Guest guest Posted June 24, 2008 Report Share Posted June 24, 2008 " I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life. So I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness... " With these words, spoken before a large audience in Arizona, the Dalai Lama cut to the heart of his message. +++ *** Our days are number. At this very moment, many thousands are born into the world, some destined to live only a few days or weeks, and then tragically succumb to illness or other misfortune. Others are destined to push through to the century mark, perhaps even a bit beyond, and savor very taste life has to offer: triumph, despair, joy, hatred and love. WE never know. But whether we live a day or a century, a central question always remains: What is the purpose of our life? What makes our lives meaningful? THE PURPOSE OF OUR EXISTENCE IS TO SEEK HAPPINESS. It seems like common sense, and Western thinkers from Aristotle to William James have agreed with this idea. But it not a life based on seeking personal happiness by nature self-centred, even self-indulgent? Not necessarily. In fact, survey after survey has shown that it is UNHAPPY people who tend to be most self-focused and are often socially withdrawn, brooding, and even antagonistic. Happy people, in contrast, are generally found to be more sociable, flexible, and creative and are able to tolerate life's daily frustrations more easily than unhappy people. And, most important, they are found to be more loving and forgiving than unhappy people. Researchers have devised some interesting experiments demonstrating that happy people exhibit a certain quality of openness, a willingness to reach out and help others. They managed, for instance, to induce a happy mood in a test subject by arranging to have th person unexpectedly find money in a phone booth. Posing as a stranger, one of the experiments then walked and 'accidentally' dropped load of papers. The investigators wanted to see whether the subject would stop to help the stranger. In another scenario, the subjects' spirits were lifted by listening to a comedy album, then they were approached by someone in need (also in cahoots with the experimenter) wanting to borrow money. The investigators discovered that the subjects who were feeling happy were more likely to help someone or to lend money than another 'control group' of individuals who were presented with the same opportunity to help but whose mood had not been boosted ahead of time. While these kinds of experiments contradict the notion that the pursuit and achievement of personal happiness somehow leads to selfishness and self-absorption, we can all conduct our own experiment in the laboratory of our own daily lives. Suppose, for instance, we are stuck in traffic. After twenty minutes it finally begins moving again at around parade speed. We see someone in another car signaling that she wants to pull into our lane ahead of us. If we are in a good mood, we are more likely to slow down and wave her on ahead. If we are feeling miserable, our response may be simply to speed up and close the gap. 'Well, I have been stuck here waiting all this time; why should not they?' We begin, then, with the basic premise that the purpose of our life is to seek happiness. It is a vision of happiness as a real objective, one that we can take positive steps toward achieving. And as we begin to identify the factors that lead to a happier life, we will learn how the search for happiness offers benefits not only for the individual but for the individual's family and for society at large as well. -- The Art of Happiness .. HH Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler (Taken from Ideas Exchange, May 2008) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.