Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

by Matthieu Ricard

Sociologists define happiness as “the degree to which a person evaluates the overall quality of his present life-as-a-whole positively.

One must practice the things which produce happiness, since if that is present we have everything and if it is absent we do everything in order to have it.

Take a quiet moment alone and try to find out what really makes you happy. Is your happiness derived mainly from outer circumstances? How much of it is due to your state of mind and the way you experience the world? If happiness comes from outer circumstances, check how stable or fragile they are. If it is due to a state of mind, consider how you can further cultivate it.

“I don’t want to look inside myself. I’m afraid of what I’d find there.”