This larger than life Buddhist statue stands among the monastic ruins of the Kanheri Caves found in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Modern scholarship provides a wide range of dates for the life of the historical Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, the prince left his palace to seek enlightenment. He may have lived at the same time as Herodotus, but also may have lived as early as a century before or even a century after. The sculptures and engravings in the caves date to long after Herodotus, even centuries after Buddhism became the dominant religion in India under Ashoka the Great, the Mauryan emperor who managed to conquer much of the subcontinent. Since we cannot provide exact dates for any of these events, for the purposes of this post, we can imagine that possibly Siddhārtha Gautama was meditating on his quest to find liberation from suffering around the same time, or at least the same century, as Croesus was debating the nature of happiness with a guest at his court.
As discussed in the previous post, Croesus is at the height of his wealth and power, having added by conquest still more territories to the empire bequeathed him by his forefathers. Solon, an Athenian lawmaker on a ten year walkabout, travels to Lydia. One wonders, given the scope of The Histories, if Herodotus made a similar journey during his researches.
Croesus, fishing for compliments, asks his famously wise guest to name the happiest man in the world. Solon, not falling for the bait, names an Athenian who died holding the line in battle. Undeterred, Croesus asks him to name the second happiest. Solon tells a story about two brothers who died taking their mother to the temple to make offerings to the goddess Athena. Croesus is incensed and declares that his own happiness must be greater than that of common men. Solon explains his belief that no man can be called happy during his lifetime, since happiness is fleeting and fortune can change at any moment. Croesus dismisses Solon as an idiot.
Solon had argued that a human being's happiness is at the mercy of fate, someone may be fortunate and happy one day and then unhappy the next day due to unfortunate events. His holiness the Dalai Lama takes a different track in The Art of Happiness, a 1998 book co-written with Western psychiatrist Howard Cutler. I won't summarize all the content of the entire book here, but I find it a helpful combination of Eastern philosophy and Western psychology that I sometimes recommend to clients in my counseling practice who are struggling to find meaning in their daily lives. Let's just go over the basics.
The Dalai Lama and Dr. Cutler put forth the idea that human beings have an internal baseline of happiness that is effected not dictated by external events. The book goes on to state that happy people tend to be more sociable and creative, while unhappy people be more self-absorbed and antagonistic. In essence, people can find happiness by embracing their "Buddha nature," living their lives with kindness and compassion. Then, when loss inevitably occurs, they will be better equipped to deal with suffering.
Actually, this is not entirely out of line with Solon's reasoning. Both of the examples mentioned by Solon as examples of happy lives ended in service to others, dying for their country or their families.
To offer a counter argument to Solon, let us not forget how often ideals of self-sacrifice have been co-opted by both governments and religions to reinforce societal systems of control. As we go through The Histories, Herodotus will present many different examples of how societies are structured, but he holds back from offering judgements, preferring to let the readers make those decisions for ourselves. Herodotus never presents any society as an ideal, especially not his own. Still, as even-handed as Herodotus tries to be, he is quite clear about the arrogance of Croesus, whose fortunes are about to take a turn for the worse.
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