We All Want Only One Thing in Life: Happiness

People who inspire me tend to illustrate how similar we all are, rather than how different.  They reveal what is most special inside each one of us, instead of insisting that they are more special than the rest.  They are leaders who unite, rather than divide.  Teachers who speak with integrity, as opposed to ego.  Spiritual guides with grace, and without grandiosity  Friends, relatives, and neighbors who do selfless, substantial, soul-strengthening things when no one is looking, all day long, just because . . .

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai, for example, will often tell audiences that we are all the same.  We fundamentally want only one thing in life: To be happy.  In the video below, taken last year when he was in Boston, the Dalai Lama explains that our best chance for being happy is by, first, being present.  He offers that by continually distracting and overstimulating our senses (with TV, music, etc.), we run the risk of being dependent on these experiences and sad when we do not have them.  This leaves us feeling "lonely" and "uncomfortable," he says.    



So, today, I'd like to turn it over to you, readers . . . What makes you happy to the fully present core of your being?  Let's enumerate all the ways, large and small, triumphant and trivial, in which we feel grounded, joyful, creative, supported, and calm.  Happy Friday!