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Post 1748, Day 291 of 2016
- 2,117 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
- 2,117 days since I started this blog -
Early this morning, I read an article about 'The Happiest Man' - Matthieu Ricard, a former biochemist turned Buddhist Monk. Apparently, he doesn't think he's the happiest guy, but he's happy. He's also an author, and I bought his book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill.
Only a few dozen pages into it, and I'm getting the basic truth I believe, reaffirmed: Happiness doesn't depend on external circumstances. I have believed it is a choice, Ricard believes it is a skill, something that, like any skill, can be learned through practice and application.
I came to this determination on my own, many years ago, but still managed to get caught up in external things (health problems, relationship drama, financial pressure, etc.). It wasn't until I had come far in restoring order to my life post-divorce and relocation, then was placed in financial jeopardy again by being laid off that I began putting it into practice, just about six years ago.
It has made all the difference in the world to me. And it has only gotten more entrenched with practice... Now, it is my default mode, and people I encounter notice it - apparently, I look happy, which makes sense.
The idea that you could choose to be happy, that it was a thing that you could generate from within yourself, is, as far as I'm concerned, a basic tenet of Buddhism, at least as I understand it. But I really got to it, on an intellectual level, after hearing an interview with Marci Shimoff promoting her then-new book, Happy For No Reason. While I never read the book, the gist of the interview was a condensation of many things I had read over the decades, and I happened to be receptive at the time. Something clicked, a seed planted in the sixties sprouted...
One of the key things that is emphasized by Ricard is the difference between happiness and pleasure - or rather, the relationship between the two.
Some feel that humans are a pleasure-seeking species. Some think we're a pain-avoiding species. I think we're naturally meant to be happy, and that neither pleasure nor pain can do more than influence us temporarily.
That seems to be the key: Pleasure is always temporary - sometimes fleeting. It is also highly circumstantial, and subject to many ephemeral forces and conditions. Happiness, on the other hand, has its source in attitude, or world-view, and little to do with sensory input, the source of pleasure. At least once you understand it that way.
Decades of meditation practiced intermittently certainly helped me. Meditation has helped me become less reactive and more centered. Maturity enters into it, too - my days of chasing shiny objects is pretty much in the past.
My feelings of gratitude were instrumental, as well, in bringing about this state of happiness I feel I've cultivated. Maybe more than anything else.
But despite the internal and lasting (happiness), vs external and temporary (pleasure), the important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that both exist. You may not be able to cultivate and maintain pleasure, but you can enjoy it when it comes. While pursuit of pleasure may not be the way to get to happiness, like chicken soup, a little pleasure can't hurt. Take it when it comes, but don't expect to be able to hold onto it. That expectation is a prophylactic for happiness.
My life seems to be a long, at times tortuous trip of discovering the difference between pleasure and happiness, and also, how they relate: one is the short-lived, external-dependent and sometimes more intense manifestation of the other's abiding, boundless, internal nature.
Only a few dozen pages into it, and I'm getting the basic truth I believe, reaffirmed: Happiness doesn't depend on external circumstances. I have believed it is a choice, Ricard believes it is a skill, something that, like any skill, can be learned through practice and application.
I came to this determination on my own, many years ago, but still managed to get caught up in external things (health problems, relationship drama, financial pressure, etc.). It wasn't until I had come far in restoring order to my life post-divorce and relocation, then was placed in financial jeopardy again by being laid off that I began putting it into practice, just about six years ago.
It has made all the difference in the world to me. And it has only gotten more entrenched with practice... Now, it is my default mode, and people I encounter notice it - apparently, I look happy, which makes sense.
The idea that you could choose to be happy, that it was a thing that you could generate from within yourself, is, as far as I'm concerned, a basic tenet of Buddhism, at least as I understand it. But I really got to it, on an intellectual level, after hearing an interview with Marci Shimoff promoting her then-new book, Happy For No Reason. While I never read the book, the gist of the interview was a condensation of many things I had read over the decades, and I happened to be receptive at the time. Something clicked, a seed planted in the sixties sprouted...
One of the key things that is emphasized by Ricard is the difference between happiness and pleasure - or rather, the relationship between the two.
Some feel that humans are a pleasure-seeking species. Some think we're a pain-avoiding species. I think we're naturally meant to be happy, and that neither pleasure nor pain can do more than influence us temporarily.
That seems to be the key: Pleasure is always temporary - sometimes fleeting. It is also highly circumstantial, and subject to many ephemeral forces and conditions. Happiness, on the other hand, has its source in attitude, or world-view, and little to do with sensory input, the source of pleasure. At least once you understand it that way.
Decades of meditation practiced intermittently certainly helped me. Meditation has helped me become less reactive and more centered. Maturity enters into it, too - my days of chasing shiny objects is pretty much in the past.
My feelings of gratitude were instrumental, as well, in bringing about this state of happiness I feel I've cultivated. Maybe more than anything else.
But despite the internal and lasting (happiness), vs external and temporary (pleasure), the important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that both exist. You may not be able to cultivate and maintain pleasure, but you can enjoy it when it comes. While pursuit of pleasure may not be the way to get to happiness, like chicken soup, a little pleasure can't hurt. Take it when it comes, but don't expect to be able to hold onto it. That expectation is a prophylactic for happiness.
My life seems to be a long, at times tortuous trip of discovering the difference between pleasure and happiness, and also, how they relate: one is the short-lived, external-dependent and sometimes more intense manifestation of the other's abiding, boundless, internal nature.
Food and Diet
Today's Weight: 203.8 lbs.
Diet Comment
Previous Weight (10/14): 203.0 lbs.
Net Loss/Gain: + 0.8 lbs.
Diet Comment
I didn't do as well as I'd hoped over the weekend, but I'm still at a lower weight than last Monday's, so...
Food Log
Breakfast
3:35pm:
 |
| Omelet with peppers, onion, greens, chia seeds, hemp seeds, feta cheese and bacon. |
Lunch
7:15pm: A Quest bar.
Dinner
10:45pm: Chopped salad: London broil, Dubliner cheese, kale, spinach, chard, cabbage and balsamic vinaigrette and pork rinds.
10:45pm: Chopped salad: London broil, Dubliner cheese, kale, spinach, chard, cabbage and balsamic vinaigrette and pork rinds.
Liquid Intake
Espressos: 1; Coffee: 22 oz.; Tea: 0 oz.; Water: 72+ oz.
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