I just started reading Matthieu Ricard’s book, Happiness-A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. Right now I am on page 9, so I have just cracked open the book, but it is already very interesting.  

First, the book has reminded me that happiness is a skill, a skill that might take years to master. I can personally vouch for this fact about happiness. I have been thinking about happiness for a long time and my own improvements have been subtle and slow. Yet time-to-time I do notice unmistakable evidence that I am making progress.

I am fascinated by the Buddhist conception of happiness, a good resource is DharmaWeb, a Wiki. It appears that in Buddhist thinking there are two forms of happiness, a happiness that is felt when desires are satisfied, and a happiness that exists when desire itself is extinguished.

I am eager to begin reading the book. Matthieu Ricard is such an interesting person himself, with a background in molecular biology. I wonder how Ricard integrates the mysticism and ritual (e.g., reincarnation, hell realms) of Buddhism with the practical and effective methods of meditation, focus on behavior and mental control? Regardless, it seems clear that there is no major religion more open to science than Buddhism.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Happiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.