American Buddhist Perspectives
A story today in NewWest about Missoula’s gloomy weather (and lovely accompanying photographs) caught my eye. As a regular sufferer of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) I can attest to the author’s description of Missoula in January:
Overhear someone trying to explain the inversion to an outsider and often, you’ll hear the word “trapped.”
As in: stuck in the valley with no way out.
They’re talking about the the cloud cover, but they likely mean much more.
The city, usually a bounding, smiley, athletic hamlet, is torpid under the inversion. Planes circle and don’t land, people avoid trails, parks and sometimes, other people altogether. Smiles are rare and alcohol flows more freely.
This year, however, January has been pretty good to me. It’s hard to say why exactly. Two weeks of “vacation” (thesis work, travels, seeing friends, and giving a talk) in England may have played a role in breaking up the month. Healthy eating and exercise, some dietary supplements, a wonderfully supportive girlfriend and friends, a good job, and relatively low stress otherwise also surely played a role.
In any case, here’s to hoping it keeps up 🙂
The important thing about happiness or the enjoyment of the fruition of good karma is to ensure that it is passed forward – helping others, spreading joy in whatever ways possible. Otherwise it simply feeds a conceit, leading eventually to separation and downfall. I’m reading a great paper by Allan W. Wood discussing Kant on happiness in which he states:
It is our overriding need to confirm our self-conceit that makes us lay claim to happiness as a mark of superiority over others. We form the idea of a comprehensive whole of satisfaction in order to compare ourselves to others, always with the hope that the comparison will make us look good. The point of being happy is to feed our insatiable amour propre by seeing our state as one from which we may look down on other people, regarding them as our inferiors.
Both Kant and Buddhism have interestingly similar things to say on this, namely that happiness, in the sense of good feelings or satisfied desires, is ephemeral and not to be sought after for its own sake or reveled in too greatly when it comes. More important is action in accordance with duty (Kant) or deepening attunement with Dharma (Buddha). That comes when happiness is understood as a condition, based on myriad interconnections and external circumstances rather than a purely internal and thus personal state.
While we may say “my happiness” or “I am happy” what we should understand is that we should say “there is happiness” or “the conditions for happiness have arisen.” Recognizing this, that even happiness is not about “me” or “mine” brings deeper contentment, even with the sense of happiness present.
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