Happiness: Sitting Quietly, Doing Something

Text: Daniel Goleman (New York Times, July 16, 2009)

I recently spent an evening with Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche, the Tibetan lama who has been dubbed “the happiest man in the world.” True, that title has been bestowed upon at least a few extremely upbeat individuals in recent times [the title was scientifically validated for the Buddhist monk and scientist Ven. Matthieu Ricard]. But it is no exaggeration to say that Rimpoche is a master of the art of well-being.

Courtesy of Crown Publishers Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche

So how did he get that way? Apparently, the same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rimpoche a bit over the years and always found him in good cheer. This meeting was no different.

When I called him at his Manhattan hotel to arrange to get together before we were to discuss his new book, Joyful Wisdom, at the 92nd St. Y, he told me he was in the middle of a shower – but not in the usual sense.

The shower, he told me, had run out of hot water midway. When he called the front desk, he was told to wait several minutes and there would be more hot water. In this situation, I probably would have been peeved. But as Rimpoche told me this, he was laughing and laughing.

The only momentary glitch I’ve witnessed — a few years back — was slapstick: He sat down in an office chair with a faulty seat that suddenly plunged several inches with a thump. Once when this chair had done the same to me, I cursed and groused about it for a while. But Rimpoche just frowned for a second — and the next moment he was his upbeat self again. Quickness of recovery time from upsets is one way science takes the measure of a happy temperament.

While annoyances like these are hardly life’s greatest tests, handling them gracefully takes a composure that few of us seem to have at our disposal. Mingyur Rimpoche was not born into wealth and comfort. He spent his earliest years in a remote Himalayan village lacking even the most basic amenities. Nor was he a lucky winner in the genetic lottery for moods. In his book he recounts being extremely anxious as a child in Nepal, having had what a Manhattan psychiatrist would likely diagnose as panic attacks, and how he cured himself of this chronic anxiety by making his fears the focus of his meditation. He has had to earn his good cheer.

Rimpoche seems eclectic in studying paths to well-being, including Western recipes. A few years ago, he attended a five-day meeting at the Mind & Life Institute that brought together a group of neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama to discuss ways to overcome destructive emotions. He found that the Western scientific findings on emotions had much in common with his own approach to cultivating well-being.

But when it comes to his own pursuit of happiness, Buddhist theory and practice are Rimpoche’s chosen tools. He has done several years-long meditation retreats, under the tutelage of some of the most renowned Tibetan masters. Of course, what we mean by “happiness” can be elusive, what with the myriad varieties of good feeling running from ecstasy to equanimity. One flavor of happiness at which Rimpoche seems to excel has been well-studied by scientists specializing in how emotions operate in our brains.

Richard Davidson, who heads the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, has found one distinct brain profile for happiness. As Davidson’s laboratory has reported, when... More>>

LINK: Prof. Richard Davidson - Be Happy Like a Monk (28:58)
Prof. Davidson of the University of Wisconsin Psychology Department has met with the Dalai Lama to discuss the scientific aspects of meditation. He has mapped the brains of Buddhist monks to identify areas of the brain that change with meditation. More»