Article Surfing Archive

Finding a meaning in pain, suffering or anger is a difficult task. Often we feel these emotions because something did not go the way we thought it was supposed to go. Once you learn to uncover a way of finding meaning in the things that don't seem right, you are on the way to learning the art of happiness.

What is happiness? When do we say we feel happy? From a book entitled The Art of Happiness, the author talks about the insights of the Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. The Dalai Llama is a popular speaker and a Nobel prize winner who has found a way to both experience continual happiness and to spread the true meaning of happiness to others so they can learn this practice as well. He teaches that happiness is the ultimate purpose of life and that the motion of life is always moving towards happiness. Some people place numerous obstacles in front of themselves as 'condition' for happiness and thereby prevent themselves from experiencing this purely inner emotion of which they are the only true source. Others, like the Dalai Llama have learned how to access this energy in a constant way so that there are no conditions whatsoever for experiencing happiness. The book serves as an inspiration to many people through the stories, meditations and conversations it presents. It shows us how to defeat anxiety, anger, insecurity and hopelessness and to find inner peace instead.

Many of us live a very fast-paced lifestyle. We want instant results for our efforts and we expect instant success or we get bored. We want visual evidence, data and we throw up shallow excuses for why we refuse to pursue our own inner source of happiness. 'It's too hard' we say, or 'I don't have the time.' We tend to see the cover, not the content of things. We hear the loud voice but not the heartbeat. We look at the clouds and not the sky. We see only want we want and refuse to look deeper inside ourselves.

In human experience, many people have said that life is like a wheel. You may now be experiencing your lowest point but later on, you'll get to the top. There a way to turn this wheel on its side however and see it from another angle. You don't have to go spinning around and around forever. You can make all sides of the wheel face to the top all the time but this accomplishment depends on you. If you want it, then you will find a way to do it.

From the same book, people are taught that the sole source of happiness is from the spiritual state of a person. Eliminating unnecessary material things and living a very simple life with a decent job makes a person focus more on his or her spirituality. From there, you will learn the purpose of life through human compassion and you will learn how to face suffering and transform it into something more meaningful. You will learn to overcome the obstacles in life such as dealing with and avoiding hatred, anger and grief. You will build self-esteem and above all, you will learn the basic spiritual values of life. These values will awaken your senses to the holy truth that constant happiness is the real purpose of life.

Happiness, even if it can be found in a secret place within the dark and long tunnel of your inner self, is something that exists in all of our spirits. It does not have to be experienced visually or through any of the senses. Still, it will be experienced on the spiritual level like the way that the sun pierces through the clouds that hinder our vision of the true universe. Bad emotions must be dealt with first to see the true meaning of happiness that lies behind them. When you do this, you will understand the true essence and the art of happiness.