Probably should have included a spiritual element in the happiness criteria.
4) spirituality
a) relationship to physical world
b) relationship to one's perception of physical world
I think I'm phrasing it this way because Buddhism appeals to me, and the itty bitty tiny bit that I've learned about seems to have to do with this, and it makes sense to me. I went to the Buddhist center in Brooklyn in Prospect Heights a handful of times, and I have to say it really makes a ton of sense to me intuitively. The way the main teacher there presents it, it contains very little abstract jargony stuff; instead it's extremely practical and accessible. And it's not too upsetting either in the way of scary god stuff or one's soul. The basic premise is pretty cynical, and seems to be that the human experience in the world is one of suffering, but if you practice in your head, you can get rid of suffering and live in a state of love and bliss. I agree that this suffering is my experience, too (re: criteria 1, the psychological part, element d, "stress"), and I am impressed by the potential for love/bliss via meditation. Sounds awesome. Also meditation is a huge part of yoga, and the physical part of yoga is really just supposed to be a warm up for the sitting and meditating part. So that's how I'm trying to explore this criteria (and its constituent elements) for happiness, with meditation.
I like your "summary" of Buddhism: "The basic premise is pretty cynical, and seems to be that the human experience in the world is one of suffering, but if you practice in your head, you can get rid of suffering and live in a state of love and bliss".
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be right on, from my own (limited) understanding of Buddhism, and yet you rarely see it stated so directly, almost "life usually sucks but you can feel great if you try a few mental tricks".
It's almost seems like some Buddhists are saying, "This is some deep and mysterious sh*t, and the only way to discover it is for yourself. I'll give you some vague airy-fairy stuff and maybe you'll figure it out in fifteen years or so."