The Art of Happiness (37 page)

The benefits of a strong religious faith sometimes come about as a direct product of certain specific doctrines and beliefs of a particular tradition. Many Buddhists, for instance, are helped to endure their suffering as a result of their firm belief in the doctrine of Karma. In the same way, those who have an unshak able faith in God are often able to withstand intense hardship because of their belief in an omniscient and loving God—a God whose plan may be obscure to us at present but One who, in His wisdom, will ultimately reveal His love for us. With faith in the teachings of the Bible, they can take comfort in verses such as Romans 8:28: “All things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”

Although some of the rewards of faith may be based on specific doctrines unique to a particular religious tradition, there are other strength-giving features of a spiritual life that are common to all religions. Involvement in
any
religious group can create a feeling of belonging, communal ties, a caring connection with fellow practitioners. It offers a meaningful framework in which one can connect and relate with others. And it can give one a feeling of acceptance. Strongly held religious beliefs can give one a deep sense of purpose, providing meaning for one's life. These beliefs can offer hope in the face of adversity, suffering, and death. They can help one adopt an eternal perspective that allows one to get outside of oneself when overwhelmed by life's daily problems.

Although all these potential benefits are available to those who choose to practice the teachings of an established religion, it is clear that having a religious belief alone is no guarantee of happiness and peace. For example, at the very same moment Terry Anderson sat chained in a cell demonstrating the finest attributes of religious faith, just outside his cell raged mass violence and hatred demonstrating the very worst attributes of religious faith. For years in Lebanon, various sects of Muslims were at war with Christians and Jews, fueled by violent hatred on all sides and resulting in unspeakable atrocities committed in the name of faith. It's an old story, and one that has been told too often throughout history and repeated too often in the modern world.

Because of this potential to breed divisiveness and hatred, it is easy to lose faith in religious institutions. This has led some religious figures such as the Dalai Lama to try to distill those elements of a spiritual life that can be universally applied by any individual to enhance his or her happiness, regardless of religious tradition or whether he or she believes in religion.

 

 

 

Thus, with a tone of complete conviction, the Dalai Lama concluded his discussion with his vision of a truly spiritual life:

“So, in speaking of having a spiritual dimension to our lives, we have identified our religious beliefs as one level of spirituality. Now regarding religion, if we believe in any religion, that's good. But even without a religious belief, we can still manage. In some cases, we can manage even better. But that's our own individual right
_;
if we wish to believe, good! If not, it's all right. But then there's another level of spirituality. That is what I call
basic spirituality
—basic human qualities of goodness, kindness, compassion, caring. Whether we are believers or nonbelievers, this kind of spirituality is essential. I personally consider this second level of spirituality to be more important than the first, because no matter how wonderful a particular religion may be, it will still only be accepted by a limited number of human beings, only a portion of humanity. But as long as we are human beings, as long as we are members of the human family,
all
of us need these basic spiritual values. Without these, human existence remains hard, very dry. As a result, none of us can be a happy person, our whole family will suffer, and then, eventually, society will be more troubled. So, it becomes clear that cultivating these kinds of basic spiritual values becomes crucial.

“In seeking to cultivate these basic spiritual values, I think we need to remember that out of the, say, five billion human beings on this planet, I think perhaps one or two billion are very sincere, genuine believers in religion. Of course, when I refer to sincere believers, I'm not including those people who simply say, for example, ‘I am Christian' mainly because their family background is Christian but in daily life may not consider very much about the Christian faith or actively practice it. So excluding these people, I believe that there are perhaps only around one billion who sincerely practice their religion. That means that four billion, the majority of the people on this earth, are nonbelievers. So we must still find a way to try to improve life for this majority of the people, the four billion people who aren't involved in a specific religion—ways to help them become good human beings, moral people, without any religion. Here I think that education is crucial—instilling in people a sense that compassion, kindness, and so on are the basic good qualities of human beings, not just a matter of religious subjects. I think earlier we spoke at greater length about the prime importance of human warmth, affection, and compassion in people's physical health, happiness, and peace of mind. This is a very practical issue, not religious theory or philosophical speculation. It is a key issue. And I think that this is in fact the essence of all the religious teachings of the different traditions. But it remains just as crucial for those who choose not to follow any particular religion. For those people, I think we can educate them and impress upon them that it's all right to remain without any religion but be a good human being, a sensible human being, with a sense of responsibility and commitment for a better, happier world.

“In general, it is possible to indicate your particular religious or spiritual way of life through external means, such as wearing certain clothes, or having a shrine or altar in your house, or doing recitations and chanting, and so on. There are ways of demonstrating that externally. However, these practices or activities are secondary to your conducting a truly spiritual way of life, based on the basic spiritual values, because it is possible that all of these external religious activities can still go along with a person's harboring a very negative state of mind. But true spirituality should have the result of making a person calmer, happier, more peaceful.

“All of the virtuous states of mind—compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, caring, and so on—these mental qualities are genuine Dharma, or genuine spiritual qualities, because all of these internal mental qualities cannot coexist with ill feelings or negative states of mind.

“So, engaging in training or a method of bringing about inner discipline within one's mind is the essence of a religious life, an inner discipline that has the purpose of cultivating these positive mental states. Thus, whether one leads a spiritual life depends on whether one has been successful in bringing about that disciplined, tamed state of mind and translating that state of mind into one's daily actions.”

 

 

 

The Dalai Lama was due to attend a small reception held in honor of a group of donors who had been strong supporters of the Tibetan cause. Outside the reception room a large crowd had gathered in anticipation of his appearance. By the time of his arrival the crowd had become quite dense. Among the onlookers I saw a man whom I had noticed a couple of times during the week. He was of indeterminate age, although I would have guessed middle twenties, maybe early thirties, tall and very thin. Notable for his disheveled appearance, he, however, had caught my attention because of his expression, one that I had frequently seen among my patients—anxious, profoundly depressed, in pain. And I thought I noticed slight repetitive involuntary movements of the musculature around his mouth. “Tardive dyskinesia,” I had silently diagnosed, a neurological condition caused by chronic use of antipsychotic medication. “Poor guy,” I thought at the time but quickly forgot about him.

As the Dalai Lama arrived, the crowd condensed, pressing forward to greet him. The security staff, most of them volunteers, struggled to hold back the advancing mass of people and clear a path to the reception room. The troubled young man whom I had seen earlier, now with a somewhat bewildered expression, was crushed forward by the crowd and pushed to the edge of the clearing made by the security team. As the Dalai Lama made his way through, he noticed the man, broke free from the mooring of the security crew, and stopped to talk to him. The man was startled at first and began to speak very rapidly to the Dalai Lama, who spoke a few words in return. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I saw that as the man spoke, he started to become visibly more agitated. The man was saying something, but instead of responding, the Dalai Lama spontaneously took the man's hand between his, patted it gently, and for several moments simply stood there silently nodding. As he held the man's hand firmly, looking into his eyes, it seemed as if he were unaware of the mass of people around him. The look of pain and agitation suddenly seemed to drain from the man's face and tears ran down his cheeks. Although the smile that surfaced and slowly spread across his features was thin, a look of comfort and gladness appeared in the man's eyes.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly emphasized that inner discipline is the basis of a spiritual life. It is the fundamental method of achieving happiness. As he explained throughout this book, from his perspective inner discipline involves combating negative states of mind such as anger, hatred, and greed, and cultivating positive states such as kindness, compassion, and tolerance. He also has pointed out that a happy life is built on a foundation of a calm, stable state of mind. The practice of inner discipline can include formal meditation techniques that are intended to help stabilize the mind and achieve that calm state. Most spiritual traditions include practices that seek to quiet the mind, to put us more in touch with our deeper spiritual nature. At the conclusion of the Dalai Lama's series of public talks in Tucson, he presented instruction on one meditation designed to help us begin to quiet our thoughts, observe the underlying nature of the mind, and thus develop a “stillness of mind.”

Looking out over the assembly, he began to speak in his characteristic manner as if, instead of addressing a large group, he was personally instructing each individual in the audience. At times he was still and focused, at times more animated, choreo graphing his instruction with subtle head nods, hand gestures, and gentle rocking motions.

“The purpose of this exercise is to begin to recognize and get a feel for the nature of our mind,” he began, “at least on a conventional level. Generally, when we refer to our ‘mind,' we are talking about an abstract concept. Without having a direct experience of our mind, for example, if we are asked to identify the mind, we may be compelled to merely point to the brain. Or, if we are asked to define the mind, we may say it is something that has the capacity to ‘know,' something that is ‘clear' and 'cognitive.‘ But without having directly grasped the mind through meditative practices, these definitions are just words. It's important to be able to identify the mind through direct experience, not just as an abstract concept. So the purpose of this exercise is to be able to
directly
feel or grasp the conventional nature of the mind, so when you say the mind has qualities of 'clarity' and ‘cognition,' you will be able to identify it through experience, not just as an abstract concept.

“This exercise helps you to deliberately stop the discursive thoughts and gradually remain in that state for longer and longer duration. As you practice this exercise, eventually you will get to a feeling as if there is nothing there, a sense of vacuity. But if you go farther, you eventually begin to recognize the underlying nature of the mind, the qualities of ‘clarity' and 'knowing.‘ It is similar to having a pure crystal glass full of water. If the water is pure, you can see the bottom of the glass, but you still recognize that the water is there.

“So, today, let us meditate on nonconceptuality. This is not a mere state of dullness, or a blanked-out state of mind. Rather, what you should do is, first of all, generate the determination that ‘I will maintain a state without conceptual thoughts.' The way in which you should do that is this:

“Generally speaking, our mind is predominantly directed towards external objects. Our attention follows after the sense experiences. It remains at a predominantly sensory and conceptual level. In other words, normally our awareness is directed towards physical sensory experiences and mental concepts. But in this exercise, what you should do is to withdraw your mind inward; don't let it chase after or pay attention to sensory objects. At the same time, don't allow it to be so totally withdrawn that there is a kind of dullness or lack of mindfulness. You should maintain a very full state of alertness and mindfulness, and then try to see the natural state of your consciousness—a state in which your consciousness is not afflicted by thoughts of the past, the things that have happened, your memories and remembrances; nor is it afflicted by thoughts of the future, like your future plans, anticipations, fears, and hopes. But rather, try to remain in a natural and neutral state.

“This is a bit like a river that is flowing quite strongly, in which you cannot see the riverbed very clearly. If, however, there was some way you could stop the flow in both directions, from where the water is coming and to where the water is flowing, then you could keep the water still. That would allow you to see the base of the river quite clearly. Similarly, when you are able to stop your mind from chasing sensory objects and thinking about the past and future and so on, and when you can free your mind from being totally ‘blanked out' as well, then you will begin to see underneath this turbulence of the thought processes. There is an underlying stillness, an underlying clarity of the mind. You should try to observe or experience this ...