DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Greed, Hatred and Delusion and The Three Feelings

**Preegovesem** · 01-22-2011, 01:09 AM

Am I arrogant much

No, I don't look at your statement as arrogance - it is feeling you have and, I think, one that is consistent with the history of mankind. If you trust the Amercian media to accurately portray the mood of people, (nearly) everyone seems to be miserable(maybe I'm exaggerating a bit here).

On the other hand, the progress in the science, engineering, etc, seems to me to make life easier for most - not all, given the state of some very poor countries.

To me, the deeper question is: what is "happiness" - how do we define it so that we can decide if we are there? I can't come up with a good definition - it can't be "whatever makes you feel good" for then being on uppers 24 hours a day would consist of happiness for some people. If we accept that the definition is different for each person then the concept/word has essentially no meaning whatever - it is an arbitrary label with no primary content.

In Buddhism, one can speak of equanimity with the assumption that we are all using the word in a way that communicates a notion we hold in common. I don't think "happiness" shares the sort of well-formed property.

Is happiness something we are born with? Is a perception of life as good or bad, in some ways, a genetic property or is it always a learned "feeling" - is a baby born with a "blank slate" or is the tendency to view life one way or the other already there in some form?

Here is one way of looking at happiness that I've encountered in my reading that seems on target at my present level of understanding of life: "The task of ethics is to define man's proper code of values and thus to give him the means of achieving happiness". That is, happiness results from living an ethical life - which seems to me to interface nicely with some of Buddahs teachings.

Just some rambling thoughts - maybe not directly related to Buddhism but, to me, not unrelated either.

01-22-2011, 01:09 AM	#16
Preegovesem Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 457 Senior Member	Am I arrogant much No, I don't look at your statement as arrogance - it is feeling you have and, I think, one that is consistent with the history of mankind. If you trust the Amercian media to accurately portray the mood of people, (nearly) everyone seems to be miserable(maybe I'm exaggerating a bit here). On the other hand, the progress in the science, engineering, etc, seems to me to make life easier for most - not all, given the state of some very poor countries. To me, the deeper question is: what is "happiness" - how do we define it so that we can decide if we are there? I can't come up with a good definition - it can't be "whatever makes you feel good" for then being on uppers 24 hours a day would consist of happiness for some people. If we accept that the definition is different for each person then the concept/word has essentially no meaning whatever - it is an arbitrary label with no primary content. In Buddhism, one can speak of equanimity with the assumption that we are all using the word in a way that communicates a notion we hold in common. I don't think "happiness" shares the sort of well-formed property. Is happiness something we are born with? Is a perception of life as good or bad, in some ways, a genetic property or is it always a learned "feeling" - is a baby born with a "blank slate" or is the tendency to view life one way or the other already there in some form? Here is one way of looking at happiness that I've encountered in my reading that seems on target at my present level of understanding of life: "The task of ethics is to define man's proper code of values and thus to give him the means of achieving happiness". That is, happiness results from living an ethical life - which seems to me to interface nicely with some of Buddahs teachings. Just some rambling thoughts - maybe not directly related to Buddhism but, to me, not unrelated either.
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