equally well borne out by what the social scientists tell us they have learned more recently.

So one is that well-being, happiness if you will doesn't exist just in our own heads so to speak, although we commonly believe that to be the case. We evolved very much as members of a group. That basically is why we have been so successful as a species, and we are in our deepest nature very much gregarious animals. We need strong relationships. Our inner sense of well-being is generated essentially through the nature of the relationships we establish with the world around us, from the basic pleasure we take in our environment through to the experience of lasting and fulfilling and harmonious relationships at all levels in our lives. When we experience them they strengthen and reinforce our creative energies so that we feel liberated in a sense, and we find that we can achieve so much more in our outward lives. When those relationships break down for whatever reason, the effects can be devastating in all areas of our life, not simply those associated with the relationship. We are not only less happy, we operate as individuals under stress, out of harmony with ourselves and our environment, and our performance is greatly reduced.

The second understanding, no less profound, is that our own well-being is not in someone else's gift, we have to make it for ourselves. As Daisaku Ikeda has expressed it for example,
' Happiness is not something that someone else like a lover can give to us, we have to achieve it for ourselves.'

That is undeniably a hard lesson to learn, because our wants are so many and because we commonly believe that our personal happiness is indeed dependent upon our partner for example, or our child, or our job. Or on earning a million pounds. Whereas Buddhism tells us that we have to go out and make our happiness for ourselves out of our own determination and action. Just as Stephen Post was asked ( in an earlier blog!) by his perceptive mother to take some action, to go out and help someone to lift him out of his bad mood.

And that phrase ' take some action ' carries a profound truth of its own. As one utterly practical Buddhist teacher put it to me once, if we think or pursuing happiness in some way, then we are very much on the wrong track, because none of us knows how to achieve that. Where do we start? In which direction do we run? We come much closer to it he argued, if we think of happiness as a sort of by-product, a quality that comes into our lives when we take some action to create value in some way, particularly in ways that have beneficial effects in other people's lives.'

Nuff said for today I think.
I'll be back at the end of the week.
Hope to see you then.
Best wishes.
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.