Touch the Sound and Happiness

02006-11-17 | Uncategorized | 2 comments

I watched a wonderful documentary on DVD the other day: Touch the Sound – about the deaf Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie. (I recommend reading her wonderful Open Letter to Music Professionals!) The movie was photographed and directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, who also directed the award-winning film Rivers and Tides about Andy Goldsworthy. Extraordinary and quite possible the most beautiful documentary…

Regarding my entry Comfort:Happiness

Adam Solomon Says:
Interesting…does that apply reciprocally, though? I can understand that comfort doesn’t lead to happiness, but does discomfort have a relation to unhappiness? I would certainly say so (temperature is a good example–do extremes in temperature not interfere with your mindset and your ability to concentrate on enjoying life? I would think it much harder to be happy, say, when you are parched in the middle of the desert), but then, perhaps that stems from a different idea from yours of what “happiness” is…

Comfort or discomfort are neither related to happiness nor unhappiness. Happiness is not conditional. If a person thinks/says that they would be happy if they only had this or that level of comfort, or maybe a particular mp3 player, computer, profession, life-style, house, lover, bank-account – they don’t know what happiness is. Happiness is not related to comfort or discomfort, it is not related to being thirsty, nor is it related to any possessions. I can tell you that there were mornings when it was absolutely freezing in my tent last month, but you should have seen the smile on my face. Sometimes I could barely feel my fingers because it was so cold… But, let me give a different example: Before we left for Tibet, Roshi Joan Halifax mentioned to us that the people of Tibet know a lot of pain, but they don’t seem to be suffering. We saw a lot of extreme pain, usually borne with dignity and often with a smile. You can be in pain, but not suffer, and you may suffer without being in pain.

2 Comments

  1. yumiko

    what an amazing artist and not just in performance. she explains in such a wonderful way her feeling for art, her life, her surroundings.

    Reply
  2. dave

    After reading this I came across this post http://dashh.typepad.com/ilife/2006/11/inside_out.html at Dashh: A Day In The Integral Life. It is very interesting & seemed fitting. Could it be that the Tibetans have “learned” to focus their attention/energy outward for certain problems thereby overcoming those hardships? Could it be because they are a more family/community oriented society than we in the US who are a very individually oriented society and therefore love to dwell in our own problems/misery? Were you able to tap into it by being there amongst them? This is very interesting food for thought.

    Reply

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