The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Haidt Jonathan

Author:Haidt, Jonathan [Haidt, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780465003686
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2006-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

This change in ways of relating points to the third common benefit: Trauma changes priorities and philosophies toward the present (“Live each day to the fullest”) and toward other people. We have all heard stories about rich and powerful people who had a moral conversion when faced with death. In 1993, I saw one of the grandest such stories written in the rocks outside the Indian city of Bhubaneswar, where I spent three months studying culture and morality. King Ashoka, after assuming control of the Maurya empire (in central India) around 272 BCE, set out to expand his territory by conquest. He was successful, subduing by slaughter many of the peoples and kingdoms around him. But after a particularly bloody victory over the Kalinga people, near what is now Bhubaneswar, he was seized with horror and remorse. He converted to Buddhism, renounced all further conquest by violence, and devoted his life to creating a kingdom based on justice and respect for dharma (the cosmic law of Hinduism and Buddhism). He wrote out his vision of a just society and his rules for virtuous behavior, and had these edicts carved into rock walls throughout his kingdom. He sent emissaries as far away as Greece to spread his vision of peace, virtue, and religious tolerance. Ashoka’s conversion was caused by victory, not adversity, yet people are often traumatized—as modern research on soldiers10 indicates—by killing as well as by facing the threat of death. Like so many who experience posttraumatic growth, Ashoka underwent a profound transformation. In his edicts, he described himself as having become more forgiving, compassionate, and tolerant of those who differed with him.

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