🥳 Robert Waldinger, Director of the Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, on What Makes a Good Life

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Thought this has a good message for the Tibetan New Year and The Night Club Community.

The psychiatrist and Zen priest discusses the importance of sangha and how our relational needs shift as we grow older.

Robert Waldinger on Happiness and What Makes a Good Life.pdf (4.7 MB)

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Thank your for sharing this. I loved the part of the article where Waldinger talked about using beginner’s mind as a way to approach relationships we have with familiar people. That’s something I never considered before. I’m going to start doing this.

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•Andrew mentioned this as part of an activity here.

•“Beginner’s mind” is a fundamental component of Zen, so expertly written about by Shunryu Suzushi in his book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind . . . .

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Thanks for sharing that! I was looking for other illusory form practices I could do as that’s where I’m starting with all this. This is perfect. Yes it’s important to approach our practice with beginner’s mind as well. That’s the context in which Shunryu Suzuki spoke of it. Great book BTW, I have it on my shelf. Would recommend it to anyone interested in spirituality.

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This is one of the best articles I have read that you have shared on here. So good!

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“We think that having at least one relationship, one person to whom you feel securely attached and securely connected, is an essential component of what keeps us healthy.”

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“But the surprise was that the people who stayed healthier and were happier were the people who had better, warmer connections with other people. Good relationships really predicted well-being over time.”

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"You can also bring this sense of curiosity to meeting someone you don’t know by asking them questions, which communicates to them, “I recognize you, I’m interested in you.” You will be amazed at how people will light up in response to that kind of curiosity.
Then there’s generosity. One of the things that meditation practice shows us is our judging minds. One exercise that I love that’s really painful for me is counting how many judgments you make in ten minutes of meditation. I lose count. "

Yes me too, really good advice:

“Curiosity is the act of bringing what we call in Zen beginner’s mind, putting aside all your preconceptions and bringing a curiosity even to the person you feel you know everything about. This can be very useful, especially if you’re going to a family gathering where you know everyone and you know which jokes they’re going to tell. One of my meditation teachers gave me the instruction once to ask myself, “What’s here that I have never noticed before?””

What is here that I have never noticed before? Really a profound statement. I remember doing a sitting meditation out in the woods and letting all the visuals flood my eyes, I was amazed at how over time, more and more details started to emerge from the same scenery that I thought I had seen everything in. The more I stilled and relaxed, more details would appear, things that were seemingly hiding in plane sight!

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