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A critical and practical mining of ancient wisdom towards self-help for modern life, reframing notions of the 'good life' towards forms of fulfilment deeper than happiness.
List of contents
INTRODUCTION
1. SETTING THE SCENE
2. DUKKHA HAPPENS: WE SUFFER
3. MALADIES OF THE SOUL: WHY WE SUFFER
4. HOW TO BE SAVED 1: NIRVANA
5. HOW TO BE SAVED 2: LIVING IN ACCORDANCE WITH NATURE
6. MORE THAN HAPPINESS
7. REMOVING THE DUST FROM OUR EYES
8. THE SAGE AND THE BUDDHA: MODELS FOR LIVING
9. SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: BEYOND THEORY
10. CONCLUSION: MEDITATIONS FOR A BETTER LIFE
REFERENCES
About the author
Antonia Macaro is an existential psychotherapist, co-author of
The Shrink and the Sage, and author of
Reason, Virtue and Psychotherapy. She has many years' clinical experience in the field of addictive behaviours. Antonia has a degree in Oriental Studies and an MA in Philosophy, and was part of the UK's philosophical counselling movement from its early days.
Summary
‘This groundbreaking study provides a much-needed philosophical framework for those practising mindfulness as well as a call to recover the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy.’ - Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism and Secular Buddhism
Modern readers tend to think of Buddhism as spending time alone meditating, searching for serenity. Stoicism calls to mind repressing our emotions in order to help us soldier on through adversity. But how accurate are our popular understandings of these traditions? And what can we learn from them without either buying in wholeheartedly to their radical ideals or else transmuting them into simple self-improvement regimes that bear little resemblance to their original aims?
How can we achieve more than happiness?
In More than Happiness, Antonia Macaro delves into both philosophies, focusing on the elements that fit with our sceptical age, and those which have the potential to make the biggest impact on how we live. From accepting that some things are beyond our control, to monitoring our emotions for unhealthy reactions, to shedding attachment to material things, there is much, she argues, that we can take and much that we’d do better to leave behind.
In this synthesis of ancient wisdom, Macaro reframes the ‘good life’, and gets us to see the world as it really is and to question the value of the things we desire. The goal is more than happiness: living ethically and placing value on the right things in life.
Additional text
'Both practical and informative, this groundbreaking study of the extraordinary resonances between early Buddhism and Stoic philosophy provides a much-needed philosophical framework for those practising mindfulness as well as a call to recover the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy that have long been overlooked in the Western tradition.'
