The Views of Happiness

THE VIEWS OF HAPPINESS FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST

According to the Western intellectual tradition, in order to be happy, the most important thing we can do is go out and conquer the world; obtain resources, create businesses, run governments, gain reputation, and conquer countries.

The Eastern tradition, on the other hand, has been telling us something very different for a very long time. Contentment, according to both its Buddhist and Hindu traditions, is achieved by mastering not the world but the instrument through which we see it, namely, our minds.

Whatever our final successes are — how much money we gain, how many friends we acquire, how well-known our name is — it will make no difference, according to the East, as long as we keep our minds open to being disturbed at any time by our emotional faculties. A depression will completely negate all of the advantages of a palace with seven reflecting ponds and gardens planted with almond and cherry trees, among other things. Chronic anxiety will detract from the enjoyment of owning the fastest jet. When one is plagued by paranoia, having a fortune is of no help at all to him or her. An unhappy relationship immediately negates any advantages that may have accrued as a result of one's illustrious reputation.

We should not waste our time attempting to rearrange the material building blocks of existence only to fall victim to psychological ills. Instead, we should concentrate on learning how to control and manage the inherently unruly and enormously complicated instrument through which the external world reaches consciousness, as advised by the Eastern tradition. To achieve our goals, rather than attempting to build empires, we must spend many years examining our thoughts and dreams; we must consider our families, the economic systems in which we were raised, the impact of our sexual urges, as well as the biological and cosmological order of nature, of which we are an insignificant part. Learn to breathe in a way that allows the most amount of oxygen to reach our frontal context while also holding our bodies in such a way that our organs are not crushed and our blood flow is not discreetly hampered. We must be able to sleep for a consistent amount of hours each night and be free of any distractions or excitements that might interfere with our ability to think clearly.

This is by no means a simple set of goals; it is, in fact, just as demanding as running a law company. However, according to the yogis and sages, it provides us with a far more secure hold on the true ingredients of contentment than the bank account of a newly minted CEO with a yacht off the coast of Barbuda does.

The fact that this continues to feel unreal is partly due to the fact that we can't fathom that tremendous success, enormous money, and a palace wouldn't ultimately enough. The reason for this is that far too few people who have been blessed with such accessories have ever shared their honest accounts of what it was like to be in possession of such luxuries. People who sound suspiciously destitute and envious have authored intellectual history, complete with ominous incantations against the pursuit of material happiness and pleasure.

The fact that Buddhism was founded by a disgruntled former playboy, Sidhartha Gautama, who once had a palace and a trust fund, fame and servants, but who gave them all up to sit under a bodhi tree and could therefore tell us, with the benefit of lived experience, what material goods can and cannot do for us is highly fortuitous and extremely reassuring. And, without any pretense of modesty, he asserted that they would be insufficient. Although the food may be delicious and the accommodations lovely, such advantages will be ineffective as long as one's mind remains disturbed and unsettled, as it will invariably be if one does not engage in extensive emotional education and consistent spiritual practice.

We should take the warnings from the East seriously. We can only be as happy as our minds are at ease, no matter how hard we work to achieve that state of mind. And, given our vulnerability to mental illness and the shortness of our lives, we should almost surely spend a bit more time on our psyches and a little less time on our dreams of owning a second house and a New York office, on balance.

We have produced far too many unhappy playboys in the West, and far too many genuinely peaceful sages in the East, for us not to turn our focus away from conquering the globe and toward taming our own minds and hearts.