The Prime Minister of Bhutan L.J.Y Thinley, during his recent visit to Bangladesh, gave a lecture on Gross National Happiness in Dhaka University. He described people in today's world as "economic animals" and characterised development activities as tools for materialistic growth. He said that societies were doing little to make people happy.
The prime minister was not pointing a finger at any particular country but to all persons whose purpose in life is only to create wealth and damn the finer aspects of life. Countries are being ranked on the basis of wealth (Gross National Product) so created. Bhutan, however, employs a set of indices each year to determine the state of happiness of her people. To the Bhutanese leadership happiness is an end in itself.
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Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
- How foolish you are,
grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
- Vasubandhu
Re: Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
Bhutan is intelligent for not following the European, American, Indian or East Asian models of development.
Re: Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
It certainly sounds more challenging to make people happy than to get them a proper salary. Not that any of that are generally achieved by most countries.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?
2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.
3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.
4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.
1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?
2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.
3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.
4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.
1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Re: Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
Happiness has one wonderful quality - we are in a position to give it to others freely again and again and will never be poorer for doing so.
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Re: Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
This book goes a little more in depth I've heard. I've yet to read it though:
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
- How foolish you are,
grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
- Vasubandhu
Re: Lure of Bhutanese happiness index
In any case, consumerism and destruction of the environment is not good for the happiness of people (or animals).Astus wrote:It certainly sounds more challenging to make people happy than to get them a proper salary. Not that any of that are generally achieved by most countries.
East Asian cities in general will happily rip apart their environment, plaster cement all over it, build McDonalds everywhere and call it progress, meanwhile their suicide rates sky rocket.
Bhutan is very intelligent for not doing this.