Validity of the Dalai Lama's Views on Happiness

The Dalai Lama argues that the happiness material wealth and goods provide us with are only sensual in nature. Rather than bring about genuine happiness, material goods often result in unhappiness and inner suffering. His view is accurate, balanced and can withstand criticism.

Material goods can only provide us with a superficial level of happiness that is restricted to the “level of the senses” (p16). In other words, it can only make us physically more comfortable or improve our physical well-being. The fact that we have “thoughts and emotions as well as imaginative and critical faculties” (p16) is a clear indication that our needs are not purely physical or sensual. Material goods cannot provide us with satisfaction beyond the physical realm. It cannot help alleviate our feelings of “anxiety, stress, confusion, uncertainty and depression” (p16). In fact, material wealth is often a cause of such feelings. This is evident in the prevalence of such feelings and emotional suffering in materially developed countries (p5). According to the Dalai Lama, genuine happiness is “lasting and therefore meaningful” (p57) unlike contentment derived from material wealth. Genuine happiness stems from inner peace, which is grounded in concern for others, empathy and sensitivity. The fact that inner peace is the “principal characteristic of happiness… explains the paradox” (p55) that there are people who are unhappy despite being materially wealthy and people who are happy despite being poor.

Detractors to the Dalai Lama’s view might argue that material wealth contributes to happiness that goes beyond sensuality. First and foremost, money opens many doors and gives one more choices, effectively providing one with freedom of action as it fr...

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...wledges that just as there are different forms of sufferings, there are different kinds of happiness. While it is possible to achieve a sensory kind of happiness through material goods, genuine happiness can only be gained through inner peace. And even though poverty is not an ideal, money is not everything either. Being consumed by amassing material wealth does not generate happiness, but rather brings about unhappiness.

Works Cited

Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho. Ethics for the New Millennium. New York: Riverhead, 1999. Print.

Gammell, Caroline. "We're Wealthier than in 1987, but No Happier." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 09 Apr. 2008. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Hertz, Larry. "Does Money Buy Happiness?" Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly. N.p., 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield: Charles Dickens. New York NY: Baronet, 1977. Print.