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One of the biggest gripes I have about my academic field of social science is that it explains a lot about human behavior but is very short on prescriptions for how to live day to day. Even when it does have something suggestive to offer, the research almost never supplies evidence of whether its widespread adoption would have a positive effect. The same deficiency is even truer for philosophy, a realm in which big thoughts about life usually remain abstract ideas.
In my case, I can resort to a branch of human knowledge that parallels social science and philosophy and is a true laboratory of human behavior and experience. In this field, people think big ideas and act differently because of them, and then we can observe whether doing so enhances their lives. I am talking about religion.
Religions in effect ask people to opt into mass human experiments, which require them to convert to a new way of thinking and to live differently from nonbelievers, all in pursuit of particular benefits (both in life and after death). Even for those who don’t practice a religion and merely observe religious people, such study can be an invaluable source of information. Indeed, researchers have shown that learning about different faiths promotes a deeper understanding of psychology and culture.
I was reminded of this recently when my friend Rainn Wilson (of The Office fame), who hosts a popular spiritual podcast called Soul Boom, texted me some words of encouragement from his personal faith, Baha’i (pronounced buh-high), in response to a note of desolation I had sounded about the state of the world: “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.” His meaning, as I took it, was that we should see such troubles not as a reason for despair but as a blessed opportunity to meet the greater need for love and happiness. Intrigued by Wilson’s religiously inspired advice, I decided to dig further into the Baha’i faith. There, I found valuable lessons about happiness that can benefit anyone, regardless of religious commitment.
The Baha’i faith originated as an offshoot of Islam, in mid-19th-century Persia (known today as Iran), with pronouncements about God and life from a prophet named Bahá’u’lláh. His teaching—that all religions are valid and come from a loving God—spread quickly and gained many followers. After Bahá’u’lláh’s death, the faith was passed down through his son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and great-grandson Shoghí Effendi, and disseminated by many other teachers. Because Baha’i teachings departed from Islam, they were considered heresies by Persian clerics, and the faith and its proponents were violently suppressed. Bahá’u’lláh himself was first imprisoned and then exiled; many of his followers were executed. To this day in Iran, the Baha’i faith is illegal and its followers are persecuted—barred from attending university, holding a government job, or inheriting property.
Despite this repression in its place of origin, Baha’i’s message is remarkably positive and nonapocalyptic. The faith now counts more than 5 million adherents worldwide, including about 175,000 in the United States. Bahá’u’lláh spoke often about happiness in spite of worldly troubles, which he saw as a normal feature of life, even a part of God’s plan. “Happy is the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will,” he said. He was certainly onto something: As social scientists have shown, middle-aged people who trust God in the face of hardship have lower depression and better self-rated health than those who don’t, and people who choose to focus optimistically on the positive aspects of life enjoy much greater well-being than those who don’t.
To accentuate the positive is not to deny present difficulty or suffering. In fact, acknowledging pain is central to realizing a better future. “Men who suffer not, attain no perfection,” taught ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá. “The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him.” This message contradicts our prevailing modern culture that pain is a pathology to be eliminated; it teaches instead the deeply needed truth that suffering is a part of every life and important for learning and growth. This is consistent with the large literature on post-traumatic growth, which shows that making sense of suffering in life tends to enhance personal resilience, spiritual capacity, appreciation for life, and relationships with others.
Baha’i teaching is rigorous, spiritual, and deeply moral, which runs counter to a modern libertine culture that valorizes instant pleasure and transactional ethics. “Happiness consists of two kinds; physical and spiritual,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá taught. “The physical happiness is limited; its utmost duration is one day, one month, one year. It hath no result. Spiritual happiness is eternal and unfathomable.” This is an age-old argument, reaching back to the ancient Greek conflict between hedonia (pleasure seeking) and eudaimonia (virtue seeking). The quest for virtue yields better results according to empirical scrutiny, which finds that eudaimonia delivers more lasting well-being.
Another point that we moderns typically neglect is an assertion that Shoghí Effendi made: “The more we make others happy the greater will be our own happiness and the deeper our sense of having served humanity.” In other words, you can’t be happy by working solely on your own well-being; in fact, you’re well advised not even to start with your own happiness in mind. As psychologists have long shown in experiments, acts of kindness toward others are far better at producing happiness than what has entered the lexicon as “self-care.” When people are induced to help others in an activity, recalling that experience gives them higher positive emotion than having worked for their own gain.
These teachings may seem like reminders, rather than new ideas, about how to live a good and upright life. Indeed, more recent Baha’i teaching has emphasized the pitfalls of novelty: The 20th-century scholar and historian Adib Taherzadeh warned against “trivial or sensational ideologies” that lead to “cults which become fashionable for a time. But when the novelty wears off or dissatisfaction sets in,” the adherents are left still searching for the next big thing—and “few have found happiness or peace of mind.” This insight is profoundly important today, at a time when the internet offers novel identities and lifestyles that beguile the most vulnerable but tend to lower well-being and a sense of life’s meaning. When it comes to love, sacrifice, and charity, the old ways are—for the most part—the best ways.
Taken together, these Baha’i tenets form a strategy for living that, to my mind, combines the best of behavioral science and philosophy. They also offer the added advantage of being tried and tested by millions of Baha’i believers who have found that these teachings help build a good life. In that spirit, I have started following these five lessons as part of my morning practice of reflection and meditation—and I can report that I very much like the effect they’re having on my life.
1. Have faith in the future. Whatever may come to pass is all part of the greater plan. Conform your will to the divine will, and you will find that it is good.
2. Are you uncomfortable? Good. This means that you are learning and growing as a person, because all growth comes with experiencing discomfort.
3. Today, seek happiness that is deeper than what comes from easy pleasures. Pass on the recreations that offer only empty calories and turn away from time-wasting distractions. Instead, look to what nourishes the body and soul.
4. You cannot be happy yourself without the happiness of others. Seek first to uplift, and then be uplifted. To serve others is to expand your own well-being.
5. There are no corners to cut in being the person you want to be. Today, live the truths of the ancient wisdom without hesitation or embarrassment before the modern world. Ignore the passing fads with their hollow promises.
These abridged lessons are no substitute for a deeper understanding of Baha’i, which is, after all, an actual religion, not a self-help philosophy. With that caution in mind, I sent this essay to Wilson to get his feedback as a true follower of the Baha’i faith. Expressing his approval, he offered a few words about how Baha’i has affected his own life:
What I love about my faith is that it provides a two-fold moral path toward meaning and joy. One is more internal, filled with mystical writings to foster spiritual growth and connect us to the divine winds; the other is more externally focused, where service to humanity and our role in that arena act as a spiritual compass. In the faith we strive to walk both paths—seeking internal enrichment and wisdom while also trying to make the world a more loving place.
To a happiness specialist (and devoted Catholic) like me, this is deeply compelling. As Rainn knows—because he couldn’t resist adding: “You should definitely convert, bro.”
The post Five Baha’i Lessons for a Happier Life appeared first on The Atlantic.
