Hi Everybody,
Just the most beautiful spring-like day today, running in Richmond Park with Gatsby, just a hint of frost on the grass glinting in the sunlight. At the moment in my new book I'm writing about the interconnectedness of everything, trying to fit in the science and the Buddhism, and I felt it so strongly this morning, this being part of a coherent whole, me, my spirit and the colossal beauty of the world we inhabit. Some days so much stronger than others of course, but with the practice it is there underlying everything.
We are in the middle of this quite strenuous chapter on Buddhism and Money, and we've reached a sub-heading which reads,
The paradox at the heart of the western way of life.
That brings us directly to the vast range of studies that have been carried out over the past 20 years or so by the economists and sociologists and the remarakbale paradox that they have brought out into the light. In fact it is so counter-intuitive that I have no doubt that many of us will find it hard to swallow. But it helps if we stick strictly to the science, rather than our own instinctive and obviously personal response. The fact is that one of the earliest and most frequently repeated, and unquestionably one of the most surprising findings of this research is that wealth, how much money we earn is not a substantial factor in our basic sense of well-being. What the studies reveal is that once our main needs have been met...that ismof course a crucial proviso...then additional wealth seems to have a rapidly diminishing role to play in how we feel about our lives, until eventually it dies out altogether.
This conclusion has been described by one leading European sociologist as 'the paradox at the heart of western society.' Why paradox? Because it seems to be so completely out of step with our current immensely aggressive materialist consumerist society. Most of us in the western-way-of-life parts of the world, and beyond, are deeply conditioned to believe that much of our happiness, and what we describe as Success, with a capital S, lies in seeking greater financial wealth.
The plain fact is that we all expend very considerable amounts of time and energy throughout our lives in trying to achieve greater wealth. If we were asked the direct question, we all know that we want to be rich or richer don't we? Why? Because we all believe with absolute conviction, that although it may not solve every single one of the things that trouble us, it would certainly blow the vast majority of them out of sight. So we would be a lot happier...wouldn't we? And if I'm absolutely honest, as I sit here writing these words, having done all the research mind you into this issue, a big part of me wants to shout out the answer...' Yes! '
But the accurate answer to that question, and an answer coming from the social scientists remember, and from lots of research, not from some Buddhist text, comes out as a resounding negative. Listen to this for example, from a very eminent British economist;
' There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western Societies have got richer, their people have become no happier. This is no old wives' tale. It is a fact proven by many pieces of scientific research. We have good ways to measure how happy people are...and all the evidence suggests that on average people are no happier today than people were fifty years ago. Yet at the same time, average incomes have more than doubled. This paradox is equally true for the United Sates, Britain and Japan.'
Or this from a leading American sociologist;
' Over the past two decades in fact, an increasing body of social science and psychological research has shown that there is no significant relationship between how much money a person earns and whether he or she feels good about life. A TIME poll carrie dout in the US in December found that happiness tended to increase as income rose to $50,000. After that more income didn't have a dramatic effect. Edward Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, interviewed members of the Forbes 400, the richest Americans. he found the Forbes 400 were only a tiny bit happier than the public as a whole.'
' ...only a tine bit happier thann the public as whole!' What an extraordinarily revealing statement that is, because it reveals the sheer scale of the delusion...I can't think of a more appropriate word to describe it...that most of us carry around with us. If our sense of well-being were to increase in any way even slightly in-step with increasing wealth, as we fondly beleive, then these Forbes 400 people, the very richest Americans remember, should be permanently over the moon shouldn't they? Walking on air. Singin gin the rain. But the unlikely, the surprising, the oh-so-hard-to-believe truth is that they aren't. They are no happier it seems than the restof us, sitting on roughly average incomes. '
Well I enjoyed that. Hope you did, at least a bit.
I'll continue a bit more with this argument next time around.
I'm going off on hols next week. Windsurfing in Can Cun. can't wait. But I will try to get out one more episode before I go.
See you then,
William
PS Just another reminder. The Case for Buddhism can be bought on Amazon or downloaded on Kindle.
I'm really gratreful. I've had some really good comments from readers in theUS and UK and elsewhere.
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