Buddha on Happiness via Harari

I re-read "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari every

year. It reminds me that much of the world is made of stories in our collective

thoughts, e.g., countries, corporations, herachies, money, the Communist

Manifesto, the Declaration of Independence, etc., etc. Harari explains what many

modern isms promise and how they have fared. Unlike most history books,

"Sapiens" discusses the condition of human happiness and offers a Buddhist's

point of view. I learn or relearn something everytime I open the book.

 

Here are some extracts on Buddhism happiness. I believe they tell the truth and

worth keeping in mind, all the time.

 

P224:

"Gautama's insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually

reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction."

 

P395:

"Buddha agreed with modern biology and New Age movements that happiness is

independent of external conditions. Yet his more important and far more profound

insight was that true happiness is also independent of our inner feelings.

Indeed, the more significance we give our feelings, the more we crave them, and

the more we suffer. Buddha's recommendation was to stop not only the pursuit of

external achievements, but also the pursuit of inner feelings."

 

P.S. As Marcus Aurelius was said to pursue "virtue above pleasure" and

"tranquility above happiness," there indeed seems to be a connection between his

philosophy and Buddhism. The Stoics don't have the tools from Buddha, e.g., his

ethic rules of living, meditation, etc. Instead, they adopt a "death in harness"

attitude, which sounds impressive all the same.

[stillthere]

When a book teaches you something new or reminds you of something important every time you re-open it, I know I have to read it too.

It’s truly a remarkable book, and I find myself connecting with so many of its sentences and paragraphs.

I was also very impressed by the author’s background.

[7grizzly]

Buddha's ethical rules ban liqor, meat, killing, etc., because they lead to more
cravings. Even one follows all of them, however, he could be hankering after
something else, computer games, e.g. The key should be to monitor the mind and
fix cravings instead of merely observing rules handed down by Buddhists.

[7grizzly]

回複 '暖冬cool夏' 的評論 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and your comments.
From a Buddhist culture, we are all familiar with the idea in a general sense.

What I like about Harari's narrative is that it invites action. E.g., would it be
possible to stop pursuing "inner feelings" while playing an active role of
society, which seems to be what the Stoics advocate.

[暖冬cool夏]

無欲無求,空, 放下一切 are what are advocated in Buddhism. Desire/Craving is the root of human suffering:)) No desire, no disappointment, and thus no unhappiness.
But that could be very hard. We can only minimize our desire to some extent:)
By the way, I don't subscribe to any magazine online. I borrow from library:)