Worship

We Americans have the unfortunate task of stripping the Protestant Work Ethic cum Horatio Alger myth from our collective consciousness.  First of all, hard work does not by definition create a golden egg. Secondly, financial success has little to do with one’s happiness.  Studies galore have shown that once safety and survival issues are satisfied, there is little to no difference in the level of happiness between the haves and have-nots.

Happiness.  Simple.  It’s a beautiful thing. Life has taught me to have absolute delight in letting go of all the shoulds that kept me from that sweet state of living my bliss.  Happiness.  Not too simple.  In fact, I found it takes a bit of maturity to possess such a sweet treat.

So I believe the real work is in finding how to balance all the safety and security tasks of providing for our food and shelter, with the higher order awareness involved in doing our inner work, learning to identify and let go of our fears, connecting with Nature, embodying our deep spiritual selves, engaging in community with significant others, and ultimately connecting with those things that bring us happiness.

Check this out. The Bhutanese have established a Gross National Happiness standard that challenges what we Americans have accepted a measurement of success as a society, the all holy GNP.  Wikipedia defines the GNH as an attempt to define the quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.  Conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, whereas the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce one another.  The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

Sounds good to me!  Of course, just as there exist several areas of disconnect between theory and reality with our government’s GNP calculations and their meaning to its constituents, so too the GNH quotient has its shortcomings. Of course, not everyone in Bhutan can possibly be happy!  Still, I am delighted to know that there is a society in this world that values happiness at such a profound level.

So the big question remains for each of us living in a time when our economy demands everyone’s attention, “In our society, which centers such a focus on economic productivity, does your work bring you happiness as well as a pay check?  Do you have a work life that supports and contributes to your and your family’s happiness?”

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