There is an old zen story that I\u2019ll happily pass on (albeit perhaps in a disfigured form) for you:<\/p>\n
A monk is wandering in China and comes across a royal caravan. The king, seeing the monk, stops the caravan in order to question him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is your teacher?\u201d asks the king from his\u00a0carriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy teacher is Gautama, the Awakened One,\u201d replies the monk without looking up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is his teaching?\u201d asks the king.<\/p>\n
\u201cCease to do evil. Cultivate good. Purify the mind,\u201d says the monk.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cThis teaching is simple!\u201d says the king, with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimple enough for a child of 8 to understand it. But so difficult that rarely can a man of 80 practice (or master) it,\u201d replies the monk, looking up at the king.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Today, when many of us live the lives of kings, the big business is happiness. \u00a0Now that we have it all, how can we be happy?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Or, perhaps more interesting: Why, in an age of such plenty (for the majority in developed countries), are so many of us so miserable?<\/p>\n
If a monk told you that your unhappiness was due to your poor ethics, lack of concern for others, and chaotic mindstream,<\/strong> what would you do?<\/p>\n
One of my interests that I have been unable to indulge lately is experimental ethics, where real-life experiments are used to demonstrate how and why humans act morally, or don\u2019t. One of the experiments I do recall, time and again, goes as follows:<\/p>\n
John\u00a0Darley and Daniel Batson discovered that Princeton seminary students,\u00a0even those who had just been re\ufb02ecting on the Gospel account of the\u00a0Good Samaritan, were much less likely to stop to help someone\u00a0\u201cslumped in a doorway, apparently in some sort of distress\u201d if they\u2019d\u00a0been told that they were late for an appointment. (from here<\/a>, a pdf)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Though we are not necessarily slaves to our passions, we can be slaves to our circumstances. Horrible circumstances can turn good people into monsters<\/a>.<\/p>\n
So we are responsible not only for how we act, but for the circumstances we put ourselves in. And, as any thoughtful person will see, we are also responsible for the circumstances we put others in. If we put people in positions in which they are almost certain to become violent, then who is to blame? We are, of course.<\/strong> Now, in horrible situations, for instance where companies or governments are systematically destroying environments or human lives \u00a0(or both), there are often people willing to shout, \u201cStop! This is wrong!\u201d They are known as\u00a0whistle-blowers\u00a0and are rare \u2013 for a reason. And the reason is not that human nature is bad or anything like that, but rather that horrible situations \u2018twist\u2019 morality for people involved in them, perhaps in the way that black holes twist time and space (for you science geeks).<\/p>\n
One way for many of us to get space from the literal warping of moral-space-time is through meditation. This is just one part of the Buddhist<\/a> path, but it\u2019s important. It\u2019s a skill to be developed, much like muscular abilities, but it brings happiness. Just watch:<\/p>\n