Being Happy is Embodying Happiness

Being on the "right path" has to do with the very concrete ways in which you live your life in every moment. This makes you happy, and it also makes the people around you happy. Even if you haven't "done" anything yet to make them happy, once you are walking that path and you are happy doing so, you become fresh and compassionate and people benefit from being around you.

Look at the tree in the front yard: the tree doesn't seem to do anything. It just stands there, vigorous, fresh, and beautiful, and everyone benefits from it. That is the miracle of being. So if you can be yourself, this is already love, this is already action. Action is based on nonaction, and nonaction is the practice of being.

--Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power

The most beautiful thing I have learned about life is contained in the simplicity and power of the Buddhist concept of action and being through nonaction. It is the most unique and complete teaching I have found and it is one which applies to all of us. The Buddha did not teach a religion. He did not even really teach a philosophy. Instead, what he taught was a science of finding happiness and ending sorrow.

In its simplest terms, as Thich Nhat Hanh says in the passage above, we can be most powerful and most happy by embodying the peace and the joy that comes from living fully in each moment. The idea is that you simply need to be your highest self. Let your truest and purest self shine through. Make other people's lives better just by being yourself, by embodying love, compassion, and peace in every moment.

We are all looking for a way to be happy. And we have the power to be so within us. Happiness is not an external quantity to be found by chasing after dreams and illusions. It is found in the simple act of being yourself, of loving yourself, and of sharing your being with others so that they too might find the way to happiness.

The Buddha was asked to simplify his teachings and tell people the answer to the question of how to be happy. He said, in the simplest and yet most profound terms that, to be happy, we should simply:

1. Avoid doing the bad things (i.e. things which cause suffering to you and others).
2. Do the good things (i.e. things which cause joy and eliminate sorrow for you and others).
3. Purify and subdue your own mind.

These steps sound too simple to some people, but if you put them into practice, you will find that there is no art to being happy. It is a practical, concrete science that begins with living fully and being fully in this moment, this instant, and letting go of all the painful desires and cravings that make life harder than it has to be. Forget about fame, wealth, sex and power. Focus on the diamond at the center of you. It is your soul. Love that. Foster it. And happiness will come like the spring rain.

Just breathe....