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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 23
How to live the Good Life?
By Dr Seth Zuiho Segall
Rev. Seth Zuihō Segall, Ph.D.
is a Zen Buddhist priest and
clinical psychologist who is a
contributing editor for Tricycle:
The Buddhist Review, a teacher at
Pamsula Zen of Westchester and
the New York Insight Meditation
Center, a review editor for The
Humanistic Psychologist, and the
science writer for the Mindfulness
Research Monthly. His
publications include The House
We Live In: Virtue, Wisdom, and
Pluralism (2023), Buddhism and
Human Flourishing (2020),
Living Zen: A Practical Guide of
a Balanced Existence (2020),
Encountering Buddhism:
Western Psychology and
Buddhist Teachings (2003)
and chapters in The Routledge
Handbook on the Philosophy
of Meditation (2022), and
Handbook of Positive Psychology,
Religion, and Spirituality (2022).
He blogs on Buddhist topics at
www.existentialbuddhist.com.
Benny Liow discusses with Seth
the important topic of what is
meant by living a good life.
At a climate change demonstration At an inter-faith gathering with another
clergyman
Benny: When did you first talks on the retreat seemed to
became attracted to Buddhism, articulate what I already know but
and what was it that appealed to had never quite put into words. The
you the most? retreat opened up possibilities for a
deeper, richer, and more meaningful
Seth: My first encounter with life than the one I was already living.
Buddhism was as an undergraduate As a psychologist and a Dharma
when Allan Watts gave a series of
lectures at my college. I followed practitioner of many years, what
up on those lectures by reading do you think the Buddha meant
everything I could about Buddhism, by living the good life?
but at the time I there was no local
sangha or teacher I could practice I have a personal vision of the good
with. What appealed to me most life that I believe resonates with
about Buddhism was its vision of the Buddha’s idea of awakening
profound interdependence, and as I understand it. The good life is
its moral emphasis on compassion one that is meaningful, emotionally
and non-harming. It wasn’t until fulfilling, psychologically rich, and
three decades later that I watched attentive to the moral and aesthetic
a television program showing Jon possibilities that are present in
Kabat-Zinn teaching meditation every moment. It is a life that
to chronic pain patients. That recognizes our responsibilities to
program re-awakened the seeds the larger communities to which
of dharma that had been planted we belong: our families, neighbors,
decades earlier. As a prerequisite and friends; our nation and the
for applying for an internship at international community; and the
Kabat-Zinn’s clinic, I had to attend a fragile biosystem that supports
10-day Buddhist meditation retreat. us. Living this kind of life entails a
That first retreat taught me how lifelong cultivation of the virtues
meaningful and enriching meditative and wisdom that are conducive to
practice could be, and the dharma and partially constitute it. These