By George Beinhorn, Living Wisdom School of Palo Alto, California.
I don’t read the papers much, but I came across an article in the Sacramento Bee some years ago that fairly begged to be disbelieved. Here’s an excerpt:
In a Journal of Medical Ethics article titled “A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder,” Liverpool University psychologist Richard P. Bentall argues that the so‑called syndrome of happiness is a diagnosable mood disturbance that should be included in standard taxonomies of mental illness such as the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Happiness, as Bentall states in his abstract, is “statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system.” (In this regard, as Bentall later notes, happiness resembles other psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.)
The author of the Bee article, Maggie Scarf, a New Republic contributing editor, related Dr. Bentall’s suggestion “that the term ‘happiness’ be removed from future editions of the major diagnostic manuals, to be replaced by the formal description ‘major affective disorder, pleasant type.’”
When I read the article aloud to a friend, she promptly doubled over with major affective disorder, pleasant type. “That’s such amazing cock‑a‑doo!” she howled. “It’s so carefully reasoned — yet it’s completely incredible!”
The Practice of Happiness
It is nutty-cakes. And yet, is there anything actually wrong with using scientific methods to study happiness? After all, it’s what the spiritual explorers of all ages have done — studying happiness in the laboratory of their bodies, hearts, and minds, and keeping tidy notes on what worked and what didn’t.
For most of us, happiness isn’t a “mood disturbance” — it’s the answer we’re seeking, and if we can get a little more with the help of scientific orderliness and method, all the better.
Because the world’s spiritual traditions have made a study of happiness, what they say may be worth hearing, in these times of pandemic discontent.
After all, their approach is practical. They tell us, for instance, that we’ve been given five instruments through which we can experience happiness: body, heart, will, mind, and soul. And they explain that as we grow into adulthood, we pass through five stages, each lasting six years, during which each of the “tools,” in the order listed, becomes the primary developmental focus.
Our happiness, they say, increases as we learn to use each of the tools “expansively.” (More on “expansion” later.) Thus the most important time in our lives for learning to be happy is when we are growing up, passing through the six-year stages.
From birth to age six, an infant’s primary developmental focus is on becoming familiar with its body and senses. From six to twelve, the child’s feelings come to the fore — it’s a time when children are particularly receptive to learning through the arts — the “media of feeling,” including stories, music, theater, art, and dance.
From twelve to eighteen, teenagers embrace challenges to their will power, in preparation for independent adult life. And at around eighteen, young people become fascinated with the life of the mind, engaging in late-night discussions of politics, science, philosophy, and the arts.
Finally, at about age twenty-four, many people experience life events that may precede a spiritual awakening. During the school years, however, children can be most effectively encouraged to develop expansive personal spiritual qualities through the body, feelings, will, and mind; thus we will limit our discussion in this book to these four Tools of Maturity.
As each tool takes center stage, the others don’t simply fade away. Thus, while a toddler is primarily concerned with its body and senses, it will not hesitate to express its feelings — with the volume turned up! Nor do the stages begin and end precisely on our sixth, twelfth, eighteenth, and twenty-fourth birthdays; the transitions are gradual.
Why did nature settle upon this particular scheme? In his insightful book, Education for Life, J. Donald Walters explains how each stage prepares the child for the ones that follow. Thus, feeling comes before will power, because feeling is the faculty that enables us to tell right from wrong. Before we can use our will power wisely, with awareness of others’ needs, we need to develop the ability to feel their realities. Walters laments the ruinous consequences of cramming young children’s minds with facts, as is common in schools today, at the expense of developing their capacity to feel sensitively.
Similarly, each stage fulfills the preceding one. Thus, feeling motivates us to action, and will power provides the energy and focus to act upon our feelings. Unless we want something strongly, we won’t exert the energy to achieve it.
Will power, in turn, finds its fulfillment in wisdom, which tells us which actions will make us happy and which will not. And wisdom is fulfilled in Spirit. In Self-realization, we realize that true wisdom and joy come from a higher Source within.
The history of education reveals that in ancient Greece and Rome, and throughout the Middle Ages and Enlightenment, the six-year stages were recognized as natural phases of a child’s growth. Thus appropriate teaching methods were devised for each stage, and schools were roughly divided into the equivalents of our modern elementary school (age six to twelve), junior and senior high (twelve to eighteen), and college (eighteen to twenty-four).
Expanding Awareness Equals Joy
As I hinted earlier, the spiritual teachings of the ages tell us that happiness increases as we learn to use our four human Tools of Maturity “expansively.” Like most abstractions, “expansion” is more easily understood with examples.
Let’s look at what happens when we begin a physical fitness program.
After the first two or three weeks, we find that we are feeling happier and more alive. Why? Because the exercising body has begun to generate energy that spills over to nourish our feelings, will, and mind, expanding their range and force. Expanding our awareness through one “tool,” the body, has influenced the others. Good actions spread their effects — as do “bad” ones. It’s now well-known that negative, contractive thoughts and feelings have adverse health consequences.
The spiritual researchers realized that the single underlying desire that drives our actions is a longing to experience greater happiness, and to escape from sorrow.
Albert Einstein, ever a perceptive observer of the human scene, stated it this way:
Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves. (From an essay, “Cosmic Religious Feeling.”)
People tend to specialize in one, or perhaps two, of the “tools of expansion.” Thus, some people go more by feeling, while others tend to “lead” with their will power or mind. The spiritual teachings encourage us to go with our strengths, while working to correct any imbalances.
It’s fascinating to watch runners with a view to identifying their primary “tool” from their running style. Some runners “lead with their hearts” — chest out, smiling and confident. Others lead with their minds, heads thrust forward or lowered in thought, while others go more by willpower, bulling their way with their foreheads, as if to blast through obstacles.
In many natural processes, the “tools of happiness” tend to appear in the same sequence as in a child’s development. When we fall in love, for example, the first attraction is often, though not invariably, physical. We see a person across the room whose appearance attracts us, and our feelings become aroused. We form a volition to act on our feelings, and we walk over and strike up a conversation. The mind probes for information: Is she married? Does he like children? And if we’re wise, we’ll consult a higher guidance before entering into this important new life venture. We’ve passed through the five “tools” in order – not only the four Tools of Maturity that are the primary concern in the school years – the body, feelings, will, and mind – but also the soul.
When I ran ultramarathons, I noticed that the tools tended to show up in the same natural order. The first hour or two were for the body, as my heart, legs, and lungs found a rhythm and began to generate a flow of energy. The next hour was for the heart — cheerful conversations would spring up among the runners. As my body tired, will power came to the fore — it was time to gather my forces, focus my attention, and not waste energy on distractions.
Farther along, it became important to apply the mind to resolve questions of logistics: How can I fuel my body and pace myself to make it to the next aid station? How can I deal with this blister? Finally, if I succeeded in using the tools wisely, I would enjoy a wonderful inner freedom. I became a very simple person, free from distractions, worries, and restless thoughts, living wholly in the moment.
Talking with other runners, I found that many experienced a similar sequence in the longer rhythms of their careers.
At the start, the major issues tended to be about the body — how to train, which shoes to wear, how to treat an injury, what to eat and drink, and so on.
Later, as the body grew fit, feelings took center stage. The feeling phase is rich with the romance of running, as we explore longer distances, seek challenging courses, and absorb the inspiration of athletic role models.
Later, we crave challenges to our will power. We may take up speedwork, compete with ourselves to run faster times, and enter more difficult races. As we pass through the five phases, we find that the tools we need for the next stage tend to show up in uncanny ways.
After the will power phase, runners often become intrigued by the life of the mind. They learn to plan their training carefully, perhaps using a heart monitor.
Finally, there may be a period where the overriding concerns are spiritual, and all of the other tools are merged in a quest for inner harmony. We seek a fulfillment that comes by “running in beauty,” our activities balanced in a careful synchrony.
It helps to be aware of the five stages of a run, and the natural sequence of a runner’s career. It can help us make appropriate decisions at each stage, deliberately focusing on the “tool of the moment” as we prepare for the stage that follows.
More than we tend to realize, each of the tools is a world unto itself, with its own unique strengths and rewards. In my life, I’ve had the good fortune to enter two of these worlds as a relative newcomer. First, when I started an exercise program, and later when I spent several years working to open my heart.
In the first case, I was amazed to discover the world of the fit body. I had never been in good physical condition, and now, at age twenty-six, I could run for miles barefoot on the beach, probing with fingers of consciousness into the rich inner world of a body that glowed with health and energy. How fulfilling and expansive it was, to enter this spacious new world for the first time!
Later, as my heart began to open, I was delighted to discover the vast inner world of feeling. I became aware that there were issues in my life for which the heart held answers that were hidden to the rational mind. I gained a renewed respect for the world of feeling in which women spend much of their lives. Standing in line at the bank or supermarket, I could quietly enjoy watching women working together, appreciating their communion of feeling.
The System Is Rigged
It all sounds so simple and straightforward — just use the tools expansively and happiness is sure to follow, rather like remembering to brush our teeth in the morning. But in real life, cultivating expansive attitudes turns out to be a challenge. That’s because, as I hinted earlier, the opposite urge, contraction, is a temptation for us also.
Life places essentially the same choice continually before us: will we use our bodies wisely, or abuse them? Our hearts, to love or to hate? Our minds, to be wise or merely clever? Our spiritual instincts, to aspire to the heights or to dabble in psychic trivialities? History — ours and the world’s — is the story of the eternal struggle between these opposing forces in human nature.
Also, the theory is simple, but the details seldom are. We’ve been given all of the tools we need to achieve happiness and success — or so it seems. The trouble is, relying too exclusively on our purely human resources, we sooner or later find ourselves coming up against their limitations.
The four Tools of Maturity embody wonderful expertise, yet their specialization can trip us. When this happens, we can still find answers by looking beyond those merely human instruments. Happily, we can use those tools to tap into an awareness that is fathomlessly wise and loving, and that has our best interests always at heart.
That’s what an expansive Education for Life is about: harmonizing the children’s environment and guiding their activities in ways that will bring them the greatest success and joy.