Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T02:47:45.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A BUDDHIST VIEW OF HAPPINESS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2014

Matthieu Ricard
Matthieu Ricard*
Affiliation:
Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Buddhism, happiness is achieved when a person can perceive the true nature of reality, unmodified by the mental constructs we superimpose upon it. This authentic happiness comes from having an exceptionally healthy state of mind that underlies and suffuses all emotional states and that embraces all the joys and sorrows that come one's way. The mental states necessary for authentic happiness are not simply found or happened upon. Rather, happiness is achieved through mental training that purges the mind of afflictive emotions, such as hatred and compulsive desire, which literally poison the mind, and above all through the eradication of ignorance. This article discusses the Buddhist conception of happiness and its attainment. In particular, the article addresses the methods and practices that Buddhism employs to train the mind to achieve authentic happiness and the recent developments in contemplative neuroscience that complement and advance these methods.

Keywords

Buddhismhappinesscontemplative neurosciencemeditationcompassion
Type
SYMPOSIUM: PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN INTERRELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 14 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lama, Dalai and Cutler, H. C., The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998)Google Scholar; Ricard, Matthieu, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill (London: Atlantic Books, 2007)Google Scholar.

2 Shantarakshita, and Mipham, Jamgön, The Adornment of the Middle Way: Shantarakshita's Madhyamakalankara with Commentary by Jamgön Mipham, trans. Padmakara Translation Group (Boston: Shambhala, 2005)Google Scholar; Wallace, A. B., Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind (1996; repr., Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2003)Google Scholar.

3 Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyavatara, trans. Padmakara Translation Group, 2nd ed. (Boston: Shambhala, 2006)Google Scholar; Pelden, Kunzang, The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva, trans. Padmakara Translation Group (Boston: Shambhala, 2007)Google Scholar.

4 Ricard, Happiness; Ricard, Matthieu, The Art of Meditation, trans. Kohn, Sherab Chödzin (Paris: NiL Éditions, 2008; London: Atlantic Books, 2010)Google Scholar.

5 Ricard, Matthieu, “A Buddhist View of Happiness,” in The Oxford Handbook of Happiness, ed. David, Susan, Boniwell, Ilona, and Ayers, Amanda C. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar, 344.

6 Ricard, Happiness, 33.

7 Rolland, Romain, Jean-Christophe, vol. 8, Les Amies (Paris: Albin Michel, 1952)Google Scholar (author's translation).

8 Shantideva, Way of the Bodhisattva, 127.

9 Khyentse, Dilgo, The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva, trans. Padmakara Translation Group (Boston: Shambhala, 2007)Google Scholar.

10 Ricard, “Buddhist View of Happiness,” 347–48.

11 Ekman, P. et al. , “Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being,” Current Perspectives in Psychological Science 14 (2005)Google Scholar.

12 Davidson, R. J. and Irwin, W., “The Functional Neuroanatomy of Emotion and Affective Style,” Trends in Cognitive Science 3 (1999)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Davidson, R. J., “Cognitive Neuroscience Needs Affective Neuroscience (and Vice Versa),” Cognition and Emotion 42 (2000)Google Scholar; Damasio, A. R., Descartes' Error (New York: Avon Books, 1994)Google ScholarPubMed.

13 Dalai Lama and Cutler, The Art of Happiness, 236.

14 Ricard, Happiness, 118.

15 Ricard, “Buddhist View of Happiness,” 350.

16 Ibid.

17 Galin, D., “The Concepts of ‘Self,’ ‘Person,’ and ‘I,’ in Western Psychology and in Buddhism,” in Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground, ed. Wallace, B. Alan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

18 Khyentse, Dilgo, The Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones: The Practice of View, Meditation, and Action, trans. Padmakara Translation Group (Boston: Shambhala, 1992)Google Scholar.

19 Lama, Dalai, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millennium (London: Little, Brown and Co., 1999), 106, 109Google Scholar.

20 Ibid, 151–52.

21 Ibid, 154.

22 For more on these meetings, see Goleman, Daniel, Destructive Emotions (New York: Bantam, 2003)Google Scholar.

23 Matthieu Ricard, “Neuroscience and Meditation,” View: The Rigpa Journal (August 2009), http://www.viewmagazine.org/index.php/articles/science/102-neuroscience-and-meditation.html.

24 See, in particular, Lutz, A. et al. , “Long-term Meditators Self-induce High-amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 101, no. 46 (2004)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

25 Marc Kaufman, “Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds,” Washington Post, January 3, 2005, A05.

26 Ricard, “Neuroscience and Meditation.”

27 The most important references concerning these studies, especially those of Linda Carlson (Calgary University), and of John Teasdale (Cambridge) and Zindal Segal (Toronto University), are quoted in Ricard, Matthieu, L'Art de la Méditation, (Paris: NiL Éditions, 2008)Google Scholar. In MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), an individual or group focuses on neutral awareness, identifying thoughts as “just thoughts,” rather than trying to label thoughts. This approach focuses on observation and can be practiced as a discipline for dealing with general psychological well-being, rather than with specific problems. See Kabat-Zinn, Jon et al. , “Effectiveness of a Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders,” American Journal of Psychiatry 149, no. 7 (1992): 942Google ScholarPubMed.

28 Lutz, A., Dunne, J. D., and Davidson, R. J., “Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness: An Introduction,” in The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, eds. Zelazo, Philip David et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

29 Rinpoche, Yongey Mingyur, The Joy of Living (New York: Harmony Books, 2007)Google Scholar, 32.

30 Ricard, Matthieu, Why Meditate?, trans. Kohn, Sherab Chödzin (Carlsbad: Hay House, 2010)Google Scholar, 14.

31 Ricard, “Neuroscience and Meditation.”

32 See further Ricard, L'Art de la Méditation.