The Art of Happiness - Part 1

This week begins a series looking at the book The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. Happiness is determined by our state of mind rather than external events. In other words, we can train ourselves in happiness. It requires practice and sincere and dedicated effort to live a happy life. Spiritually speaking, we have four capacities of awareness: sleep, dreaming, captured by the outside world, and spiritual. Spiritual practice is whatever supports us in looking within. There are also four factors of fulfillment for happiness: wealth, worldly satisfaction, spirituality, and enlightenment. If we can maintain a calm, peaceful state of mind, then we can be a very happy person. The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life. Here's how we can train our mind for happiness: learning what things align us, cultivating positive mental states, and eliminating negative mental states. Our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown, because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience.