Reading Archive (Experiencing Happiness)
To Be Simply, Radically, Absolutely Still
Gangaji
Sometimes, in a blessed life, there arises what we call the spiritual search, the search for God, the search for Truth. There is a recognition that the usual means of taking care of this command just ...
The Secret Of Work
Swami Vivekananda
Whatever we do, we want a return. We are all traders. We are traders in life, we are traders in virtue, we are traders in religion. And alas! we are also traders in love. If you come to trade, if i...
The Dalai Lama: Why I Laugh
The Dalai Lama
I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me ...
What Do I Really Need Right Now?
Sharon Salzberg
An essential question we might ask ourselves is, 'What do I really need right now, in this moment, to be happy?' The world offers us many answers to that question: You need a new car and a new...
The Glass is Already Broken
Stephen and Ondrea Levine
Once someone asked a well-known Thai meditation master, "In this world where everything changes, where nothing remains the same, where loss and grief are inherent in our very coming into existenc...
Radical Amazement
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin. Wo...
A Deep, Uncritical Love
Bhante Gunaratana
You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don't have to force anything...
My Neighbor's Corn
Naren Kini
There was once a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he gre...
No Rush, No Dawdle: The Secret Of Proper Timing
Tom Maxwell
The present is truly the only place we exist. What we call the past is a construct of memory, the recollection of which constitutes a present experience. According to author Alan Watts, the futur...
Causes Of Happiness
Dalai Lama
The purpose of life is to strive for happiness. Every sentient being has the right to survive; this means having a desire for happiness or comfort: that’s why sentient beings strive to surviv...
A Heart Of Warmth Is Not Something Impossible
Tenzin Palmo
What does love mean? In the West, we mistake the meaning of love; we bandy the word around all the time, from “I love ice-cream” to “I love God”. But we mistake love for desire...
Finding the Deepest Joy in Relationships
Ezra Bayda
One very helpful tool in both clarifying and working with our relationship difficulties is to return to the three questions: Am I truly happy right now? What blocks happiness? Can I surrender to what...
With Fullness in Life, Everything is Possible
Facundo Cabral
You are not depressed; you are distracted. You believe that you have lost something, which is impossible, because everything that you have was given to you. You did not make a single hair of your head...
Three Qualities Of Holiness
Anthony De Mello
True happiness is uncaused. You are happy for no reason at all. And true happiness cannot be experienced. It is not within the realm of consciousness. So it is with holiness. Holiness i...
Plan of Life
Nicole Grasset
For most of us, the first thing we must do is to work -- to have a roof over our head, bread in our mouth, fire in our chimney -- for ourselves and for those who are dependent on us. Work chosen...
A Scheme to Change the World?
Hazrat Inayat Khan
The other day I lectured in Paris and after my lecture a very able man came to me and said, 'Have you got a scheme?' I said, 'What scheme?' 'Of bettering conditions.' I repl...