Looking at a face, what do you see?  The beauty of symmetry, research says, biases our opinions toward others.  Those who more closely approximate perfection receive more assistance, more rewards, better treatment and so on.  The farther from perfection, the less likely is one to receive promotions, raises, the winning votes in an election and so on.  Strangely though, doesn’t it seem that those same beautiful people, if they misbehave in some way–quickly become the object of schadenfreude?  It is as if while we reward their appearance, we envy them and happily revel in their fall from the pedestals on which put them.  In Buddhism, appearance is one of ten factors that are an operational or functional part, if you will, of the workings of karma. 

Like anyone else, I too am struck by the face of beauty.  Yet I am often, not always, able to see beyond the superficial to the genuine appearance that lies beneath.  Bodhisattva Never Despising, an allegorical character in the Lotus Sutra, was said to walk about bowing to everyone he met, saying he could not despise them for they would eventually attain Buddhahood.  The people, in turn, would strike him with sticks or stones.  The worth of individual human beings is always there, beneath the skin.  The eyes, some say, are the windows of the soul.   Whether by looking into the eyes, listening closely to the voice or following the subtle movements of one facial feature or another, I can see the inner beauty, the Buddha, the transcendent worth, the valuable contribution an individual is making to human existence.   It takes no special talent or effort, just a shift in perception that comes with the practice of Buddhism.

Shankar Vedantam  had a Science page article in the Washington Post today, Is Great Happiness Too Much of a Good Thing?  He begins with an anecdote about an 80 year old man who, after suffering a head-first tumble over the handlebars of a bicycle at age 70, has not only survived the ordeal but finds reasons to feel grateful about life.  The man reportedly feels neither regret nor sorry for himself despite losing the use of his legs due to a spinal injury.  Vedantam goes on to highligh the results of a new study by University of Virginia psychologist Shigehiro Oishi, which superficially seems somewhat out of phase with the anecdote. 

According to Vedantam, Oishi  says that people who experience many more positive than negative events  seem to get less joy from additional happy events — and ever larger bad effects with each negative event. “Getting to ‘very happy’ is like climbing an ever steeper mountain. Additional effort — positive events — doesn’t gain you much by way of altitude. Slipping backward, on the other hand, is very easy.” Vedantam reports.

I find interesting confirmation and correlation to Buddhist principles in relation to this piece.  Undoubtedly most people would prefer to be happy.  But what is happiness?  Is it the absence of hardship?  In the article, Vedantam mentions satisfaction, short-term contentment, global happiness and day-to-day happiness among other things, but misses, I think, taking the critical step of defining terms.  Rapture, one of the states of being (or worlds) in which human beings may move through each day from moment to moment, is something we experience when things go exceedingly well and we are overjoyed–from the mundane effects of the touchdown scored by our favorite team, the taste of a great piece of cake at a happy celebration, or even the peak of an amourous encounter.  All of these fall under the rubric of relative happiness.  As the referee disallows the touchdown for an out of bounds catch, the cake is all gone, or–well you can imagine about the amourous encounter, the happiness is gone.

Absolute happiness, in contrast, is that confidence and conviction–that sense of contentment like that of the 80 year old, that no problems in life cannot be surmounted.  I have no doubt that I will experience frustrations, difficulties, and various negative phenomena on a regular–if not a daily basis.  This is especially true when I am exerting myself strenuosly to accomplish some objective I find important.  I no longer find this reality disturbing.  Yes, it is annoying; but it does not diminish my happiness.  On the contrary, it elevates it.  Having been married twice unsuccessfully, I hazarded a third marriage despite a death threat from my prospective father-in-law.  The outcome has been 27 years of happiness increasing on a day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year basis.  That is the power of challenging one’s destiny, challenging the fundamental darkness that would keep me from the path of the Buddha.  Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

What do the following have in common?  “The Devil made me do it!”  Thank God I got that promotion!”  Or perhaps, “If only we could move to the country, then we would be happy.” 

They all give credit, blame or control to someone or something outside ourselves.  The devil doesn’t make anybody do anything; people choose to do things.  God doesn’t whisper in employer’s ears, advising on who should get promotions.  Why would a change of scenery make life any happier?  Happiness lies in the confidence not only that you control your own destiny, but that you can achieve whatever you want or overcome whatever adversity faces you.  If you are unhappy where you are, going somewhere else just changes the view–not the reality.  This is a small glimpse of the value of a Buddhist perspective on life.  More to come.