If you just stay in empathy without the bigger dimension of compassion and warm-heartedness, you may experience burnout, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard said at a lecture onWednesday.
Ricard was joined at the event bybioethics professor Peter Singer andeffective altruist Julia Wise.
Ricard defined burnout as feeling intense helplessness and sorrow over the suffering of others.
He currently does humanitarian work in Nepal and has authored the books “Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill” and “Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World.”
“If you bring the altruistic dimension, it becomes the antidote to burnout,” Ricard explained.
He said that he participated in a study in which he went into an fMRI scanner, and the researcher asked him to meditate while concentrating on just empathy. After one hour, he experienced complete burnout. When asked by the researcher if he would like to move onto the compassion meditation, he said, “Please, let me do it, because I cannot stand it anymore.”
The compassion meditation felt so different, like there was a stream of love going through, he said.
Ricard and Singer also discussed altruism’s relationship to happiness.
“I think happiness is basically a cluster of fundamental human qualities and I would put altruism as one of the key ones,” Ricard said.
In response, Singer posed the question of why most people strive for happiness through consumption instead of altruism.
“We have a tendency to put all our hopes and fears in outer conditions,” Ricard explained."We’ve underestimated our ability to online casino improve outer conditions and so then we underestimate the effect of the inner conditions."
Humans think there is a formula, that to be happy involves having everything, he said.
Some people want to be altruists solely to increase their own happiness, Singer noted, asking Ricard whether or not these people can still be considered altruists.
“It’s true there are actions that are beneficial to others but still motivated by selfishness,” said Ricard."If you are smart enough, no matter what, you will find a selfish motivation beneath the seemingly altruistic behaviors."
Singer noted the chapters in Ricard’s book discussing meditation suggest that the practice trains people to become more altruistic and compassionate.
“I think that training for altruism comes from not wanting other beings to suffer. One of the goals of this training is to get rid of selfishness,” Ricard said.
Singer added that while we are biologically programmed to care more about those we are genetically related to, it is more difficult to be altruistic toward strangers. Altruism towards strangers does not come naturally, added Ricard.
Wise, who donates 50 percent of her income to charity, said that prioritizing family and friendship seems more important to one’s happiness than income.
“We chose to live near my husband’s family so that my daughter can spend time with them,” she said."So we sort of have tried to structure our time that emphasizes those relationships [rather] than working extra hours to buy more things."
In different ways, you’re both living simpler lives than typical people that come from your background, Singer noted.
Voluntary simplicity is also happy simplicity, added Ricard.
In response to a question about the panelists’ thoughts on capitalism, Singer said he thinks capitalism will be here for a long time and that people must try to do as much good as they can within that framework.
“Every tool, whether it’s money, intelligence or power, can do either good or harm. It depends what you do with your means,” said Ricard.
The lecture, titled “A Conversation About Altruism,” was held at 4:30 p.m. in McCosh Hall 50 and was co-sponsored by the University Center for Human Values, the Office of Religious Life and Princeton Effective Altruism.
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