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What is genuine happiness? I prefer the term “humanflourishing,” which is a translation of the Greek worde u d a i m o n i a. The usual translation is “genuine happi-ness,” but “flourishing” is more accurate. Like theB u d d h i s t notion of sukkha, and ananda—bliss, joy inthe Hindu tradition—flourishing is a sense of happinessthat’s beyond the momentary vicissitudes of our emo-tional state.

And what would that happiness enta i l ? A meaningfullife.

What makes for a meaningful life ? I consider each day,not just the life as a whole. I look at four ingredients.First, was it a day of virtue? I’m talking about basicBuddhist ethics—avoiding harmful behavior of body,speech, and mind; devoting ourselves to wholesome

For more than three decades, scholar and co n te m-p l a t i ve B. Alan Wa l l a ce has co n s i d e red the pere n-nial question What is happiness? f rom the dualp e rs p e c t i ves of modern science and traditionalBuddhist meditation practice. These two disciplinesare at the heart of the Santa Barbara Institute forConsciousness Studies, launched by Wallace a yearago to conduct rigorous scientific study of contem-plative methods in collaboration with establishedinvestigators in psychology and the neurosciences.Initial research co-sponsored by the Instituteincludes the Shamatha Project, a long-term studyof the effects of intensive shamatha—tranquillity—practice on cognition and emotion, and the UCLAMindful Attention Program (MAP), which is evaluat-ing mindfulness training as treatment for Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). CultivatingEmotional Balance, a program now in clinical trials,combines techniques from Buddhist tradition and

Western psychology, with widespread potentialapplications for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.All this furthers the Institute’s mission to identifyand cultivate the mind states associated with opti-mal happiness and well-being. So far, the researchseems to confirm what Wallace and other Buddhistpractitioners have discovered empirically over thepast twenty-five hundred years: that meditation cannot only counter destructive emotions that get inthe way of happiness but also foster the positivefactors that give rise to it. True happiness, asWallace emphasizes in a new book, GenuineHappiness (Wiley, 2005), is the fruit not of worldlytrappings and ambitions but of a focused mind andan open heart.

T r i c y c l e E d i tor-in-Chief James Shaheen visite dWa l l a ce at his California home, near the Santa BarbaraI n st i t u te, to discuss what Buddhism—and medita t i o n —h a ve to offer us in the pursuit of happiness .

Tricycle speaks with scholar B. ALAN WA L L AC E about the quintessential pursuit.

happiness?

what istrue

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behavior and to qualities like awareness and compas-sion. Second, I’d like to feel happy rather than miser-able. The realized beings I’ve known exemplifyextraordinary states of well-being, and it shows in theirdemeanor, their way of dealing with adversity, with life,with other people. And third, pursuit of the truth—seeking to understand the nature of life, of reality, ofinterpersonal relationships, or the nature of mind. Butyou could do all that sitting quietly in a room. None ofus exists in isolation, however, so there is a fourth ingre-dient: a meaningful life must also answer the question,“What have I brought to the world?” If I can look at aday and see that virtue, happiness, truth, and living analtruistic life are prominent elements, I can say, “Youknow, I’m a happy camper.” Pursuing happiness doesnot depend on my checkbook, or the behavior of myspouse, or my job, or my salary. I can live a meaningfullife even if I only have ten minutes left.

So physical health is not a nece ssary ingre d i e n t ? Notat all. One of my former students has a very rare disease,and every day he goes to the hospital for dialysis anddrug treatment, and will for the rest of his life. Youcould say, “Well, that’s a tragedy, a dismal situation.”But the last time I spoke with him, he said, “Alan, I’mflourishing.” And he was. He was finding a way withinthe very limited parameters of what was available tohim. His mind is clear. He’s reading, he’s growing,h e ’s meditating, he’s teaching meditation to otherterminally ill patients in his hospital. He’s living avery meaningful life in which he can honestly saythat he’s flourishing.

W h a t ’s his secre t ? H e ’s not looking for happinessoutside himself. When we rely on things like a job, aspouse, or money to fulfill us, we’re in an unhappysituation, because we’re banking on somethingexternal. Furthermore, other people are competingfor the same pot, and it’s not an infinite pot. That’sthe bad news.

And the good? The good news is that genuine happinessis not out there in the marketplace to be purchased oracquired from the best teacher around. One of the best-kept secrets is that the happiness we’re striving for sodesperately in the perfect spouse, the great kids, the finejob, security, excellent health, and good looks has alwaysbeen within and is just waiting to be unveiled. Knowingthat what we are seeking comes from within changese v e r y t h i n g . It doesn’t mean you won’t have a spouse, or ac a r, or a satisfying job, but if you’re flourishing, your hap-piness won’t depend so much on external events, people,and situations, which are all beyond your control.

E ve r yo n e ’s heard that wealth does not buy happiness ,but few of us live as if it we re true. On a deeper level wedoubt it and try again and again to take control of ourexternal environment and to extract from it the thingswe think will make us happy—status, sex, financial andemotional security. I think a lot of people in our societyhave given up on the pursuit of genuine happiness.They’ve given up hope of finding happiness, fulfillment,and joy in life. They think, “Well, genuine happinessjust doesn’t seem to be available, so I’ll settle for a betterstereo.” Or they’re just getting by: “Forget about pleas-ure. I’ll just try to make it through the day.” That’spretty tragic.

That sounds like depre ssion. It’s a state in which thespace of the mind compresses and we lose vision. I thinkof lovingkindness—the first of the Four Immeasurables,or Four Divine Abidings—as a vision quest. In tradi-tional maitri [Sanskrit for lovingkindness] practice, youstart with lovingkindness for yourself. That doesn’tmean “What kind of a good job could I get? How muchmoney could I possibly have?” but “How can I flourish?

H a p p i n e ss is awakening to the quest i o n “Who ishappy, who is unhappy, who lives, andwho dies?” True happiness is uncaused, arisingf rom the very nature of being itself. We seek happi-n e ss only when we are asleep to our true nature —d reaming that enlightenment is over there, some-w h e re else. But we are all, already, what we areseeking. Buddhas seeking to be Buddhas. Ha! Howr i d i c u lo u s .

— A d yashanti, San Fra n c i s co Bay area teacher whod raws upon Zen and Adva i ta Ve d a n ta

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How can I live in a way that I find truly fulfilling,happy, joyful, meaningful?” And as you envision thatfor yourself, you extend it out: “How can other peoplewho are suffering find genuine happiness?”

S h a n t i d eva said, “Those deciding to escape from suf-fering hasten right tow a rd suffering. With the ve r yd e s i re for happiness, out of delusion they dest roytheir own happiness as if it we re the enemy.” Why isthis so? Why wouldn’t we adopt a life of virtue if itbrings the genuine happiness we so want? It comesback to the idea that we’re clueless as to what wouldreally bring us the happiness we seek. It may take us avery long time before we even notice what’s happening,because we’ve become so fixated on the symbol, theimage, the ideal, the mental construct: “If I only hadthis type of spouse, this type of job, this amount ofmoney; if only people respected me to this degree; if Ionly looked like this.…” It’s delusion. We all knowpeople who are in good health, have love and fame andwealth, and they’re miserable. Those people are some ofour greatest teachers. They show us that you can win thelottery and lose the lottery of life, in terms of the pursuitof genuine happiness.

If one approaches the path of Buddhist practice with astrong emphasis on the via negativa and the idea thatnirvana is just being free of stuff, then at first glance,nirvana can look pretty boring. But nirvana is not just

getting up to neutral, or Freud’s “ordinary level ofunhappiness.” It’s a lot more than that. And this iswhere we tap into this issue that our habitual state isdukkha, being dissatisfied, anxious. But the Buddhistpremise, which is enormously inspiring, is that what’struly “habitual” is your natural state of awareness, theground state of awareness. This is a source of bliss andcan be uncovered, beginning with the meditative prac-tices like shamatha, the refinement of attention, andbecoming aware of how things really are.

The whole point of Buddha-dharma is that libera-tion comes not by believing in the right set of tenetsor of dogmatic assertions, or even necessarily bybehaving in the right way. It’s insight, it’s wisdom,i t ’s knowing the nature of reality. It is only truth thatwill make us free.

When you say “genuine happiness,” the implicationis that there’s another kind. Yes. We mistake whatB u d d h i s t s call the Eight Mundane Concerns for the truepursuit of happiness: acquisition of wealth and not losingit; acquisition of stimulus-driven pleasures and avoidingpain; praise and avoiding abuse or ridicule; and desirefor a good reputation and fearing contempt or rejection.The point to mention is that there’s nothing wrong withthe ones on the positive side. Take having: would you bea better person if you didn’t have that sweater you’rewearing? No. There’s nothing wrong with acquisitions,but there’s something wrong with thinking they’llbring you happiness.

Genuine happiness is simply tapping into the truecauses of happiness as opposed to things that may ormay not catalyze it. And that’s basically the differencebetween pursing the dharma and pursuing the EightMundane Concerns. Some people actually meditate toserve the Eight Mundane Concerns—solely for thesake of acquiring the pleasure that they get in medita-tion. They’re taking meditation like a cup of coffee, orjogging, or massage. That’s not bad or wrong, but it’svery limited. Meditation can do something that a goodmassage can’t do. It can actually heal the mind.

M e d i tation can do something that a good mass a g e

We ’ re always trying to free ours e lves from miserybut we go about it the wrong way. T h e re are a lo tof small swe e t n e sses in life that wei g n o re b e cause they ’ re so fleeting. It’s very impor-tant to look at what lifts our spirits and brings ush a p p i n e ss — to cherish those moments and cultiva tea p p reciation. Happiness comes from being re ce p t i veto whatever arises rather than fra n t i ca l ly trying toe s cape what’s unple a s a n t .

— Pema Chödron, from True Happiness, a SoundsTrue CD set

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ca n ’ t . It can actually heal the mind.

Untitled (Mandala #407), Bill Armstrong,2001, chromogenic print

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In Genuine Happiness, you write, “When we ’ re ex p e r i-encing diss a t i s faction or depre ssion without any cle a rex ternal cause for it, no bad health, disinte g ra t i n gmarriage, or other personal crisis, could this be as y m p tom or message to us coming from a deeper leve lthan biolo g i cal surviva l ? H ow should we re s p o n d ?A n t i d e p re ssants ess e n t i a l ly tell such fe e l i n g s , ‘Shutup, I want to pretend you don’t exist.’ But what is thefeeling telling us?” Can you comment? What we’retalking about here is dukkha—not as in “I feel miserablebecause I lost something that was dear to me, or I didn’tget something I passionately wanted,” but this deeperstratum of dukkha that is nonreferential and not stimu-lus-driven. There are times when, in the absence ofunpleasant stimuli, you still have a sense of unease, ofdepression, of restlessness—something’s not right butyou can’t quite identify what it is. This is one of themost valuable symptoms we have of the underlying dysfunction of our minds. Once you sense that you’retapping into that, you may say, “I don’t like this feeling,and I’m going to cover it up. I’m going to get lost inwork, entertainment, booze, drugs.”

This society is the most ingenious in history in sup-pressing that basic sense of unease. We go into chemicaloverdrive. Here is a symptom of a life that is not workingvery well, of a mind that is prone to imbalances andafflictions, and instead of taking that as a welcomesymptom, we basically shoot the messenger. The drugindustry says that if you feel anxious, depressed,unhappy, or angry it’s because of a chemical imbalancein your brain. “Take our prescription drug, and this isgoing to make you happy.” The downside of these drugsis that many people think that bad experiences have pri-marily a material basis—that a chemical imbalance isthe root cause. In other words, the Second Noble Truth,the cause of suffering, is chemical imbalance in thebrain. And therefore the cessation of suffering meansgetting numbed out. What this is doing is veiling ourengagement with reality rather than getting to the rootsof depression and anxiety. What you’re experiencing is

the First Noble Truth. And the Buddha says, “Don’tjust make it shut up, but recognize it, understand it.”This is the beginning of the path to happiness.

The ex i ste n t i a l i sts understood that we pursued happi-n e ss in vain. How does the Buddhist ta ke diffe r ? I nB u d d h i s m , pursuing happiness is not just a moving awayfrom one thing—the acquisition of external objects—butmoving t o w a rd a n o t h e r, dharma practice. It’s extricatingyourself from the actual sources of dukkha, which areinternal, and moving toward greater freedom, greatermental well-being, greater balance, greater meaning. Inexistentialist philosophy, this is referred to as “livinga u t h e n t i c a l l y.” Moving away from the true sources ofdukkha toward the true sources of happiness—that isbasically the whole Buddhist psychology right there.

We have a misperception that if we can get everythingto work right, we’ll find the happiness we’re seeking.Then there comes a point when you say, “I see. This hasnever worked. It’s not working now, and it will neverwork in the future.” That’s what a lot of the existentialphilosophers recognized. Camus, Sartre—they refer tothe vanity, the futility, the fundamental meaninglessness.Buddhism, like the existentialists, sees the vanity, thefutility, the emptiness of the Eight Mundane Concerns.But it doesn’t just say, “Here’s a problem and there’snothing we can do about it.” It says, “Those are themundane concerns, and then there’s the dharma. Havingsome faith would be helpful, but if nothing else, youstill have the practice.”

You argue that pra c t i ce keeps us in the world, andt h a t ’s a great challenge. For insta n ce, many of us fo l-low the news, and it’s easy to get pretty depre ss e d .H ow can we stay in the game without being bro u g h t

Society teaches us that suffering is an enemy. Weare constantly encouraged to reject what isunpleasant, disappointing, or difficult. “What’s allthis suffering? Let’s be happy! Have fun!” But oursuffering is not our enemy. It is onlythrough a relationship with my pain, my sadness,that I can truly know and touch the opposite—mypleasure, my joy, and my happiness.

—Claude AnShin Thomas, Zen monk, teacher, anda u t h o r , At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from Warto Peace

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d own by it? The first thing is to recognize that the newsis not all the news that’s fit to print or to broadcast. It’staking place in a one hundred percent commercial con-text. They’re broadcasting the news because they’re paidfor it by their advertisers. And they are giving us thenews that sells, that they feel that people would want towatch. It’s a very selective slice of what’s going on. Thisis not to say that there are no people in the media whoare trying to perform a public service, but the systemitself is commercially oriented.

In Buddhism, we say yes, there is an ocean of suffering.So it’s not bad to show that there’s anger, hatred, delu-sion, and greed in the world. In a way, the media arepresenting some very important facts. Given that, wecan look for different emotional responses in ourselves.

We can get out of the rut of our cynicism, depression,anger, and apathy by cultivating the Four Immeasur-ables. When we see suffering and the causes of suffering,then it’s time for compassion. When we see people striv-ing diligently to find happiness, that’s a time for lov-ingkindness. That rare coverage where they showsomething wonderful that has happened is a time formudita—for empathic joy, for rejoicing in other people’shappiness and in virtue. And then there are circum-stances like natural disasters. When we see there areresponsible people and institutions doing their best toalleviate the suffering, we can decide to maintain equa-nimity and then do the practice of t o n g l e n—taking in thesuffering of the world and offering back joy and the causesof joy. The Four Immeasurables

B l o s s o m , Polly Apfelbaum, 2000, velvet and dye, detail from an installation that is 18 feet in diameter

(continued on page 118)

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are extraordinarily powerfulways of engaging with reality. And they balance eacho t h e r. They’re like the Four Musketeers: when anyone goes astray, the other ones leap in and say, “I canhelp you.”

So if yo u ’ re feeling indiffe re n ce instead of equanimity,then co m p a ssion will balance that? Precisely. Or ifyou’re really hunkered down into attachment and anxi-ety, that’s a time for equanimity.

This alte r n a t i ve ro u te to happiness seems to re q u i re aleap of faith, and that can be sca r y. If I let go of all theex ternals, what will become of me? We don’t need tojump into the deep end. The Tibetans call that“hairy renunciation.” It’s like suddenly getting aninfatuation and saying, “Oh, the whole of society isa pit of blazing fire. I can’t stand it. I’m going to gooff to the bliss of practicing Buddhism.” It’s calledhairy because I’d better shave my head to show I’mserious. Then, of course, in a day or two or a coupleof weeks, you say, “Oh, this is not so much fun, and

where is that girlfriend I left behind, anyway?” It’slike a fling.

So what’s required is not a sudden, abrupt, and totalabandonment of the eight worldly dharmas—the EightMundane Concerns—and practicing only the sublimedharma. It’s like taking a child into the water to teachhim how to swim: you don’t fling the kid into the deepend and see what happens. You take him from the firststep into the shallow end. So have a trial period. Trymeditation for a session in the morning and a session inthe evening. See how that impacts the rest of your day.Then, as you start to get a taste of dharma, you may say,“Well, this is actually tapping into my inner resources.This feels good. And it’s not just good, it’s also virtuous,and what’s more, I’m engaging with reality more clearlythan I have in the past. If I want to bring somethinggood to the world, I’m in a better position to do so.” It isa gradual shift in priorities until eventually your pri-mary desire, your highest value, is living a meaningfullife, devoting yourself to dharma. The Eight MundaneConcerns—they’ll come and go. In fact, when they’rethere, they can even support you in your life.

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As grist for the mill? They’re not necessarily grist forthe mill, but adversity does provide us with an opportu-nity if there is a wise engagement with it. For instance,one of the greatest obstacles to a meaningful life is arro-gance. Well, it’s really hard to be arrogant when you’reencountering great adversity. Then there’s that uneasewe’ve spoken of. If we view that with wisdom, it canarouse our curiosity or maybe even be a very powerfulincentive for transformation, for uprooting the underlyingcauses giving rise to such distress. If you’ve gonethrough terrible interpersonal strife, or a loss, or a finan-cial crisis, for example, you could look at it and say,“How did that happen? What did I contribute to it?And why am I suffering so much now?” These are mes-sages—symptoms of an underlying discord, a disen-gagement from reality, coming out of delusion, hatred,and craving. I think the Three Poisons are as importantfor understanding the human situation as the three lawsof Newton are for understanding the physical universe.And when you see how important dharma is in the faceof adversity, then it becomes a priority. You let it satu-rate your life. That’s when dharma really takes on its

power—when it’s not confined to a meditation sessionhere or there.

Which brings me to your view that the culmination ofthe Buddha’s pra c t i ce was not enlightenment under theBodhi tree but service to others . I believe the Buddhaachieved something utterly extraordinary under the Bodhitree, but he recognized that if this event was to be asmeaningful as possible, it had to be shared with others.Enlightenment isn’t something just for yourself: “NowI’ve got the good stuff, and therefore I’m finished.” Entirecivilizations were transformed by this one man’s presence,but it wasn’t just the forty-nine days sitting under theBodhi tree that did it. It was the next forty-five years,engaging with courtesans and beggars and kings andw a r r i o r s—the whole range of human society—and havingsomething to offer to everyone. So if we go back to the fouraspects of a meaningful life, what happened under theBodhi tree is clearly the culmination of virtue, happiness,and truth. And for the next forty-five years he was outthere, bringing something good to the world. So I wouldsay the Buddha is the paradigm of a meaningful life. ▼

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