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Buddhists Really Are Happier
bjornte writes "For anyone that wonders what Richard Gere is up to, the BBC explains: 'Scientists say they have evidence to show that Buddhists really are happier and calmer than other people. Tests carried out in the United States reveal that areas of their brain associated with good mood and positive feelings are more active.' So, if you're suffering from the ongoing IT slump..."
I just learned that in September, the Dalai Lama is coming to MIT to participate in a Life Sciences seminar that appears to be on exactly this topic. He's then speaking at the Fleet Center. I've already got my tickets.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
No worship of gods and deities indeed, but worship of budda.
Not worship, but reverence. The Buddha is not considered a deity like Christ, or someone with a direct line to God like Mohammed, but rather a regular guy who thought real hard about What It's All About and came up with an interesting insight, for which his followers are grateful.
That's more like Taoism, which is best described, probably incorrectly, as a form of apathy wrapped in ancient dogma.
Of course, that is just my opinion having met 4 very, very apathetic, pathetic so-called "Tao'ists" over a period of 10 years. They really were hopeless to work with, and put me off studying the Tao until I'd matured a little more.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
In Buddhism, Karma is not seen as a physical or metaphysical force that forces you to pay back your evil deeds, but rather as a psychological principle.
I could go on for a while about this, but I'll try to keep it short.
Ideally, once an action has happened, it is gone. Our mind, however, likes to hold on to what was and will not let go. Since the past is already gone, it is not a good place for the mind to dwell. Your karma is the part of you that holds onto the past and measure the present in terms of the past. If you measure the present in terms of the past, then you see more of what was than what is. A buddhist strives to see things as they are in the present (this is what meditation teaches) No buddhist claims that they will ever be free of karma, of their attachment to the past, but if they could be, they would be "enlightened."
A quick example: Let's say that you spent the past two years building your own house by hand. On the night that you move into the house, it burns down. If you hold on to the past and your memories of what was, then you will suffer at the thought of loss and the "wasted" time you spent building the house. If you see things as they are, then you will be happy that you are alive and start planning for a new place to live and perhaps rebuilding the house.
"My religion is to live --and die-- without regret." -- Milarepa
Joe the Lesser writes:
"It has nothing to do with religion, just that fact that Buddhists..."
Not a flame, but Buddhism isn't a religion. No god(s), which is probably a bare minimum to meet a western standard of religion-ness.
My
Limekiller
(Much of the following comes from The Shambala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen).
Mahayana Buddhism...contains a diversity of mystical, magical beliefs
Mystical, perhaps, but I wouldn't call them magical beliefs. Theravada (the only surviving school of the Hinayana, or "Lesser Vehicle" branch of Buddhism), emphasizes the liberation of the individual. The ideal figure of Theravada is the arhat, a person who has achieved true enlightenment through his own efforts and whose existence will be extinguished following this life, i.e., no more reincarnations.
Mahayana buddhists, in contrast, seek to attain enlightenment for the sake of the welfare of all beings. Their ideal figure is the bodhisattva, a person who has achieved perfect wisdom but renounces complete entry into nirvana until all beings are enlightened. Some of these bodhisattvas are considered to be "transcendent beings" who appear in various forms to lead others to wisdom. That's pretty mystical, but no supernatural powers (loaves and fishes, anyone?) are attributed to bodhisattvas.
Now Tibetan buddhists, they have magic and deities out the wazoo. A truly interesting and baroque variant.
the original post...glossed over the diversity of beliefs regarding the Buddha and the mystical nature, including worship, contained in many of them.
Guilty as charged. I was trying to address the original generalization, but fell short. I'm most familiar with Zen buddhism, which definitely does not worship the Buddha. It's not even a religion, really.
The clearest explanation of the core concepts of Buddhism I've run across is What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula.
The philosophy behind buddhism is nicely captured by Zen, which I think is a practical philosophy of life. Zen tries to capture the essence of what buddha tried to teach.
"Zen flesh, zen bones" by Paul Reps is an excellent book to start, and some would argue the only one you'd ever need. I just like its collection of weird and wonderful stories.
I think there may be some misunderstanding here as to the nature of buddhism.
First of all, it wouldn't be truely accurate to call it a religion, at least not in a conventional sense. More of a philosophy or way of living, coincidentally named for the budha for having providing it's foundation and core teachings.
The nature of buddhism centers around learning through practice, meditation, and consistant right thinking to overcome the desires and compulsions that lead us to suffering.
To say that budhists are generally happies isn't the same as saying that, by having faith in something, one can be happy and relaxed even as all falls apart around you.
Buddhism doesn't take one out of the world nor does it abdicate responsability for it to a greater power. It actually sharpens ones focus on the things that need to be done by helping to control the emotional cruft that distracts us and drives us towards suffering.
To that end, being about the elimination of desire and it's resultant suffering, a successful buddhist would tend to be happier and calmer. That being an obvious hypothesis, the article meerly relates an attempt to apply the scientific method by testing the hypothesis.
Windows: The operating system built for the internet. Unix: The operating system the Internet was built for.
First, let me start this off by saying that I have been involved in skeptic groups online prior to the internet being available to the public (read; local boards and nets).
Also, I am the guy who runs and owns nofaith.org.
Now...
I am Jack's username quotes George Bernard Shaw as:
"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."
True, but that makes the not-so-subtle implication that Buddhism endorses an ostrich approach. Ie, the happiness is merely a benefit of ignoring certain problems. I don't agree that this is so. Buddhism, in my experience, involves recognizing that problems will exist regardless of your efforts. So just deal with it instead of trying to quash every bug in your life. It isn't going to happen.
Jack quotes the FFRF:
"Not only is there nothing to be gained by believing an untruth, but there is everything to lose when we sacrifice the indispensable tool of reason on the altar of superstition."
I agree, but Buddhism encourages facing a problem squarely and firmly embraces rationality and reason, not to mention science. The Dalai Lama, IIRC, has said that if it comes to pass that a finding of science were to contradict a Buddhism teaching, Buddhism would have to change.
I think you're doing skeptics in general a disservice by automatically assuming that a thing which tends to be looked at as a religion by westerners is automagically invalid. Skepticism involves looking at the facts but I don't think you know a lot about Buddhism.
My
Limekiller
A difficulty that some Buddhists find with an article like the one authored by the BBC here is that it makes assumptions about what it is to be a Buddhist.
Goronguer fails to mention that the SGI is an exclusivist sect of Buddhism, in that it repudiates all other Buddhist movements. This sort of sectarianism is non-buddhist by nature, and is damaging to mental development.
Secondly, groups like SGI engage in another, non-Buddhist behaviour- that of socio-political evangelism, (which of course follows as a necessary activity for any organisation that believes it has a monopoly on truth).
Regardless, It is a good idea to follow Buddha's own advice- Don't trust authority for authorities sake, but work things out for yourself. Buddhism promotes discriminating awareness, so it encourages the individual to break the mould and 'think different'. Personal experience (as a practicing Buddhist of 30 years) suggests that meditation based upon removing what are known as 'self-grasping' and 'self-cherishing' (which actually includes any form of self-based attention, including self-hatred) does decrease unhappiness, and increase happiness.
Moreover, the promotion of acceptance of full responsibility for the world plays an important part in the construction of one's identity as a Buddhist, in that our ambitions become purposed for the benefit of all, rather than merely for the benefit of self, the family, the state, or humankind.
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