things/objects/stuff

The first question Eric during Sunday morning's talk was (I am paraphrasing): "Can happiness be found in external objects?" The obvious answer is no, and it's just a rhetorical question to spur a certain amount of thinking about what really brings happiness.

He had some definite ideas: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha can provide what external objects cannot. In other words, happiness can be found in the teacher, the teaching, and the community of practitioners. Paraphrasing further, if you look for refuge in your stuff, you are asking for trouble, but if you look for refuge in enlightenment, in the truth, and in others who are working on finding enlightenment and the truth, you might have something.

I had a couple of immediate reactions, which I kept to myself at the time but wanted to try to work out somehow. Why not here?

My first reaction is: why is it all about happiness? Are we to assume that the big questions all come down to how to be happy? Who decided that's the only thing of value, or that all other things of value can be boiled down to being happy? Did I miss the vote where everybody agreed that happiness is the end-all?

Yeah, yeah, Mr. Jefferson, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whatever happened to life, liberty, and property (John Locke's favorites); sex, drugs, and rock and roll (who said it first?); or sun, surf, and smoke (my old friend Paul from Long Island)? Why not satisfaction (John Dewey, Mike Jagger, Keith Richards) or the greatest good for the greatest number (John Stuart Mill)? How about the Good, the True, or the Beautiful (Plato)?

But nooooooo, got to be happy, happy, happy.

Aside from that quibble, I have another bone to pick with Eric's truism. I want to suggest that refuge can be found in a hot shower, a cup of coffee, shoes that fit, a car that runs, my favorite hat, fresh bread, the Sunday paper, a warm breeze after an unusually cold January, a familiar face in a crowded room, a song with that je ne se qua, the book you've been looking for, a strong and relaxed body, a certain photo of a certain someone, the full moon rising beyond the big pine tree, or just the right word for what you've been trying to say. External things are alright!

True, those external objects provide only momentary refuge, and just as quickly the comfort and joy are gone. Point taken. And I guess that was Eric's intention: to point out that the refuge to be found in things is fleeting, so it isn't the kind of refuge worth looking for. I could quibble about that too, but never mind. I'm not sure I want to make this a materialist argument. But I'm also not sure I'm ready to give up my attachment to the shower, the coffee, shoes, my hat, bread, and all those tangible pleasures that do it for me.

On the drive downtown that same morning, NPR did a feature on a musician who quoted Rumi in the title of his new CD, "Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street." The music itself didn't do much for me, but the interview on the radio was kind of interesting. Later in the day, I split some wood, stacked some wood, took a break, built a fire, lay down on the floor in front of the stove, and watched the full moon rise over Ohio. I wouldn't call it happiness, but I wouldn't trade it either.