Today I received an invitation to attend an event at Harvard Divinity School – The Path to Happiness: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times with Swami Sadyojathah. It got me to thinking about meaning, success, and happiness.
During my time at Harvard I learned some meditation skills and a whole lot about the practices and beliefs that animate different spiritual and religious traditions. After graduating I applied some of them, especially in my work with teams all around the world. What I learned in my MA of Religion – which for me was a survey of the world’s religions culminating in a thesis that compared 2nd century Buddhist and Christian mystical texts – changed me, and was a key to my success in corporate settings.
I worked days in offices in Cambridge Massachusetts as a quality assurance engineer and spent nights and weekends in the graduate program for Religion during those years. My manager at the time, a PhD of Physics, thought that Religion was a laughable choice. Why not pursue studies that would further my career? The company would pay for that! He was the most compassionate, supportive, and empathetic of people, and I learned a lot from him. But I persisted. I was sure that if I understood the people I worked with better, that I’d be happier. My colleagues then, including my then-manager, hailed from all over the world: Turkey, England, Barbados, Russia, India, Argentina, France, Jordan, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Scotland, Greece, Ukraine, even Florida. ;-). Just kidding. But even folks from Canada and Colorado brought a slightly different set of assumptions and work habits to our projects. And in the years that followed that remained true; like so many people I worked at a global company. What would facilitate my success and well-being more effectively than understanding the traditions and beliefs that my colleagues were raised with?
Some years later, after 9/11, he told me he thought my decision had been a good one.
Which brings me back to Swami Sadyojathah. The ancient practice of meditation remains, I believe, the single most effective practice for achieving happiness. It’s better, even, than wine, which I have been known to leverage toward blissful forgetfulness on more than one occasion.
Meditation and self reflection yield more than happiness, too. Self understanding and forgiveness – by-products of meditation – put us in touch with our selves in a way that deepens empathy, compassion, and ultimately understanding. And THAT is a key skill in any collaborative work environment.
Happiness may be the grail many of us seek, but the skills that help us cultivate happiness benefit the people around us. Anyone who has meditated likely knows that it is not a silver bullet, it’s more like a workout; It’s an investment in ourselves. And it builds capacity for leadership, teamwork, and being in community– all skills that evolve from self understanding and insight, which meditation helps cultivate.
I won’t make it to Cambridge for the talk this time. But I appreciate the reminder and the important work that Swami Sadyojathah is doing in the world, for everyone.
Backyard Botanics 