This is the Good Life

I write primarily about ethics, and how ethics applies to social and political questions. I thought it would be helpful, then, to set out, as clearly as I can, what I view as the core of the ethical project: the good life. In short, it is a life of happiness, flourishing, and contentment. It is the opposite of a life of suffering. Our ethics is about those perspectives, values, beliefs, and behaviors that best help us to achieve such a life.

My ethical perspective begins with a simple truth about the human experience: Our lives inevitably contain a degree of dissatisfaction, unease, or a subtle sense that something is always “off.” This isn't pessimism, but the recognition that even our moments of pleasure and joy hold the seeds of their own transience. Even when we aren’t suffering in the typical sense—we aren’t ill, or in acute pain, or feeling depressed—there’s some degree of suffering or dis-ease that comes from a disconnect between how we want the world to be and how it inevitably is.

That disconnect stems from a deeply ingrained habit of the mind: our craving for permanence in a world constantly in flux, our desire for absolute control over situations that are fundamentally contingent. We attach ourselves to experiences, people, and ideals expecting them to provide lasting fulfillment, and are inevitably met with disappointment when the impermanent nature of reality asserts itself.

It is possible to arrive at a state of being where this baseline dissatisfaction dissolves. This isn't the elimination of all challenges, let alone of pain, but a radical shift in how we relate to them.  It’s recognizing that dissatisfaction is born from our craving, clinging, and misguided expectations, and not an inherent quality of life itself.

Thus an ethical and content life is about the perspective and understanding you bring to your relationships and interactions with others, yourself, and the world. It’s a way of seeing and knowing that is quite distinct from our culture’s default. Further, it’s not just a set of principles you hold to be true, but an ongoing path of practice. You have to put in the work of cultivating this perspective, which involves developing a deeper awareness of the nature of your own mind and your internal mental states.

The core elements of this include:

• Clear Observation: Developing a non-judgmental clarity about the mechanisms of the mind, how it constructs stories and attachments that then cause us dissatisfaction.

• Ethical Intention: Cultivating a way of being guided by a selfless compassion toward oneself and others. This helps break cycles of harmful habits that arise from self-centered craving.

• Mindful Attentiveness: Consistent cultivation of an awareness that anchors us in the present moment. This lets us see experiences, thoughts, and feelings as they truly are: dynamic and without solid, lasting essences.

This perspective presents a fundamental claim: it's our relationship to the world and our own minds that shape our experience of profound contentment or unease. It proposes a practice-based methodology for shifting that relationship through understanding, mindful engagement, and an ethics rooted in compassion. The ethical life is the life spent walking that path towards harmlessness, non-craving, non-clinging, and contentment.

I write primarily about ethics, and how ethics applies to social and political questions. I thought it would be helpful, then, to set out, as clearly as I can, what I view as the core of the ethical project: the good life. In short, it is a life of happiness, flourishing, and contentment. It is the opposite of a life of suffering. Our ethics is about those perspectives, values, beliefs, and behaviors that best help us to achieve such a life.

My ethical perspective begins with a simple truth about the human experience: Our lives inevitably contain a degree of dissatisfaction, unease, or a subtle sense that something is always “off.” This isn't pessimism, but the recognition that even our moments of pleasure and joy hold the seeds of their own transience. Even when we aren’t suffering in the typical sense—we aren’t ill, or in acute pain, or feeling depressed—there’s some degree of suffering or dis-ease that comes from a disconnect between how we want the world to be and how it inevitably is.

That disconnect stems from a deeply ingrained habit of the mind: our craving for permanence in a world constantly in flux, our desire for absolute control over situations that are fundamentally contingent. We attach ourselves to experiences, people, and ideals expecting them to provide lasting fulfillment, and are inevitably met with disappointment when the impermanent nature of reality asserts itself.

It is possible to arrive at a state of being where this baseline dissatisfaction dissolves. This isn't the elimination of all challenges, let alone of pain, but a radical shift in how we relate to them.  It’s recognizing that dissatisfaction is born from our craving, clinging, and misguided expectations, and not an inherent quality of life itself.

Thus an ethical and content life is about the perspective and understanding you bring to your relationships and interactions with others, yourself, and the world. It’s a way of seeing and knowing that is quite distinct from our culture’s default. Further, it’s not just a set of principles you hold to be true, but an ongoing path of practice. You have to put in the work of cultivating this perspective, which involves developing a deeper awareness of the nature of your own mind and your internal mental states.

The core elements of this include:

• Clear Observation: Developing a non-judgmental clarity about the mechanisms of the mind, how it constructs stories and attachments that then cause us dissatisfaction.

• Ethical Intention: Cultivating a way of being guided by a selfless compassion toward oneself and others. This helps break cycles of harmful habits that arise from self-centered craving.

• Mindful Attentiveness: Consistent cultivation of an awareness that anchors us in the present moment. This lets us see experiences, thoughts, and feelings as they truly are: dynamic and without solid, lasting essences.

This perspective presents a fundamental claim: it's our relationship to the world and our own minds that shape our experience of profound contentment or unease. It proposes a practice-based methodology for shifting that relationship through understanding, mindful engagement, and an ethics rooted in compassion. The ethical life is the life spent walking that path towards harmlessness, non-craving, non-clinging, and contentment.