Image: IMG_2508 courtesy of beggs

Disclaimer & Introduction

Disclaimer: I have written & published this article in a rush; in fact, I have decided to publish this on  Wednesday night instead of sticking to my new timetable of Thursdays. Why? Because I want you to get it before the download link for the radio program I am about to review goes dead. Unfortunately, that means I have done almost no editing on this article.  In this column I will review the episode of the 17th of May from the Radio National program All in the Mind, a weekly program on Australia’s Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This program is available for downloading as a podcast for a limited time (about 2 weeks left, I believe),and I wanted you to have a chance to actually listen to the program . If you decide to listen to it right new before you continue reading, click here (a new window will open with an on-line player inside). If you prefer to download and listen to it on your favourite media player, right-click here instead and save the file to your computer. If you have no luck with those links because they have been taken off-line, then you can read the transcript here . Like I have already mentioned this review has almost no editing, so you are likely to find some rough edges; I hope the content will be worthwhile enough to make any grammatical mishaps easier to forgive.

First, I will introduce you to the wonderful world of podcasting and the universe of information it can open for you. I will then quickly present 3 of the more intriguing excerpts from the 17 May episode, and provide some short commentary. Let’s get started!

The Wonderful World of ABC Radio National

About 5 years ago, my wife Ines tried to convert me from a viewer of trashy Hollywood movies into an educated viewer/listener of quality content. I am sad to admit that despite her best efforts, she failed. Like a bad first date, this introduction was ephemeral and short-lived: I quickly went back to my fast-food diet of pop music and Hollywood blockbusters.

I am grateful to life for not making this failure a long-lasting one. Her introduction to the wonderful world of ABC Radio planted a seed that took a few more years to germinate.

It was the summer of 2006, and I was busily spending my weekends away on a DIY garden renovation project. One day, my brother-in-law came to help me do some painting, and brought with him a DVD he had burnt himself with several episodes of The Science Show, another fantastic  program from the ABC. That day changed my life. After a day of painting and listening to a series of programs, I was hooked. Since that fateful day, I have been downloading ABC podcasts and using them to enrich every minute I spend during my weekends working in my garden.

Last weekend, whilst mowing the lawn and listening to the aforementioned episode of All in the Mind, I became very excited. As Natasha Mitchell introduced the panel of interviewees, I got goose-bumps: I stopped what I was doing, and started the podcast again. I slowly went back to gardening, but this time I payed a lot more attention than usual to the program. When the episode finished, I knew I had to write a review on it.

This program deals with our quest for happiness. In Natasha’s own words,

The pursuit of happiness is a global obsession. But can science investigate its slippery, subjective nature? What are the metrics—self report, brain activity, or the good deeds we do? Five world leaders in the field join Natasha Mitchell in conversation—neuroscientist Richard Davidson, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace, psychologist Daniel Gilbert and philosopher David Chalmers.

Before I proceed with the review, I would like to recommend five programs available for download from Radio National:

1. Life Matters
2. All in the Mind
3. The Spirit of Things
4. The Science Show
5. Big Ideas

With that out of the way, let’s now move on to the most memorable parts of the episode that got me so excited. 

Buddhism as a contemplative science

Science is not just the domain of (…) explaining the universe, and predicting things, and discovering things. It is also about how our mind works; (it is about) what are the mechanisms of happiness and suffering. So I think Buddhism is an empirical investigation of the mind, and therefore we want to find some kind of truth about how things work and don’t work; and it applies to happiness and suffering as well. - Matthieu Ricard

Matthieu’s description of Buddhism as science was an important moment in the program, as it shifted my perceptions of Buddhism as religion or philosophy. What is amazing is that I’ve known for a very long time the arguments used by Mathieu, yet I had not connected the dots that allow me now to call Buddhism a science - the science of consciousness. Now you know too: Buddhism is more than a religion or a philosophy; it is the scientific & empirical study of consciousness.

Why apply science to something subjective like Happiness?

I think the only people who ever objected to scientific analysis of a phenomenon are people with something to hide, and they are afraid it’s going to get found out. The current American administration would be a nice example; you know they are quite anti-science (and for a good reason because science is going to show, and they know it’s already shown, that many of the falsehoods they want to promulgate are wrong). You know, in ancient Greece there were two kinds of physicians: there were empiricists and dogmatists; and the dogmatists thought the way you understood illness was by developing theories and ideas; and the empiricists thought you should actually go out and study some sick people. And the dogmatists went away, we all know what dogmatic means, because their patients kept dying. And the empiricists kept finding out true things about the world. So this is a very powerful way of finding out information; it is our newest way of knowing and we’re shining…using that to try to investigate one of our oldest problems. - Daniel Gillbert

Just like modern medicine has benefited from the application of the empirical method for its’ advancement; applying scientific disciplines to the study of happiness can yield the same results and assist us to make progress quicker in our understanding of happiness. Natasha alluded in the opening question to Daniel’s comments whether we want to keep the mystery on some knowledge domains, such as the nature of happiness. If we were to find out how happiness works, some may argue, won’t it rob it of its shine, and turn it into a mechanistic experience? This assumption, while understandable, is invalid. Just like applying science to the understanding of the brain has not led to the development of automatons, the scientific exploration of the mind will not lead to the elimination of true, unsuspected, and surprisingly happy moments. Instead, it will increase our awareness and understanding of just how complex we are, and allow us to appreciate our lives and happiness even better.

On the nature of our genetic make-up

Genetic inheritance is like a blueprint. You get a map for how to build a house, and if you just follow that - unless there are some other factors that intervened - probably that was going to follow its course. But you don’t have to build a house the way you’ve got it in the blueprint;  We start with a certain starting point, with no qualities and defects and [unclear] traits, they are pretty stable; but that means when you don’t do anything about it. And so, as Richard said as an epigenesist, it usually comes from outer environment: the affection of the mother, or environment of abuse, all kinds of other things. Here with mental training we are dealing with an inner arrangement, and that’s where you can change those baselines, by attending to every thought and emotion with mindfulness and attention that changes the moods; and the accumulation of that will eventually change the traits if you do something about it. - Matthieu Ricard

Oooohhh…. Aaaahhhhhh…. The timeless discussion of nature vs nurture raises its head again. Who is responsible for who we become and how happy we are: our genes, or our parents? As Mathieu so eloquently illustrates, it is both. And like most cult-like followers of The Secret will tell you, your attitudes, thoughts and focus also have a lot to play in this equation. Mathieu explains it in simpler terms, and without relying on mysterious paranormal laws: By attending to our thoughts and emotions with mindfulness and attention, we carve a better path to success. It is like changing the course of a river: throw one stone into it, and it will create a temporary ripple that will have little impact on the long term. Yet throw hundreds of stones, one at a time, in the right place, and you will build a dam strong enough to change the course of the mightiest watercourse. Practicing mindfulness and attention every day can do the same, bringing what you desire into your life by focusing on what gives you joy and happiness. It’s not magic; it is simply what happens when you continuously focus your attention on what you desire.