Our time is limited

“Our ground time here will be brief.” M. Kumin

In SOL today it’s our penultimate reading, before Thursday’s exam, of Ricard’s Happiness.  He tells us about being a guinea pig in Richard Davidson’s Wisconsin lab, in service of the insight that “the trained mind, or brain, is physically different…” Is it happier?

Well, those whose left prefrontal cortex throbs seem to be. It may not be the secret center of happiness, but it just might be the trigger. [Scientists Meditate on Happiness… Happy Facts…”Cajole Your Brain to Lean to the Left”-Goleman nyt…TED]

Then, evolutionary altruism. “Cooperative behavior, apparently altruistic, can be useful to survival…” Never mind your selfish genes, what matters more are our magnanimous memes. [Biological Altruism, SEP] Each of us is “a note in the ‘great concert‘ of existence.”

And then, discussions of kindness, humility, optimism & pessimism…

the  pessimist starts out with an attitude of refusal, even where it’s totally inappropriate.

Which reminds me, this is Tuesday so we have a staff meeting. Like Ricard’s Bhutanese official (supposedly adminstering the nation’s Gross National Happiness), I know a philosopher or two who greet every agenda item with “No, no, no”.

The ultimate pessimism is in thinking that life in general is not worth living. The ultimate optimism lies in understanding that every passing moment is a treasure, in joy as in adversity.

Finally, praise for the “golden time” of full presence in the moment that is now. Let’s pause right now and look for that…

That was fast. Too fast, maybe. Maybe specious. In any case, Thoreau was right: you can’t kill time without injuring eternity. And Ricard’s right, isn’t he, to remind us that

Our time is limited; from the day we are born, every second, every step, brings us closer to death.

So the exercise at the end of chapter 20 is urgent: remain in the interval of “nowness” as long as you can.

But, STUDENTS, leave time to study for Thursday’s exam.

And leave time as well to study and submit your  nominations for our November text(s). Mine, in no particular order:

• Exploring Happiness (Bok) – Bok explores notions of happiness—from Greek philosophers to Desmond Tutu, Charles Darwin, Iris Murdoch, and the Dalai Lama—as well as the latest theories advanced by psychologists, economists, geneticists, and neuroscientists… a wealth of firsthand observations about happiness from ordinary people as well as renowned figures. This may well be the most complete picture of happiness yet.
• Generosity (Powers) – The protagonist of this novel concludes: Everyone alive should feel richly content, ridiculously ahead of the game, a million times luckier than the unborn…
• Geography of Bliss (Weiner) – Weiner travels the world in search of the happiest places. Many authors have attempted to describe what happiness is; fewer have shown us where it is, and what we can learn from the inhabitants of different cultures…
• Selected essays from Aristotle to Montaigne to James…

A word more on the status of desire, when it’s much more than a negative emotion: The Rock.

Tags: Matthieu Ricard