The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized

1 The Bodhisattva’s Brain

BUDDHISTS LEAD SCIENTISTS TO THE “SEAT OF HAPPINESS” This is my favorite extravagant headline from among numerous hyperbolic ones that appeared in the third week of May 2003. To my chagrin the source was an article I published that week in The New Scientist magazine that reported on two preliminary studies on one meditating monk (Flanagan 2003a). News agencies such as Reuters, the BBC, and Canadian and Australian Public Radio were the first out of the gate with reports on the research, and I did (too) many media interviews. Dharma Life magazine, in an amusing headline of its own, called the scientists, Richie Davidson and Paul Ekman, who performed the early studies on the meditating monk, “Joy Detectives.” I had described their preliminary results as “tantalizing” and said that we were positioned to test the hypothesis that long-term Buddhist practice might produce happiness. This is very different of course from saying that studies on Buddhist practitioners had, in fact, led scientists to the Holy Grail of the “seat of happiness”! “C’est la vie,” as the cheerful French-born meditating monk, Mathieu Ricard (the fellow whose frisky brain caused the media stir), might have said. “Que sera sera!” The hypothesis that there is a connection between Buddhism and happiness is now out there, and research designed to test the hypothesis is advancing. So now several years after my initial article appeared I take a deep breath and ask, is Buddhist dharma the path to “true happiness”? The question is interesting because Buddhism is first and foremost a philosophy that promises awakening and enlightenment. Is it possible that awakening and enlightenment bring happiness in their trail? If so, what kind of happiness? Happiness Hypotheses What is the evidence for the claim that there is a connection between Buddhism and happiness? The claim that there is some such connection is out 1 The Bodhisattva’s Brain 10 Chapter 1 there. The first point or observation is that there are several different claims that, to my eye, are being conflated but should be kept apart. • There is a connection between being a Buddhist (What counts as being a Buddhist—monk, nun, layperson? What are the membership properties?) and being happy (which kind and how defined?). • There is a connection between meditating (which way among the thousands of different types?) in a Buddhist way and feeling good (does feeling good = being happy, and if so, which kind of happiness?). • There is a connection between being in a Buddhist frame of mind and being good. (What is the nature of this connection? Is it causal or correlational ? How are being in a Buddhist frame of mind and being good conceived , and what, if any, connections are each, being a Buddhist and being good, alleged to have to happiness as opposed to each other?) • There is a connection between being a Buddhist and physical heath and well-being. (What is the connection between health and happiness; how are health and happiness conceived?) • There is a connection between being a Buddhist and possessing certain kinds of unusual autonomic nervous system control such as being able to control the startle reflex. (What is the connection between happiness and this sort of autonomic control?) • Experienced Buddhist practitioners are very good face readers. (What is the connection between face reading and happiness?) • Experienced Buddhist meditators have lots of synchronized global brain activity. (What is the connection between such synchronized global activity and happiness, well-being, good mood, physical or mental heath, and so on?) There is more, but these seven hypotheses provide a sense of the distinct claims being bandied about and conflated as if they express some wellfounded scientific consensus that Buddhists are unusually happy. Kinds of Happiness Philosophers East and West agree that humans seek pleasure and that not all pleasures are equally worth seeking. There are debates about the relative worth of sensual versus intellectual pleasures (which is worth more, great sex or contemplating the impermanence of everything?), quantitative versus qualitative pleasures (how many ice cream cones are worth literacy), and so on. Aristotle pointed out that everyone he asked, “What do you want for its own sake, for the sake of nothing else,” said “eudaimonia,” The Bodhisattva’s Brain 11 literally to be “happy spirited.” The trouble is that people in his sample disagreed about both its causes (money produces it, money doesn’t produce it; virtue produces it, virtue doesn’t produce...