BERKELEY, California — The world has never been more advanced than it is now. Humans have found cures for many of the major illnesses that threaten us; we can travel across the globe in a matter of hours; and we can communicate with each other almost instantaneously. Virtually every problem humans have historically had, besides suffering caused by other people, has been mitigated to some degree. Why is it then that so many of us are still unhappy? Daniel Cordaro says that the problem doesn’t lie with the state of the world, but with the state of our internal being.
Dr. Cordaro, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has a master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in psychology from UC Berkeley, where, according to Wikipedia, he “directed the Universal Expression Project … His team completed some of the largest international emotional expression studies and began to decode a universal language of human emotion. It extended the list of universal emotions and provided evidence for amusement, awe, contentment, desire, embarrassment, pain, relief, and sympathy in both facial and vocal expressions. The project has covered over 10 countries around the world, including Bhutan.” Cordaro later served on the faculty at Yale University and as the director of Wellbeing at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. Along with Emilio Diez Barroso, he co-founded the The Contentment Foundation in 2016.
In a recent interview, Cordaro told me that ancient sages and philosophers had a better understanding of psychology than we do today. Cordaro’s Ph.D. is in Psychology, an area in which I am majoring at UC Berkeley, so naturally, I was taken aback at this statement. Cordaro explained that the Ancients spent more time sitting and watching their minds than we do now. This allowed them to see key psychological phenomena before we knew how to properly and scientifically test for it.
Such introspection was how the field of psychology started. Wilhelm Wundt and William James, the first prominent psychologists, both believed that introspection, which Wundt called “internal perception,” served as a key way to study mental activities. Psychology has been constantly changing since, but introspection is still a key component in the study of the mind. Since then we have just gotten better at creating experiments based upon scientific and introspective hypotheses in a way that is both valid and reliable. The field still has a lot more fine-tuning to do, as researcher bias and the inability to replicate some data are large problems, but our debt to these predecessors is undeniable.
“The Contentment Foundation offers child and adult-centered wellbeing curricula to schools internationally,” according to its website. The Foundation bases its curricula on “The Four Pillars of Wellbeing.” Cordaro says that each pillar – Mindfulness, Compassion for One’s Community, Self-Curiosity, and Contentment – is based upon the marriage between ancient wisdom and modern science. There have been thousands of studies done on the concept of mindfulness, or mindful-based stress reduction. Research has shown that it is an effective way to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the rest and digest system, slowing the heartbeat, increasing intestinal and glandular activity, and relaxing the gastrointestinal sphincter muscles. Many religions teach similar concepts, although they use different words. In this essay, I’ll examine what my own faith, Judaism, has to say about each of the pillars, both in its ancient and contemporary writings.
Mindfulness comes in many forms. It can be as small as noticing how a ring feels on your finger or as large as a four-day meditation session. The key to mindfulness comes from an awareness and acceptance of one’s experience, be it a bodily sensation or feeling, in the present moment. Cordaro says that this introspection has generally been cultivated in two ways. In Taoism and Buddhism, it arises through meditation. In Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, it arises through prayer. Most of the commonly spoken Jewish prayers have their root in being mindful of one’s current state. Every blessing on food thanks God for providing us the meal. The prayers force us to take into account what we have at that moment. Yom Kippur is a day specifically set aside for our self-reflection and atonement and is considered to be Judaism’s highest holy day.
Humans evolved to be social animals. Cordaro explained that even in a purely functional purpose, compassion promotes resource sharing and communal bonds, which are the reason we have been able to advance so far as a species. Once at my dining hall, I was eating with a couple of friends and saw a man with a unique red, white, and purple design on his tie. When I told him how much I liked his accessorization, a very serious look came over his face. He said, “Son, I’ve been having a very hard day and I wanted you to know that I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to compliment me, there’s nothing I needed more.” I didn’t understand how such a small act could have been so profound for him. That is until I had my own very hard day. It was midterm season and I had three midterms scheduled for the same day, so I found a plot at the library and began my work. While there a girl from class noticed me and asked a question related to our exam. I was raised to greet people with eye contact and a smile, so instinctively I looked up from my laptop, smiled, and then replied. She said thank you, and then told me I had a gorgeous smile, one that remained on my face for the rest of the day.
Compassion is also one of Judaism’s highest tenets. Hillel, was born around 110 B.C.E and is perhaps the most famous ancient Jewish scholar. He was once asked to teach the entire Torah while standing on one foot. He replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.” Later in our history, Rabbi Akiva, another famous Jewish scholar later stated, “You shall love your fellow as yourself’; this is a great principle in Torah.” In my opinion, Tikkun Olam, the Jewish desire to ‘repair the world.’ stems directly from the teachings of the Torah and the great ancient scholars.
In The Contentment Foundation’s summary of the self-curiosity pillar says that by becoming a ‘Self-Scientist’ one can learn to nonjudgmentally explore their own experience by using the same type of methodical questioning that makes science so effective in explaining the unknown to themselves. In questioning one’s own mind one becomes aware of their emotional triggers, the why and how their mind thinks what it does, and how these assumptions can shape our perception of the world.
I remember a rabbi at Hebrew Day School in San Diego telling me once that if you sit three Jews in a room and ask them to talk about one topic they’ll start with two opinions each and after a long and arduous conversation leave with about five more. Jews question everything about the world, how we fit into it, and ourselves. We are concerned, among other things, with what we’re allowed to eat, how to be a virtuous person, and the existence of God. Questioning is an essential feature of the Pesach (Passover) seder; the tradition is to have the children pose the questions. This not only teaches them about our faith, but asks them to become an active participant in the conversation. Pesach teaches of four children. The wise, the wicked (or thoughtless,) the simple, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask. The only difference between them is how they ask a question. The wicked child will ask “what the tradition means to you” removing himself or herself from the conversation. The simple child asks “what is this” a question that will lead to many more questions. The child who doesn’t know how to ask is supposed to be told the story of Passover. The wise child is not wise because of what he or she knows, but simply because of the desire to question abundantly.
Contentment is not happiness, it’s an unconditional acceptance of one’s place in the universe. For this, we can turn to a much more recent Jewish philosopher. Victor Frankl developed logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy that assumes humans are motivated by a “will to meaning.” The motivation for living comes from finding the meaning associated with life. Frankl developed this philosophy while surviving in a Nazi concentration camp. He realized that oftentimes we have no control of a situation, the only thing we have control of is ourselves and our chosen attitude. In this way, he learned to have a fundamental acceptance of what is, and found a way to stay content in the direst of circumstances. In the Babylonian Talmud, Simeon Ben Zoma, a first and second century CE teacher, said, “Who is rich? Those who are happy with their portion.” Since then the average quality of life has improved drastically, yet many still feel a need for more. Especially in the ‘western’ world, where material gain is at times put above all else.
By learning to accept and appreciate any experience, one begins to understand what makes us feel incomplete. One evolutionary theory of the mind is that it was built for our survival. Neurotransmitters in our brain would make us feel happy and rewarded when furthering our survival by doing something such as eating or successfully outrunning a bear. The problem with that reward system is in order for it to be functional one can never stay happy for long. A constant feeling of happiness would mean that we may not find it necessary to eat more or to keep running. Our level of happiness also adjusts to new baselines when our stimuli change. Getting a $1000 bonus at work will make someone feel happier than someone who already earns $1000 more than them a year in the same job. By accepting the world and oneself As they are and not as one wants them to be can lead to the relinquishment of chasing pleasant emotions. The realization that emotional states, and life in general, are inherently unstable can ironically increase people’s appreciation of their emotions and the rollercoaster-like experience of being human, grounding them in a sense of stability.
I interviewed Cordero to understand what The Contentment Foundation was all about. I learned that schools around the world reach out to the Foundation for support in integrating a well-being centered curriculum. The Foundation focuses on those schools willing to put in effort to improve mental wellness for their students and teachers alike. Teachers need to be as enthusiastic as the students in accepting the curriculum. It’s impossible to persuade someone to be content. The best method is to lead by example. The Foundation provides personal training to school staff so that they can develop the habits in their own lives as well. Cordaro explains that children are extremely perceptive; they respond positively to ideas when they are taught by someone dedicated to them.
Funding for The Contentment Foundation comes from its clients, sponsors, and partners. Schools that can afford to do so pay for the consultations, and help fund schools that cannot. The Roddenberry Foundation, The Corbett Family Charitable Foundation Inc., NALA Investments, the Geiger Family, The University of California, Berkeley, and the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory are sponsors of The Contentment Foundation’s work. Cordaro hopes that by next year, The Contentment Foundation will become a fully self-sustaining nonprofit organization.
Cordaro told me that helping the children in just one school would make for a life well lived but that he aspires to implement his Foundation’s curriculum into many more. His ideal world would enable one billion people in a single generation to learn the concepts of mindfulness. He said there is no one right way of learning mindfulness. After thousands of years of ancient scriptures and teachers, a multitude of practices exist. Even more are being made to this day. Gautama Buddha taught that one must simply dedicate the time and effort and the results will follow.
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Shor M. Masori is an undergraduate majoring in psychology at UC Berkeley.
Very interesting article and I like the way the Rabbinical teachings are merged with what Dan has discovered and implemented. He seems to have wonderful goals …