There’s a new field of psychology that is emerging that appears to be rediscovering what has been taught by larger-than-life spiritual philosophers thousands of years prior. It’s being presented at the University of Pennsylvania by a man named Dr. Martin Seligman.
Dr. Seligman has done a great deal of work in learned helplessness (a subject of great interest that describes a condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even when it has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance). More recently, however, Dr. Seligman is working on something called Positive Psychology – which studies strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
In his website’s own words:
Dr. Seligman’s main mission has been the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology. This discipline includes the study of positive emotion, positive character traits, and positive institutions. Dr. Seligman is now turning his attention to training Positive Psychologists, individuals whose practice will make the world a happier place, parallel to the way clinical psychologists have made the world a less unhappy place.
I watched a presentation of his at the TED conference and once it settled into a place of comfort, some dots began connecting for me.
Here’s his talk (and a link incase the embedded feed doesn’t work):
The key points I want to focus on are how he defined three types of positive living. From a Western culture perspective, they increase in depth and fulfilment as you go down the line. They are:
A Pleasurable Life
A Engaged Life
A Meaningful Life
Most of us in the US seek a distorted form of the Pleasurable Life. Before the distortion this used to be the 1950’s version of the American dream: when family values were values instead of the punchline in some campaign slogan. We’ve diviated even from the most surface level of happiness as we’ve become more materialistic - primed by our friends in advertising. More mature cultures generally encourage family and friends as the superior source of “juice” for the Pleasurable Life.
After I saw this video I spoke with my brother about the three types of life I’d seen discussed in the Seligman video. He paused momentarily and then suggested that most Buddhists are seeing living in-the-now as a form of amplified detachment; done in an effort to eliminate suffering.
Interesting. Maybe these “happy lifes” warrant some closer consideration…
A Pleasurable Life – This state is a place where you are having or seeking as many pleasures as possible. You are also learning how to amplify these pleasures. This is partially heritable and it also is can be fleeting because it’s kind of like acclimating to a drug – you need more to feel the same. While most of us target the pleasurable life, those who are “successful” at this level, are so because they have emphasized the creation of a broad and probably deep social network.
An Engaged Life –This is a form of intense concentration that results in a sensation of flow. You become unaware of emotion, effort, and time. It might even be considered the opposite of the pleasurable life, if there is such a thing as “opposite”, because in a pleasurable life you are seeking to experience stimulation and in the engaged life you are using specific kinds of stimulation to seek a form of detachment.
As my brother duly noted, there is a heavy emphasis on this type of life when you research Buddhism. Buddhism is oriented toward the realization that suffering exists (1st Noble Truth), it is caused by ignorance/attachment (2nd Noble Truth), that the cessation of suffering is attainable (3rd Noble Truth) and that in order to remove suffering you follow the 8 fold path (4th Noble Truth). The 8 fold path is a list of specific steps you can use to attain enlightenment: generally a form of detachment/engagement existing with the adherent experiencing an absence of suffering (or anything really).
Buddhists are masters at maintaining because they become experts in manipulating their attention through their consistent practice of meditation and adherence to the 8 fold path. More fulfilling than seeking the Pleasurable Life, it requires attentive focus.
A Meaningful Life – Using your strengths in the service of something larger than you are - the hallmark of the meaningful life. Christianity more-or-less points its compass here as its magnetic north. With a modicum of study, it becomes clear that Jesus is teaching people to pursue something larger than themselves – with a heavy emphasis on compassion.
It is true that most religions provide this sense of something-greater-than-oneself, but where the mark is missed is in connecting with purpose - religions fall into the trap of bequeathing purpose when instead an individual really needs to uncover it on their own. Purpose is a cornerstone here and according to Dr. Seligman is one of the most potent ways to get fulfilment is to operate altruistically towards your fellow man.
But wait…there’s MORE!
There is another spiritual philosophy that does a beautiful job of incorporating and balancing all three types of happy-living. It’s called Hinduism. Like most religio-fied philosophies there’s some wayward misdirection woven into it, but when you synthesize it to its core – it holds up unsurprisingly well. I say unsurprisingly because the founding fathers and mothers of Hinduism, the Vedics, have been kicking around and refining these concepts for 7,000 years (by some accounts).
It is interesting to note that when you study Hinduism (the 3rd most populous religion at 1 billion people), that it has extensive instructions for a path to an enlightened and spiritual life - as well as a pleasurable, engaged, and meaningful life. From what I’ve studied so far, the elements of Hinduism seem highly practical (like Buddhism) and heavily metaphorical (like the New and Old Testaments in Christianity).
Is it the “best” philosophy? I don’t know. I just bring it up because it’s one that Western folks know little about (Buddhism is making some progress in the hearts and minds).
All religions are complex and complicated constructs; being neither good nor bad but what we make of them. They are the result of centuries of billions of souls adding their own twists and interpretations as they saw things or wanted to see things; practice mixing with rituals folding into parables blending from history.
What is clear from Seligman’s work, is that the seeds where the religions grew from demonstrate the intent to provide adherents with a purposeful and meaningful life. The early spiritual explorers must have gotten happiness from meaning, and meaning from finding happiness.
I find two things satisfyingly ironic about the search for the meaning of life:
We can’t truly discover meaning until our life is over (we create meaning until the very end)
Once our own life IS over, we don’t get to decide what its meaning is anymore…others get to do that for us
That said, I am happy to see Dr. Seligman’s Positive Psychology coming full circle in the process of rediscovering what’s old and making it new again. It is a good start if discovering meaning has previously been obscured in the esoteric.
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