Which Way to Happiness?
By Brent Davis, Campus Ministry Coordinator
In 2006, a heartwarming movie, entitled The Pursuit of Happyness, came out about a homeless man and his son pursuing happyness [sic] in a brokerage firm. Happiness or joy is something we are all pursuing.
What do you do when you are unhappy? We can deal with whatever we believe is making us unhappy, or we can see the feeling itself as the problem. Some approaches to dealing with the psychological state are medication, Buddhism, Skepticism, and therapy. Dealing with external issues that seem to be the cause of unhappiness is the other approach. The exact issue is often related to where we are on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943). Ice cream and chocolate are attempts to deal with both!
The Bible recommends a two-pronged approach: deal with real issues, and redirect your feelings about unreal issues.
Medication, especially alcohol, is a very popular approach to dealing with unhappiness or instantly feeling euphoria. Unfortunately these feelings do not last, and may create dependence or addiction that destroys things that bring genuine well-being like relationships and paychecks. Daily consumption of dark chocolate significantly reduced negative affect (Ji-Hee Shin, 2022).
In Buddhist teachings, equanimity, or peace of mind, is achieved by detaching oneself from the cycle of craving that produces dukkha. So by achieving a mental state where you can detach from all the passions, needs and wants of life, you free yourself and achieve a state of transcendent bliss and well-being. (Pursuit-of-Happiness.org, 2024)
Skepticism overlaps a bit with Buddhism, in fact, some assert that it is Hellenized Buddhism but with a typically Greek focus on reason (Le, 2020): it is unreasonable to think that you can be certain about anything (even about being uncertain?). Ceasing to strive for certainty leads to a sort of happiness (ataraxia).
At this point, some people need therapy to be happy or less depressed. One popular therapy is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Chand, Kuckel, & Huecker., 2023). Like Buddhism and Skepticism, the basic idea is that the patient believes things that make him/her unhappy, and that by changing the thinking and resultant behavior (or avoid behavior that triggers wrong thoughts), the patient will be happier.
Now, let’s turn to approaches that deal with becoming happier by developing resources to address key needs: most physical needs can be met by having more money and capitalism (like by the protagonist in The Pursuit of Happyness) is extolled as a way to achieve wealth. There are studies that show rich people tend to be happier than poor people (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, 2023). Few, though, simply advocate a pure emphasis on wealth as a means to happiness. As Maslow pointed out, there are also social and self-actualization needs that need to be addressed.
The social approach to happiness can be illustrated by the popular song: “You’re Going to Be Popular” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4rpG-dipYA. On a more serious note, attachment studies by Bowlby (1982) and later Schore (Schore, 1994) have shown that normal development requires proper attachment to a caregiver.
Finally, we have the approach favored by the author of The Declaration of Independence with the famous line “the pursuit of happiness.” How did Thomas Jefferson pursue happiness?
For Jefferson, happiness required the daily cultivation of virtue, which the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith defined as “the temper of mind which constitutes the excellent and praiseworthy character.” If you had to sum it up in one sentence, the classical definition of the pursuit of happiness meant being a lifelong learner, with a commitment to practicing the daily habits that lead to character improvement, self-mastery, flourishing, and growth. (Rosen, 2024, p. 6).
“I am,” Jefferson wrote to a correspondent who wanted to know his philosophy of life, “an Epicurean” ( p. 72). In short, Jefferson tried to use his reason to develop a virtuous life along the lines of Cicero (a Stoic) or Epicurus (the founder of the Epicureans).
Enlightenment philosophers from across the geographical and temporal spectrum tend to have a great deal of confidence in humanity’s intellectual powers, both to achieve systematic knowledge of nature and to serve as an authoritative guide in practical life. This confidence is generally paired with suspicion or hostility toward other forms or carriers of authority (such as tradition, superstition, prejudice, myth and miracles), insofar as these are seen to compete with the authority of one’s own reason and experience. Enlightenment philosophy tends to stand in tension with established religion, insofar as the release from self-incurred immaturity in this age, daring to think for oneself, awakening one’s intellectual powers, generally requires opposing the role of established religion in directing thought and action. The faith of the Enlightenment – if one may call it that – is that the process of enlightenment, of becoming progressively self-directed in thought and action through the awakening of one’s intellectual powers, leads ultimately to a better, more fulfilled human existence. (Bristow, 2023)
Benjamin Franklin also tried to emulate Cicero and wrote down a list of 12 virtues which he attempted to develop his character with. Eventually, he gave up (Rosen, 2024).
Then, there is the Jesus way to happiness:
25At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! 27“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 28Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11: 25-30).
The path to happiness is difficult, but Jesus guides us and helps us carry our burdens. He helps us develop the virtues we need, supplies our needs when we prioritize His kingdom concerns, and helps us to regulate our cravings and replace them with His peace—and He never leaves us! Jesus created us and our needs. We can trust Him to bring us to ‘happyness.’
References
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52(4), 664–678. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456.x
Bristow, W. (2023). Enlightenment. (E. N. Nodelman, Editor) Retrieved from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2023/entries/enlightenment/
Chand, S. P., Kuckel, D. P., & Huecker., M. R. (2023, May 23). Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Retrieved from National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470241/
Ji-Hee Shin, C.-S. K.-M. (2022). Consumption of 85% cocoa dark chocolate improves mood in association with gut microbial changes in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 99, 1-8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108854
Le, V. (2020, May 13). Introduction to Pyrrho’s Way. Retrieved from Medium: https://pyrrhonism.medium.com/introduction-to-pyrrhos-way-the-ancient-greek-version-of-buddhism-c05ca07a34bd
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
Pursuit-of-Happiness.org. (2024). Buddha. Retrieved from Pursuit-of-Happiness.org: https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/buddha/
Rosen, J. (2024). The pursuit of happiness: How classical writers on virtue inspired the lives of the founders and defined America. Simon & Schuster.
Schore, A. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. (2023, April 17). Knowledge at Wharton. Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/does-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-the-research-says/
