Rhetorical Analysis of "On the Habits of Happiness"

Ashley Minei

Stephanie Rosen

RHE 309K

29 February 2012

Habits of Happiness

Gandhi once said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” This famous quote encompasses Matthieu Ricard’s talk, Habits of Happiness. Ricard asserts that with mind training anyone can obtain happiness and well-being. He appeals to the common notion that happiness does not have one set definition and differentiates pleasure as a fleeting state while defining happiness as a conscious state of mind. Ricard believes the ability to find true happiness can only be obtained by the transforming of the mind.

Surprisingly, Matthieu Ricard, former molecular biologist, left the science community to pursue a life as a Buddhist monk in 1972. He is a well-renowned author and the French translator and the main photographer for the Dalai Lama. To many scholars, Ricard is also considered to be “the happiest man in the world” based on his MRI scans, having a standard deviation of -4.5 towards the positive emotion side of the brain, something no one else has achieved  (“Mattieu Ricard: Happiest Man”). His talk, Habits of Happiness, was given at the TED conference, which brings together the world’s most intriguing and sought-after thinkers of the present day to speak about various subjects. His audience consists of educated intellectuals who enjoy engaging conversation covering many different stimulating topics.

Ricard begins his speech by appealing to pathos. By presenting his own photography, he uses this visual imagery to capture his audience’s attention before there is even any verbal communication at all. Seeing the stillness and serenity of the Himalayan mountainside grasps each audience member, even those watching online from the comfort of his or her own bed. It makes them want more—to know more about the breathtaking place that Ricard calls home.

To begin his argument, he discusses the fact that many French philosophers consider happiness as something that is not interesting. Being a French man, he wants to disconnect himself from the French philosopher’s world. In a sarcastic manner, leaving the French to suffer alone, Ricard purports that “…consciously or not, directly or indirectly, in the short or the long term, whatever we do, whatever we hope, whatever we dream -- somehow, is related to a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness.” One cannot help but agree with Ricard that the French philosophers must be wrong; happiness must be something everyone strives for. It is easy to trust Ricard because he treats his audience as his equals. Despite his confident demeanor, his tone is alluring; as he speaks, one can automatically detect the depth of intelligence he possesses without needing additional scholarly evidence.

Ricard transitions into tackling the complicated task of defining what happiness truly means. He quotes the famous French philosopher, Henri Bergson, stating, "All the great thinkers of humanity have left happiness in the vague so that…each of them could define their own terms.” As one’s view of happiness is at a heightened state of vulnerability, Ricard then goes on to explain the problem: that most individuals often see happiness as an external source which only eventually leads to destruction. He asserts: “Although we seek happiness, it seems we turn our back to it” (Ricard). His simple statement allows one to contemplate over the idea that, as individuals, we tend to run away from true happiness and right into the arms of suffering merely because of the confusion on what happiness is and where is comes from.

Adding clarity to the definition of happiness, Ricard infuses the Buddhist understanding of well-being which separates happiness from pleasure. Richard believes that, “Pleasure is contingent upon time, upon its object, upon the place. It is something that -- changes of nature.”  He compares eating a chocolate cake to pleasure; while one piece is delicious, having more than two leads to feelings of disgust of oneself, thus showing how too much pleasure can lead to suffering and it cannot possibly be considered happiness (Ricard). Through the use of simple analogies he forces the reader to agree with him. Most individuals have experienced having too much of a good thing which led to adverse effects and he compels the audience to agree with him. Ricard also makes the point that not only is too much pleasure unpleasant, pleasure is based solely on the individual, whereas, someone’s suffering could be another person’s delight.

Ricard then asks the primary question, “What is happiness?” He starts by changing the word happiness to the more holistic term of “well-being.” Ricard’s Buddhist view is that “well-being is not just a mere pleasurable sensation. It is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment, a state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states, and all the joys and sorrows that can come one’s way” (Ricard). Many times throughout his talk, Ricard uses hypophora, a figure of speech in which one poses a question and then immediately answers that question--often in great length (Nordquist). Again, Ricard asks himself and his audience how well-being can occur while sadness is present, and he brings in another analogy, showing that the two concepts are on different levels. Taking the complexity of the Buddhist intellect and putting it in simpler terms, he compares well-being to the ocean: “…there might be beautiful, calm ocean, like a mirror. There might be storms, but the depth of the ocean is still there, unchanged…It can only be a state of being, not just a fleeting emotion, sensation.” Negative emotions such as anger and sadness are only temporary and change often; happiness on the other hand is always present from within.

Having made the distinction between pleasure and well-being, Ricard shifts to the core of his argument: if happiness is a state of mind that controls one’s well-being, then training the mind to find this deeper awareness of happiness is possible. He reiterates the danger of defining happiness as an external source by stating,  "To have everything to be happy… That very sentence already reveals the doom of destruction of happiness. To have everything. If we miss something, it collapses” (Ricard). He states that our society needs to transform the mind through mind training, building on the pretense that all emotions are momentary. “Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time. You could go from love to hate. But you cannot, at the same time, toward the same object, the same person, want to harm and want to do good” (Ricard).  Building on this he goes one step further, showing that the main point of mind training is “to try to find a general antidote to all emotions,” meaning one needs to once again look inward to find out what causes their negative emotions instead of looking at the external source that caused it.

At this point in the speech, Ricard could have easily lost his followers; not only does training the mind seem like a daunting task, but also he add it is it is a very time-consuming process. He once again successfully keeps his audience’s attention with the credibility of his scientific background. Ricard explains, “The brain was thought to be more or less fixed…Now, recently, it has been found that it can change a lot.” Showing evidence of this, he brings up a picture of simple bell curve, showing how far mediators are to the left of the curve, the happier side. He does not go on to explain this in much detail, but before the audience has time to question what they have just seen, he ends his speech by showing beautiful photographs of people who seem to have achieved pure happiness, giving the audience a sense of true joy.

Matthieu Ricard tackles the complicated task of defining happiness as a deep feeling from within that is one separate from pleasure. He establishes that looking internally to address negative emotions will train the mind to let go of the damaging emotions that holds one back from happiness. His argument is both intriguing, easy to follow, and well perceived; however, it is doubtful that many people will take the time to do what he proposes. However, if our society spent a fraction of the time that Matthieu Richard spends looking towards our mental capacity for creating true happiness, the world would most likely be a much more enjoyable place.

  

Works Cited

Ricard, Matthieu. “Matthieu Ricard on the habits of happiness.” Feb 2004. TED

Talk. ted.com. Web.

"Matthieu Ricard the Happiest Man in the World by Training His Mind with Authentic Tibeatan

Bouddhist Teachings." Training The Mind. N.p. n.d. Web. 25 Feb.

Nordquist, Richard. "Hypophora." About.com. The New York Times Company, n.d. Web. 25

Feb.