“The very purpose of our life is for happiness.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama often reminds us of how happiness must sit at the center of our lives. But I’ve often found the pursuit of happiness to be easier said than done, the first obstacle being: What do we mean when we talk about happiness?

While the answer to this question manifests differently in each of us, many On Being guests have offered their wisdom on this topic. Matthieu Ricard, once deemed “the happiest man in the world,” talks about happiness as “a way of being” — a resource of altruism, inner strength, and inner freedom that allows us to handle the reality of life’s turbulence. Mary Oliver writes about her winding path to happiness in her poem “Halleluiah.” And writer Pico Iyer says in this week’s On Being conversation:

“I love that word ‘absorption’ because I think that’s my definition of happiness. All of us know we are happiest when we forget ourselves, when we forget the time, when we lose ourselves in a beautiful piece of music or a movie or a deep conversation with a friend or an intimate encounter with someone we love.”

There’s a beautiful lightness in the kind of forgetting that he is talking about. I love Pico’s definition for the many ways it has appeared in the quiet crevices of my life: when I'm steeped in the depths of a book or washing a pile of dishes. Perhaps Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is orbiting around the same concept when he says, “Sometimes we don't need to pursue happiness. We just need to pause and let it catch up with us.”

What’s your working definition of happiness? How has it changed through your years of living? I’d love to hear your thoughts — you can write to me at newsletter@onbeing.org.

Yours,
Kristin Lin
Editor, On Being Studios

Here are three essays that offer working definitions of happiness:

“Happiness Is an Arm of Resilience” by Sharon Salzberg
Humility is a virtue, but denying ourselves the happiness we deserve can be a destructive habit. Sharon Salzberg with a reflection on the perils of self-deprecation, and how we might come to relish moments of joy, fully.

“Counterfeit Happiness and the American Consumerist Tradition” by Jane Hwangbo
In the quest to have it all, a daughter of Asian immigrants discovers that "the breaking takes time." Might we, she asks, build narrower lawns and wider minds?

“Beyond Happy” by Omid Safi
What would it take for us to look under the skin of happiness and make haste to being whole? Rather than looking to the self-help aisle, where might we look?

We’re delighted to take part in live conversations across the country and would love to meet you in person. We regularly update this section with new and upcoming events.

San Francisco, CA
On Being Wise with Krista Tippett
Friday, March 1, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Nourse Theater

Bay Area friends: For those who are looking toward next spring, Krista will be at Nourse Theater on Friday, March 1 with the California Institute of Integral Studies to ponder this moment we inhabit. We hope to see you there. Learn more.

Berkeley, CA
The #Reframe Conference: Mental Health & The Media
Saturday, March 23, 2019
International House, UC Berkeley

Casper ter Kuile, our Impact Lab executive director, will be speaking at The #Reframe Conference: Mental Health & The Media, a radically interdisciplinary event focused on new definitions of mental health. Host Jenara Nerenberg is a long-time friend of On Being and featured Krista in her author series for the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. Other speakers include angel Kyodo williams, scholars from Harvard’s neurology department, and leaders from the Sundance Institute. Please join us and connect with other bridge-builders innovating in psychology, media, film, community, journalism, tech, and science. Learn more.