my Buddhist blog number 170

Hi Everybody,
apologies. There's been a bit of a gap since the last episode. I've been tied up sorting stuff out with an Italian publisher who wants to take world rights on Buddhism and the Science of Happiness and The Case for Buddhism. To say that I'm totally blown away is a total understatement. It's amazing. Truly. A big publisher doing the Buddha's work. Can't keep the smile of my face.

Anyway, we're in the middle of this chapter on Buddhism and the problem paradox, which I have to say, on re-reading is quite good!!Well...there's some good stuff in it. .
So we pick up where we left off.
' Buddhism is good at dealing with problems, since it was actually born out of the realisation that the nature of human life is always tough and challenging and frequently involves considerable suffering. So that's the starting point if you like that Buddhism asks us to recognise, in setting our levels of expectation . We should expect it to be tough and challenging. So there is absolutely nothing to be gained, it argues, from railing at problems as they continue to occur in our lives, which we often do of course. ' Why is this happeningn to me? What have I done to deserve this? Or just as often, basing our hopes for happiness on some longed-for problem- free future. The key, Nichiren tells us, in his typically direct style, the key is really just to get on with living our lives;
' Though worldly troubles may arise, never let them disturb you. No one can avoid problems...' 

No one. Moreover Buddhism constantly reminds us that in our lives, everything begins with us. That may not sound on the face of it, to be a particularly ground-breaking idea. But is is remarkable how often this apparently obvious principle is ignored. It is our life in every sense. So if there's friction or frustration or difficulty coming at us from various directions, then, Buddhism argues, the place to look for the root cause is ...guess where....within our own life. That may be difficult for us to accept , very difficult. Indeed we may have to go through a huge internal struggle to accept it, but when you think about it even for a minute or two, that is the real meaning of taking responsibility for our life isn't it?

What is it about our behaviour, our thoughts, our words and actions that is giving rise to this difficulty? What subliminal signals are we giving off that trigger this response from our environment? How do we need to change in order to resolve this difficult issue? That may initially as I've said, be a very hard lesson to swallow. sometimes we can manage it. Sometimes we can't. We're only human after all. But when we can it carries with it immeasurably huge benefits that arise in no other way. Namely if we fully recognise and accept that the cause comes from within our own life, then so too does the remedy.

It lies within our grasp.

That's it for today.
See you next time.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism,is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 168

Hi Everybody,
beautiful spring we're having here in UK.
Right well we've launched out into this chapter called Buddhism and the Problem Paradox, and we've talked in 167 briefly about some of the strategies we normally employ towards problems in our lives, like ignoring them for example, very common. Or dumping them into someone else's lap, which again we all do a great deal. This isn't my problem we say, its theirs!!!

And if those strategies still don't block up all the crevices in our defences then we are often complicit in creating a kind of fiction that we are quite happy to share with one another. so although problems and crises and the anxieties and the suffering they bring, continue to swallow up a considerable portion of our energies, we make it quite clear to ourselves and everyone else that they are a completely abnormal exception to the normal flows and patterns of our life. No matter how frequently they occur or how disturbing they may be in derailing our lives, we persuade ourselves time and time again that as soon as this particular setback, hiccup, crisis or disaster has passed us by, our life will revert to its normal routine, untroubled state. Why? because the life state we've convinced ourselves we need to be happy, you know, the one without any hassle. you could say it is the idealised unreal life state that we're all pretty much addicted to.

:et's be clear, of course several of those strategies have their rightful place in our armoury. We haven't evolved them for nothing! No one for example would question the prudence of arranging whatever insulation we can, since we live in troubled times. and although the fiction strategy may not keep any actual problems at bay, it probably helps to lessen the anxiety those problems create. But the key question surely has to be, can this possibly be enough? Is this the best we can do?

And the reason that question is so relevant is that this is not some remote or theoretical issue is it? It is close up and very personal. We're talking about real life-time strategies here, that involve all of us, throughout all our lives. This is how we actually handle the daily detail of our lives. And we could certainly argue I think that learning how to deal with problems effectively has got to be one of the most important steps along the road to well-being. What can be more important? So we share a deep and common interest I suggest, in posing this question as to whether or not these strategies are adequate. Are they anywhere close to the best response that we can come up with? How in fact does Buddhism help us to answer that question?

Thanks for reading thus far.
See you next time.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and as a download on kindle.

my buddhist blog number 167

Hi Everybody,
New day. New chapter in UK's history, article 50 and all that. New Chapter in the book...Buddhism and the Problem Paradox.!! OK here we go.
' Man was born to troubles as the sparks fly upwards, Job tells us eternally in the Old Testament, but few of us if any are prepared to accept that as an accurate description of the reality of our lives. No way. We're simply not having it. No one wants pains or problems, or the anxiety and the tension and the stress that arise as they threaten to emerge in our lives. So the natural human response is to argue that since we can't stand them, we have to get rid of them! And that in fact is pretty much what we try to do. In our modern societies we spend huge amounts of time and money and energy and ingenuity in trying to create a defensive network to keep the challenging and the anxiety-creating side of life at bay. And where we aren't completely successful in the barrier-building business, as we can't be of course, we have evolved a whole series of secondary strategies to fill the gaps.

So we ignore them for example, or run away from them, in the hope that they will just go away or evaporate. The reality is of course that problems ignored have a very nasty habit of becoming problems magnified, so that what was once readily solvable, if only we'd had the courage to face up to it when it first emerged, can become something so big that it can overwhelm us and knock us over.

Or we very commonly dump the problem onto someone else. That is to say we mentally shift the blame or the responsibility onto someone or something outside ourselves, pointing to anything so long as it's not us, as the source of the current difficulty. If there are problems within a relationship for example, it's not our problem, it's clearly because the other half of the relationship has to change something about themselves in order to put things right. If there's trouble with the boss or colleagues at work it's bound to be because they are being totally obstinate or unreasonable or unfair. Everyone can see that. So we end up in a sort of impasse.Nothing changes, and the frustration or the friction keep on recurring, to the extent that it can lead to the break up of an otherwise fine relationship, or people being stuck in a state of tension or dissatisfaction at work.

We have all been there at some stage in our lives, and many times more than once.

So what can we do about it?
Watch this space.
See you next time hopefully,
Best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon in English and Spanish.
And as a download on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 166

Hi Everybody,
Beautiful spring day here in the UK. Blue skies. Warm west wind. Cherry blossom is out. So is the white hawthorne blossom in the hedgerows. Definitely springtime. We're in the middle of this chapter on Buddhism and happiness , and we've reached a sub-heading....who needs problems?

No one comes the answer! None of us wants problems. Not ever. Of course we know in our hearts that problems and difficulties and challenges and crises of one kind or another are part of the fabric of all our lives, and utterly inescapable. In that sense we are all in the same boat, however different our life circumstances might seem on the outside. But for some reason we cling to the belief, the deeply-held desire, that the problems and the pain and suffering they tend to bring with them, are the exception rather than the rule.

The research shows that very different people facing completely different sorts of problems, will use very similar language in explaining it away to themselves. ' This is not really how my life is,' we say to ourselves, ' I just have to get through this difficult phase I'm going through, and then my life will  straighten out and I'll get back to normal.'

We know that once we get over this rough patch we are unlucky enough to be going through at the moment, a tough time at work, or a financial crisis, or conflict in a relationship or whatever, then for sure, our life will return to its normal state of calm and equanimity. Because that's the life state we desire, a life state without problems!

The net result of that view of life is that happiness or well-being comes to be defined as the absence of problems. But of course, there is no such place. None of us knows anyone, not a single person, who lives such a life. The reality is that problems and challenges and difficulties just keep on coming pretty much all the time, in one area of our life or another. And given this view of life, it is little wonder that we have developed a whole series of ruses or strategies to try to deflect  the problems and the suffering we associate with them.

And that's where we go next, to look at what Buddhism has to tell us about living with the problems of life and how it is eminently possible for all of us to do that, without losing inner core of hope and optimism and well-being.

Hope to see you then.
Thanks for reading.
Best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

my Buddhist blog number 165

Hi Everybody,
 We're right in the middle of what I think is a really important chapter on Buddhism and Happiness, and we're picking up where we left off last time, answering the question ' can we buy it? ' And that leads us on a to a discussion of a key factor in all our lives that the psychologists call ' hedonic adaptation.' So here goes.

' So whatever external thing we desire in the belief that it will bring us significantly greater happiness, however much we convince ourselves that we need it, however profoundly life-changing  it might seem when we desire it, and indeed when we initially acquire it, turns out not to be so life changing after 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 profoundly attached to the idea that these kinds of acquisitions will make us so much happier. But the body of research to the contrary is very substantial indeed. Hedonic adaptation is real!

So what does that mean in terms of our ordinary daily life? Well it's clear that although we may well get immense pleasure and satisfaction, and indeed a burst of genuine rapture at the moment of acquisition, and for a while afterwards, all the research shows that the while is vanishingly brief! The rapid adaptation to the new acquisition, or the new circumstance is an integral part of the human psyche, and from then on we're back to where we were. Square one. The new whatever becomes very much a part of the ordinary fabric of our lives.

And I think there's very little doubt, if we search even briefly through our own experience, few of us would suggest that our fundamental sense of well-being, or happiness in our lives has been substantially altered by any new material acquisition. The new car, the new kitchen, would we really say tha tit has re-shaped our happiness. I think not.

So this hedonic adaptation would seem to be the modern psychological explanation for a factor that Buddhism has been talking about for so long, namely that the external possessions  in our lives, or changes in those possession, even if on the surface they are quite substantial, have in fact a remarkably small impact on our enduring sense of well-being. It can be a profoundly unhappy-making delusion to believe that enduring, deep-seated happiness can be acquired in this way, externally as it were, as a result of some possession. any possession.

We only have to give that a moment's reflection to see that it amounts to a prfoundly behaviour-changing, life-changing lesson.'

Plenty enough for one swallow.
Thanks for reading.
See you next week.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 164

Hi Everybody,
There's beena bit of a gap because Sarah is playing at the RSC in Stratford on Avon and I've spent a bit of time up there with her.Today's episode is about what Buddhism calls the life state of hunger, and what modern psychology calls hedonic adaptation. OK here goes.
Since it lies at the root of a great deal of self-inflicted pain and suffering...and that's the 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 stuff a name. It's called the life state of Hunger. 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 is nearly always something that is just out of our reach. This restless dissatisfaction is not limited of course to just material things. It reaches out to into all the fields of human activity you can think of, from the desire for particular relationships or partners to the desire for more wealth than we happen to have, or status or fame and on to regaining youth and beauty through plastic surgery say. There's always something to want or yearn for. 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 so far has just 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 what we have just been talking about. The term it uses to describe it is ' hedonic adapatation,'  Hedonic comes from the Greek word that means pleasure. Adaptation speaks for itself. So put simply this somewhat esoteric phrase means that we adapt with astonishing speed to new stuff., to any new material goods that we acquire. It simply becomes the new norm.

' 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 invite us to ' feed our addiction' with more and more spending.'

But the key point to note is that the new 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. '

Ok enough for today. Back at the end of the week with another episode.
Best wishes,
William
PS The case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and on Kindle.

my Buddhist blog number 163

Hi Everybody,
Had a busy time over the past few weeks. The great  news is that a  major Italian publisher wants to put out this book and an earlier one called Buddhism and the Science of Happiness in various formats, including paperback and audio. I have to say I'm totally blown away by getting such support, so  I've been busy getting the various bits and pieces to them.

If you've been following the previous episodes we're in the middle of the chapter on happiness and we're talking about the dilemma that often confronts us in modern society where we have often allowed who we are to somehow become synonymous with what we have.

So what does Nichiren Buddhism have to say to help us re-balance ourselves in the face of this constant materialist onslaught that can deeply undermine our sense of self worth? It makes it clear right from the start that it is not about rejecting material possession. It's not about denial, or giving things up, since that doesn't of itself achieve anything. Nichiren Buddhism fully embraces both the material and the spiritual aspects of life, because both are clearly important to us. The absolute key it argues, to establishing a durable sense of well-being is 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, people who take up this practice are encouraged to chant for, and of course to take action for whatever it is they believe they need to achieve full and fulfilling lives. And that might certainly include material things, from a better income and financial security for example, to a better house and everything in between. Such things are an integral 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 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 only way to re-ignite that sort of pleasure is to get out there again into a fresh bout of retail therapy! We've all been at least some way down that road. Just 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 shopping mall or the showroom window....and we'll be really trulyt happy. Promise.

And then something else catches our attention...and on and on.

We're into the world of what Buddhism calls Hunger sate, and modern psychology calls Hedonic adaptation.

And that's where we go next time.
See you then. Best wishes,
William
Tne Case for Buddhism is available from  Amazon and as a download on Kindle

my buddhist blog number 162

Hi Everybody,

We're in the middle of this chapter on Buddhism and Happiness and we've just been talking about what has become known as the ' materialist dead end'. That is to say the powerful external cause of inner discontent represented by all the ' stuff' that's on offer wherever we look. Retail therapy may well be therapeutic in the short run, but  the research clearly shows, it doesn't deliver the stable long term sense of well-being that we all seek. But that having been said we can't just blank it all off can we? The range of material possessions has never been greater, and with the instant global reach of film and TV and the internet, the circle of comparison that we are drawn into is virtually unlimited. The consequent potential for what we might call induced dissatisfaction with our lot is all the greater.

And it's important to note that it's not simply a matter of envy. Not at all. Positive psychology has even coined a phrase to describe the downward spiral into which it is all too easy for us to be drawn. It's called ' reference anxiety.' The emotional burden if you like of constantly trying to keep up with the material wealth we perceive so many other people as having...but not us! We have allowed who we are if you like, to somehow become synonymous with what we have.

So what does Nichiren Buddhism have to say that might help us rebalance ourselves in the face of this constant materialist onslaught that can so deeply undermine our sense of self-worth. Well it makes it clear right from the start that it's not about simply rejecting material possessions. It's not about denial or giving things up, since that doesn't of itself achieve anything. Nichiren Buddhism fully embraces both the material and the spiritual aspects of life, since both are clearly important to us. We all have both material and spiritual needs. The absolute key it argues to re-establishing a durable sense of well-being is 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.

And it's that balance that we go onto explore in the next episode.
Hope to see you then.
Best wishes,

William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon and as a download from Kindle

my buddhist blof 161

Hi Everybody,
We're in the middle of a discussion about the nature of happiness in the modern world and we've come to the question that we're bound to bump into sooner rather than later...what about buying it? We cover the complex issue of Buddhism and Money in chapter 11 but we can't leave this happiness discussion without at least touching upon the immense importance most of us attach to the role of money in any picture of happiness we paint for ourselves. It's bound to crop up in any modern discussion of what constitutes well-being. And if Buddhism is daily life...what does Buddhism have to say about it, to help us in our approach, and what kind of additional insights can the social scientists provide us with?

Edward Diener for example, from the University of Illinois, psychologist and eminent researcher in this field, is one among many who has written about the materialist dead end or what he calls the downside of today's vastly greater affluence. And there has been a huge amount of research by him and others that points to two key ways in which this has a profound effect in diminishing our sense of well-being, both of which I suggest, could sit quite comfortably in the middle of a Buddhist commentary about the suffering that can come from just....wanting things!

One is that there is so much to be hungered after in our modern society, so much more on display in glossy showrooms and shopping malls and supermarkets and so on, that it has become a powerful external cause of inner discontent. It's a bit like all those sweets and chocolates on display at the checkout queue that can cause children to kick up so much fuss. They want them because they can see them, and can't understand why they can't have them. In very much the same way people can experience a real sense of loss and deprivation and frustration because they can't possess, can't carry away more of the stuff that's on display. In no way is it difficult to empathise with that frustration. It rings absolutely true. Most of us have been there to some degree.
The second is related to the vast wave of media of all sorts that washes over all our lives these days. So we are all constantly being called upon to measure ourselves, who we are and what we have against an endless procession of supposed role models in film and television and countless life-style magazines who are presented as being highly successful and vastly better of and therefore by implication....so much happier!

The equation seems to go wholly unquestioned, success equals wealth equals happiness. Although of course we all know intellectually that that is sheer nonsense. There is no such simple connection, or indeed any connection. But emotionally it gets to us.

and that of course is precisely the way the modern marketing and advertising machine goes to work, playing with immense skill on our natural human tendency to compare ourselves with others, and therefore focus on what we haven't got, as opposed to what we have.

That is to say, it is another immensely powerful external cause of inner discontent.

Once again it's clear that Nichiren Daishonin was acutely aware of exactly this same human weakness when he highlights the futility and the intense suffering that can come from that sort of comparison itch. He writes,

' For example a poor man cannot earn a penny just by counting his neighbour's wealth, even if he does so night and day. '

OK enough said I think for one episode. Been very busy for past couple of weeks on a writing brief so missed a couple of episodes. I'll be back middle of the week tom pick up the argument.
Best wishes,
William

  

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

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.

my Buddhist blog number 158

Hi Everybody,
Beautiful autumn day again here in Kew. So beautiful as to be Spring -like in fact! We're in the middle of a chapter about Buddhism and happiness, and trying to illustrate that when Buddhism and indeed today's social scientists are talking about happiness they have in mind a much broader and deeper experience than might generally be thought. We ended the last episode for example by describing how this concept of happiness would certainly be strong enough to embrace the pains and the problems that we all commonly encounter and would empower us to look for the seeds of the positive in things that go wrong in our lives rather than being eaten up by the sense of loss or damage.

And both Buddhism  and today's social scientists would want to embrace several other dimensions that are difficult to wrapped up in the simple word happiness but that we would all freely recognise as central to a durable sense of well-being. Dimensions such as
- rich and positive relations with others
- a sense of accomplishment in our endeavours
- a sense of meaning and purpose in our activities, and let's not forget
- a sense of compassion and altruism

In his book Flourish psychologist Martin Seligman recounts for us a brief but very telling anecdote which goes as follows:

' My friend Stephen Post, Professor of Medical Humanities at Stony Brook tells a story about his mother. When he was a young boy and his mother saw that he was in a bad mood she would say, ' Stephen why don't you go out and help someone?' Empirically Ma Post's maxim has been put to rigorous test and we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.'

So a powerful life-lesson there in just half a dozen lines. Ma Post's natural wisdom he tells us, has been put to rigorous scientific test, and it reveals that showing compassion and altruism towards others produces the single most reliable increase in our sense of well-being. Evolutionary biologists have the devils own job to explain for us the evolutionary benefits of altruism and here we have a psychologist telling us that even the smallest acts of kindness and compassion towards others can have the most powerful effect on our personal sense of well-being.

But that simple human story illustrates two other fundamental qualities that are deeply interwoven into the Buddhist understanding of well-being, both of which seem to be born out by what the scientists tell us they have learned more recently.
We look at those next time.

Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 157

Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. We're in the middle of the chapter on Buddhism and happiness and we've reached the point where I'm suggesting that perhaps well-being is perhaps a more accurate term to describe what we're talking about. Why? Because in the modern idiom it clearly expresses a much broader and deeper and mnore solidly based emotion. On one recent occasion for example when I was talking to an audience of mainly businessmen about Buddhist values, the phrase,' happiness in the workplace got a noticeably cool and somewhat cynical reception. But as soon as I switched to well-being in the work place there was an immediate understanding of what I was talking about, a much more substantial, an altogether more stable and focused state of life, than laughter and good cheer.

And once again that distinction finds support among the scientists. As Daniel Goleman explains in some detail in his book  Working with Emotional Intelligence, when comparisons are made between the effectiveness or productivity of people at work, the difference is very often found to lie not so much in the know-how or the npurely technical skills of different people, but much more broadly in their overall sense of well-being and therefore their greater capacity for handling relationships or dealing in  a calm and measured way with difficulties that arise.

But perhaps more important of all, this phrase well-being has so much greater depth and breadth and capacity that it can even embrace the idea of misfortune and challenge. Buddhism for example, when it speaks of happiness, has in mind a solid, lasting, resilient sense of well-being at the core of one's life, that can endure and be experienced even in the midst of sadness and and loss and crucial challenge. That again finds multiple echoes in the work of modern sociologists, who talk about the need to get real! They argue that optimism and happiness cannot be about being eternally cheerful. That would be hopelessly unreal. It has to be about getting up close to, and embracing the pains and problems we encounter so that we truly understand them and learn how to work through them to a better place.

They talk about the immense value that we can generate in our lives by learning to look for the seeds of the positive in things that go wrong in our lives, rather than continually being eaten up by the sense of loss or damage.

Nuff said for one episode.
Look forward to seeing you again next time.
Best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

Hi Everybody,

Picking up the thread of Buddhism and Happiness, and my key point is that given that it plays such a key role in our universal motivation, let alone our Buddhist practice, it would seem just as well that we share a common understanding of what we mean when we use it, this much over-used word, rather than just assuming that we have a common understanding.

And that would seem to be a genuine issue, both within and beyond Buddhism. Someone as supremely eminent in the field as Martin Seligman for example is driven to exclaim in his latest book Flourish, that the word happiness...

'...is so overused that it has become almost meaningless. It is an unworkable term for science, or for any practical goals such as education, therapy, public policy, or just changing your personal life..'

Almost meaningless is a bit strong perhaps, but you can see the point can't you, that the word happiness in the modern idiom, or to the modern ear, is unquestionably a bit...well a bit lightweight! To many people, and I would include myself, it means primarily such things as merriment and laughter and good cheer and smiley faces, and I don't think we can ignore those connotations as if they were unimportant. We would be doing ourselves and our discussions a disservice. Particularly since good cheer and smiley faces are certainly not what is meant by happiness, in both Buddhist teachings and in the scientific research centred around positive psychology.

Is perhaps well-being a more appropriate term?

That's where we go next time around. A good look at well-being.

See you then.
Best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a downlaod on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 155

Hi Everybody,
Yet another beautiful sun-kissed autumn day here in Kew. The sunlight glinting off the golden yellow leaves that are still on the trees. The run in the park with Gatsby this morning  was pure pleasure. And as I was running this morning that remarkable and very famous Buddhist text came into my mind, ' there is no path to happiness...happiness is the path. '  I have to say it's not the first time. It often pops in to my head when I'm our running, and I just let it sit there at the back of my mind as I jog on under the trees and over the leaves with Gatsby chasing the squirrels. It is of course immensely profound with many layers of meaning and we can all approach it from many different directions, but the one that seems to work best for me is from the direction of gratitude.
Gratitude not simply in the narrow sense of being grateful to someone for something they have done, but gratitude in the broadest sense, gratitude if you like as a whole  approach to life. Gratitude for all the love that I have in my life from family and friends. Gratitude above all for the knowledge that when things get tough or difficult...as of course they often do in all our lives... then I have the Buddhist practice to enable me to stand back and marshal my energies and my wisdom to tackle the difficulty, whatever it is. And the sure knowledge that that has worked powerfully for me as a positive life strategy for the past 25 years or so.

As it happens we're in the middle of a chapter about Buddhism and happiness, because of course this is one of the many qualities that sets Buddhism apart from other major religions is that it presents itself right from the start as being about ordinary people increasing the sum total of happiness or well-being in their lives. Moreover, as we've shown in the past couple of blogs, there is now a huge amount of research from sociologists and positive psychologists that echoes that basic position, to indicate that is, that the quest for happiness is the ultimate motivational force in life...universally. That is to say it cuts across all the boundaries you can think of...national and religious and ethnic and status etc etc.. This quest for a greater sens eof well-being in life is truly universal.

So that close alignment of views does give us a very different perspective doesn't it? It means for example that this powerful and life-changing idea that Buddhism offers us, an idea that many people find unusual and hard to swallow because it is so bold and uncompromising, is doing no more than recognising the essential quality of our universal human nature. Doing no more than pointing out to us that this is the most powerful motivator in human life, and that it can be harnessed as an instrument of change, to enable us to lead fuller and richer lives.

Enough for one swallow I think!
Hope it helps understanding.
See you next time
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle. 

my Buddhist blog number 154

Hi Everybody,
Almost everybody I've spoken to over the past couple of days seems to feel a genuine low-level anxiety over the election of Mr Trump. Well perhaps not so low-level!! One very balanced very mature professional guy actually used the word ' terrifying.'And to be fair there would seem quite a bit to be fearful about if we take his own words at face value, as to what he is hell bent on doing once he gets in office. I've increased my morning daimoku substantially to lift me over this low point. It's remarkable how much it helps in thinking through to a more positive outlook on the day. Which takes us neatly through to today's topic, Buddhism and Hapiness. Last week we ended on a brilliant quote from psychologist Martin Seligman,

' Optimism is a learned skill and once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health. ' Brilliant.

Another psychologist and writer, Daniel Goleman makes a similar point,

'Optimism and hope -like helplessness and despair can be learned .Underlying both is an outlook psychologists call self-efficacy, the belief that one has mastery over one's life and can meet challenges as they come up.'

So they are saying, we have a clear choice. If it so happens that we have built the absence of hope into our lives up till now, or even pessimism and despair, once we become fully self-aware of that situation, we can learn how to replace those negative life states with optimism and hope. That is a powerful modern confirmation of the proposition that Buddhism has always presented to us. A Buddhist practice is entirely about building a wholly capable who can do precisely what Goleman is talking about, having the courage and the resilience to meet ' those challenges as they come up,' rather than being knocked down or disabled by them.

So Buddhism, with it's essential humanism and its focus on the power of the human spirit sets out to define greater happiness for oneself and others as the fundamental objective of human life. Not in some after life, but in the here and now. And as I write that, after many years of Buddhist practice, I am intensely aware of just how bold and uncompromising and value-creating that is as a vision of life. No if's and but's and maybe's. That it says is what we are seeking. And it's all the more remarkable in that it was set out all those years ago when life was considerably rougher and tougher and certainly less forgiving than it is now.

And once again the extraordinary thing is just how closely that principle accords with the views of today's evolutionary biologists and positive psychologists who argue, strictly on the basis of their research that the quest for happiness is the ultimate motivational force in life. What does ' ultimate ' mean in this context? It means that it doesn't require any further definition. It speaks for itself. We may initially express it to ourselves in other terms; we want to be healthy for example, or have better relationships, or a better job, or achieve a qualification and many other items of desire that we might list, but all those items are only important in the sense that they contribute to our happiness. They are stepping stones if you like on the way to our ultimate goal.

Nuff said for today.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.

my buddhist blog number 153

Hi Everybody,
I can't remember an autumn as beautiful as this one. My run through the woods  in the morning with Gatsby is just a joy with this wonderful backdrop of reds and yellows and browns all around, and the ground carpeted in golden leaves. I think its because its been so dry and so still, so that the leaves are still largely on the trees instead of being soggy piles on the ground. Gatsby's not interested in the colours. His focus is entirely on the squirrel population!

OK so we've just started the chapter on Buddhism and Happiness. , and one of the fundamental qualities that we might argue, sets Buddhism so clearly apart  is that it presents itself right from the start as being about ordinary people attaining happiness in this lifetime. Not happiness in some heaven after death. Or in some idealised utopian life space in this world. Or some vision of a pleasant life we might hope to achieve when this or that qualification or situation has been achieved, or this or that obstacle has been removed.

And that word ' when' is important too. Many of us can find ourselves mentally trapped in the prison of the
' when' as it has been called by the psychologists; this tendency to persuade ourselves that only when this or that change has taken place, only then we might perhaps achieve that happiness we seek. It becomes if you like a self-imposed barrier to moving to a better place.

The way Buddhism responds to that situation is to say that we need to recognise the immense power that resides in our freedom of choice. That whether we realise it or not, whether we believe it or not, we have within us all the resources we need to choose and establish in our lives a stable sense of well-being in our lives. Not when anything has been added, or removed, but now. It argues strongly that we can learn, that we can train ourselves to achieve that goal now. Not just in the good and golden times, but at any time. Mo matter how challenging and disturbing the vicissitudes and circumstances of our life may be.

That is of course a huge and potentially life-changing idea, but it is also so unusual, so counter-intuitive, that it is extremely difficult for most of us to come anywhere near accepting it when we first encounter it. It just doesn't make sense we say to, ourselves. There must be some sort of catch. It took me personally a very long time to learn that there isn't. That the catch is primarily our lack of self-belief, our lack of conviction in ourselves. And it was only much later that I came to learn that this  same promise, this same perception if you like, which is utterly central to Buddhist belief, is echoed in the work of many of today's sociologists. Martin Seligman for example, Professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University, and one of the founding fathers of the growing school  of positive psychologists,;

'Optimism is a learned skill. Once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health.'

That's a crucial point that he is making isn't it? It's not just about having a nice warm feeling within. The happiness associated with optimism he is saying, is life-giving, it serves it serves to enhance and improve the entire spectrum of our lives, at work and at play.

Enough for today.
Hope it all adds up for you.
See you next time.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon as a paperback and on Kindle as a download.

MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 152

Hi Everybody,
Lovely quiet Saturday afternoon. Arsenal has just won 4-1!! Perfect time to spin a little blog. New chapter, new subject, Buddhism and Happiness.
' Do we really need a discussion about the nature of happiness you might well 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 it 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 actualy experience it?

But those arguments clearly cut both ways don't they? It's precisely because it is so slippery and so 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 its meaning becomes gravely dilutes.

And there are other equally compelling reasons. Above all else perhaps the fact that if you are vaguely interested in, or practice Buddhism, you simply can't escape it. You can't have failed to notice for example the number of times the word happiness has cropped up in these blogs so far. Which mirrors the fact that it occurs a great deal in Buddhist discussions. In fact Buddhists will often say that the fundamental reason for their practice is nothing less than greater happiness for themselves and for those around them. And if we give it a moments thought, that too is somewhat surprising, in the sense that if I were to ask you to go away and search for the word ' happiness' in other religious liturgies you might never come back! Why? Because the simple fact is that we have to search very hard indeed to find the word happiness in those contexts; happiness in the here and now that is, in this life, rather than in some heavenly hereafter. That's a very important distinction. The fact is that most religions don't talk about about happiness in this life as having anything to do with the purpose of their existence. Or indeed, talk about it at all.'

That's the introduction. I think it's a really important discussion.
So hope to see you next time around.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon as a paperback or as a download from Kindle

my buddhist blog number 151

Good Morning Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. We've come to the end of that discussion about the meaning of the word faith in Buddhism. Todays passage is a bit of a leap forward. It comes at the end of Chapter Three which is essentially about the life and legacy of Nichiren Daishonin, and it's headed Actual Proof, and it makes what seems to me to be an essential point. So here goes,
' 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 own 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 its 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 25 odd years ago, with no small measure of doubt and scepticism as I've mentioned. But there's nothing wrong with a 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 befor eme and since, from a profound scepticism to an equally profound commitment toa 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 of Nichiren Buddhsim.

Enough for today.
See you next time.
Best wishes,.
William

my buddhist blog number 150

Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. We're in the middle of a discussion about the meaning of the word ' faith ' in Buddhism, that is to say how is it different from the use of the same word in say Christianity or Islam. And right from the start we learn that the fundamental difference in Nichiren Buddhism is that faith is not in any way to be equated with belief in something external, something outside of oneself. The word only has meaning in relation to a quality or a resource that we are seeking  within. As Nichiren Daishonin expresses on so many occasions,

' ...perceive the true nature of your life...if you seek enlightenment outside yourself then your performing even ten thousand practices and ten thousand good deeds will be in vain. It is like the case of the poor man who spends night and day counting his neighbour's wealth but gains not even half a coin..'

So what must faith mean then in this context...if we are to perceive the true nature of our lives?

The somewhat surprising answer is that faith in Buddhism is essentially about belief in oneself, self belief. And it is related directly to the strength of the desire or the determination that we can summon up within our own life to act or to live in accord with Buddhist values and principles. it means going into battle if you like against our own inner weakness or lack of self-confidence or self-belief, so that we can create for ourselves a life that is overwhelmingly resilient and positive and optimistic and compassionate, and always concerned with creating value out of whatever circumstances we might encounter.

Faith in Buddhist terms then is not all that different from the sheer determination or the self-belief we work hard to summon up to pursue any major goal or objective in our lives. We find that we have to learn how to dig deep within ourselves to achieve success in a chosen career, or to turn a crisis situation around, or to overcome a life-threatening illness, or create a lasting and fulfilling relationship. The fundamental difference, and of course it is fundamental, is that in this case the self-belief is anchored firmly in the powerful humanistic philosophy introduced into the world by Shakyamuni, and developed and amplified by  a series of remarkable thinkers and teachers over the past two and and a half thousand years.

So faith in Buddhism is also very much about method; about how we can develop such a life, such an enduring self-belief.
Enough said for today.
Hope you enjoyed it.
See you next time.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.