The Art of Happiness

across human behaviors that on the surface aredifficult to explain, there are certain approachesthat we can use to understand what’s going on.For example, the idea of the unconscious orsubconscious part of the mind plays a prominentrole. We feel that sometimes behavior can be aresult of psychological processes that we aren’tconsciously aware of—for instance, one mightact in a certain way so as to avoid an underlyingfear. Without being aware of it, certain behaviorsmay be motivated by the desire to not allowthose fears to surface in the conscious mind, sowe don’t have to feel the discomfort associatedwith them.”Reflecting for a moment, the Dalai Lama said,“In Buddhism there is the idea of dispositions andimprints left by certain types of experiences,which is somewhat similar to the idea of the