I am not sure if this is a good state in the long run. What do you live for when everything is always/mostly positive in your head -- but reality is as sad as it ever was. Do you really have an incentive to change something to the better if you are in a constant state of happiness?
I think happiness is a state the brain produces to reward itself for good outcomes in life decisions. The fact that it is only of limited time and intensity has its (evolutionary) reasons -- they are not the worst of all reasons.
Like with depression as chronic sadness and fatigue, chronic happiness is not something we are capable of handling long-term if we want to optimize outcomes for ourselves and others.
> I am not sure if this is a good state in the long run. What do you live for when everything is always/mostly positive in your head -- but reality is as sad as it ever was. Do you really have an incentive to change something to the better if you are in a constant state of happiness?
That's why Morality (Śila) is one of the pillars of Buddhist training. Tibetan monks are taught to cultivate compassion for others at the same time as they are trained in meditation. At least that's the theory, not sure how well it works out in real life.
> Do you really have an incentive to change something to the better if you are in a constant state of happiness?
I'm not sure what a constant state of "happiness" is because I certainly don't consider it en emotion in and of itself, (I consider it contentment, or perhaps euphoria on an occasion, or perhaps lack of suffering), so I'm not sure the concept of "chronic happiness" even makes sense vs the very real physiological effects of chronic stress on the body and mind.
Suffering is only informative as a signal. You have to parse it out and identify the source yourself in order to translate it into effective motivation. This same process is likely necessary to achieve the "happiness" in the first place.
Optimizing outcomes will likely be easier if you're able to focus on the task at hand with a clear mind, or you're able to address background stress, and will let you know if your stress is pushing you in the wrong direction (say, towards a career, but because of social pressure and not your own volition).
Yes, but only for you. The people you live your life with (some of whom you even love) are in the same state of mind as before, and you have no (or at the very least less) reason to change something for the better for them.
I can't understand this position. A positive person often does positive things without a reason or need, especially for their loved ones, as that brings more happiness.
The position is: you are sitting smiling happily and doing nothing, while the nazis come to take your family and you away to the KZ.
(read stories about that actually happened in reality. Basically a form of madness/strategy of the brain to deal with a situation it seems impossible to solve)
I don't think this is how people usually think of positive people. This is resignation, not positivity. IMHO a positive person in this situation would believe in their chance of surviving and fight back.
Totally dependent on the type of training you’re doing. Vipassana tends to focus on letting go, so that you ultimately let god of both good and bad feelings. In a sense to become more neutral — less attachment means less suffering.
They don't train to produce a positive state, they train to produce a peaceful state where no thoughts intrude on the mind. Thought-free states of mind just happen to feel good.
Tibetan monks do practice Bodhicitta, which is a kind of Metta (loving-kindness) practice. This produces positive states of mind, not just peaceful ones. The most famous practitioner is probably Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk who has been called "the World's Happiest Man".
> Do thought-free states feel better than good feeling thoughts?
Yes, significantly better. Firstly, the state of just being is much lighter, not dependent on the memory and understanding of the world it takes to be cognitively happy; it is child-like. Secondly, this silent state is aware that it is self-contained, free from external circumstances, and revels in it; it is not wrong to say it is full of energy and power from self-sufficiency. Thirdly, there is awareness that there is no effort involved in being silent and happy, that no work needs to be done, and that brings a 2nd-order joy, too.
I'm new to this state, though; I just entered into silence for the first time around 6 months ago. It immediately makes me a bit excited when all thought subsides and the silence descends onto me, and that just results in the thoughts coming back :-)
That's great, I had a little glimpse of that last year when I was meditating consistently, but I fell out of it. I'm curious what practice you're using, can you recommend a book or something like that? Thanks
The "Who am I?" enquiry as described in "Self Inquiry Practice" [1] (just the first few minutes of the audio will suffice) and some combination of listening to the various Nisargadatta Maharaj audios on YouTube ([2], [3], for example) helped me.
It should be easy and effortless once you get the knack of it; you should be able to suspend all thought and enter silence on-demand. "Observe your breath", etc; are things that naturally occur AFTER one becomes silent (the intensity of the silence causes you to be attentive to each little movement in the here and now with new eyes). It seems to me that common meditation practice has this in the reverse order and unfortunately, I am not sure that mere imitation is going to help. Instead, abandon all postures and practices except one: the question "Who am I?". Please let me know if you have any further questions.
I think happiness is a state the brain produces to reward itself for good outcomes in life decisions. The fact that it is only of limited time and intensity has its (evolutionary) reasons -- they are not the worst of all reasons.
Like with depression as chronic sadness and fatigue, chronic happiness is not something we are capable of handling long-term if we want to optimize outcomes for ourselves and others.