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The Right to Happiness

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" 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withdrawn, brooding, and even antagonistic.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)

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