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A researcher on how to live a happy life

ox.ac.uk

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Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#121

Post by jmchuster »

vntx wrote: post #56

Long commutes are indeed the bane of my existence. One can never feel more helpless and outraged while stuck in heavy traffic. Ironically, this pandemic has made me much happier as I don't have to drive everywhere. I finally have more time to think and pursue my curiosities instead of burning gas and yelling expletives. It's quite refreshing.

I actually have found long (low traffic) commutes to be quite nice for just spacing out and thinking. It's a block of time at the beginning of each day and then at the end of each work day that forces you to ignore the distractions of the world and just leaves you by yourself.

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#122

Post by minkzilla »

I-M-S wrote: post #119
asdfologist wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty much sums up Christian ethics.

Christian ethics is all about demanding a payment, ie. the promise that one's good deeds will be rewarded in afterlife.

From the Catholic perspective this is not true. People do not Earn heaven, it is a gift. And doing the right thing is good for it’s own sake.

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#123

Post by ImaCake »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #69

> Almost no one thinks about actively retraining the way they think. In fact, I don’t think this last idea even crosses most of our minds. Really? I'm pretty sure there are thousands of years of philosophical and religious traditions that teach something along the lines of "looking for happiness in the external world is a bad idea, instead try working on yourself". I mean the four noble truths of Buddhism, a religion…

> I think even most instagram celebrates of realized that maybe "self work" is a good idea.

There is an entire community within instagram that is focused on this. I think they call themselves the "positivity movement". I have a cousin who is heavily involved in it. They mean well but as a skeptical outsider I always find it a bit dogmatic; they tend to focus to much on improving point of view without the concomitant work on the material self.

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#125

Post by hinkley »

sukilot wrote: post #50
hinkley wrote: post #44

There's a bit of a trap here that I find myself standing in. Parts of our culture are participatory. You get social benefits from going through the same things as your peers. When you stop getting sucked into things by your insecurities, you become non-participatory. You miss out on chances to connect with other people. There is no bonding experience for you, but there is for everybody else. It can be kind of alienat…

What's the problem? You can enjoy the movie and talk about the connections to Bronte and the little clues the movie showed. The problem seems to be less that literature is derivative, and more that the viewer is looking for reasons to dismiss things instead of reasons to enjoy them.

If you have a simple, relatable problem, then you can illustrate it with something that gets to the heart of the matter.

If you're trying to illustrate something esoteric, like black hole physics, immunology, or Zen, you're going to have to come at it sideways, via analogy, and possibly layered. Which may be part of our current, greater problem with anti-intellectualism. People understand the analogy and think this has prepared them to participate rather than appreciate.

So the problem with movies is that movies are the least of the problem.

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#126

Post by coldtea »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #71
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #69

> Almost no one thinks about actively retraining the way they think. In fact, I don’t think this last idea even crosses most of our minds. Really? I'm pretty sure there are thousands of years of philosophical and religious traditions that teach something along the lines of "looking for happiness in the external world is a bad idea, instead try working on yourself". I mean the four noble truths of Buddhism, a religion…

If you tell yourself that the real world is irrelevant, it makes you more irrelevant in the real world.

That doesn't equate to unhappy though... Could be the exact opposite...

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#127

Post by slothtrop »

parsley27 wrote: post #8

I found it strange that there was not one mention of the ancient Stoics, who, disregarding their non-materialist viewpoints, came up with much of this philosophy. I'd argue they are a more accurate original source of these viewpoints on mindfulness and contentment than the Epicureans.

I think this just exemplifies that Epicureanism and Stoicism share strong overlaps, despite their being pitted against one another.

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#128

Post by microtherion »

agumonkey wrote: post #82
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #69

> Almost no one thinks about actively retraining the way they think. In fact, I don’t think this last idea even crosses most of our minds. Really? I'm pretty sure there are thousands of years of philosophical and religious traditions that teach something along the lines of "looking for happiness in the external world is a bad idea, instead try working on yourself". I mean the four noble truths of Buddhism, a religion…

suffering can be deeper, but that's also probably stepping into psychiatry territory.. my point is you cannot reason or meditate everything away

> you cannot reason or meditate everything away

Yes, there are external events that are beyond one's control, but often one's reaction to those events is amenable to reason and/or meditation.

(A thought expressed, e.g., by Epictetus: "ταράσσει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οὐ τὰ πράγματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων δόγματα" — people are disturbed not by events, but by their opinions about events).

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#129

Post by jayrice257 »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #76
dr_dshiv wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some of my favorite Epictetus quotes: Chapter 8 Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whatever way they happen: this is the path to peace. Chapter 9 Sickness is a problem for the body, not the mind -- unless the mind decides that it is a problem. Lameness, too, is the body’s problem, not the mind’s. Say this to yourself whatever the circumstance and you will find without fa…

A lot of philosophy and "wisdom" is in telling people what they should do and probably already try to do without giving them the tools to do it. A wise person realizes it is silly to tell someone "Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want" without giving them real tools to address their feelings.

Pretty sure the practice of stoicism is more than toothless claims with no actionable ideas. Have you read much of it?

Re: A researcher on how to live a happy life

#130

Post by hprotagonist »

I-M-S wrote: post #119
asdfologist wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty much sums up Christian ethics.

Christian ethics is all about demanding a payment, ie. the promise that one's good deeds will be rewarded in afterlife.

there isn't such a thing as the singular christian ethics.

And the theologians i've read who seem the most on point explicitly reject the transactionalist nature of payment-demanding as inhuman and a fundamental misunderstanding of the game.

i'm on board with universal reconciliation, so "pie in the sky when you die" never did it for me anyway, but to be clear i'm also not describing "some happier future state" in my top post as anything other than improvement for our lives as we know them right now on this planet.

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