Keys to Happiness
Happiness - is it having loving and compassionate relationships? Or a caring community? Is it a manner of worship? Or having a sense of meaning? Some say we are at our happiest when we are learning and are challenged. Others believe happiness comes from fulfillment of personal needs. Still others argue that happiness lies in forsaking our own self-interest to serve others.
Happiness
is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. Nor can it be experienced
where love is not. Love has no limits,
being everywhere.
-A Course in Miracles
‘Abdu’l-Bahá wisheth no one’s heart to feel hurt, nor will he be a
source of grief to any one; for there is no greater satisfaction than being a
source of joy to the hearts. I ask God that ye may become like angels of
heaven, sources of happiness to souls.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá
He that is
discontented in one place, will seldom be happy in another.
-Aesop
Happiness
does not depend on what you have or who you are... It solely relies on what you think.
-Buddha
Success,
wealth, good health and nurturing relationships are by-products of happiness,
not the cause.
-Deepak Chopr
I slept
and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke
and saw that life was service
I acted
and behold, service was joy.
-Tagore
A man living with his thoughts in this Kingdom knows perpetual joy. The
ills all flesh is heir to do not pass him by, but they only touch the surface
of his life, the depths are calm and serene.
- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
We are
what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we
make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as
your shadow, unshakeable.
-The Dhammapada
The ideals
which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living
are... goodness, beauty and truth.
-Albert Einstein
Happiness
is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Anyone can be happy in the state of comfort, ease, health, success,
pleasure and joy; but if one be happy and contented in the time of trouble,
hardship and prevailing disease, that is the proof of nobility.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Happiness
consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in
great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of
his life.
-Benjamin Franklin
There is
no way to happiness... Happiness is the way.
-Buddha
Happiness
is when... what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony
-Mahatma Ghandi
Go deep into thy heart. There is a realm in your heart. There it
will spring up with the water of joy, a constant stream of joy will
be flowing from your own heart. Nothing will stop it and nothing will
be able to give it except yourselves. This is done by spiritual exercise.
- Faizi
When I
planted my pain in the field of patience, it bore fruit of happiness.
-Kahil Gibran
He is
truly happy who makes others happy.
Those who face that which is actually before them, unburdened by the
past, undistracted by the future, these are those who live, who make the best
use of their lives, these are those who have found the secret of contentment.
-Alban Goodier
Happy is the lover that hath inhaled the divine fragrance of his
Best-Beloved from these words, laden with the perfume of a grace which no
tongue can describe.
-Bahá’u’lláh,
Happiness
is a butterfly, which when pursued is always just beyond your grasp, but which,
if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness
can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the
Light.
-Albus Dumbledore
He who has reached the state of self-sacrifice has true joy.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Things and
conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy, joy arises from
within.
-Eckart Tolle
If you possess
happiness you possess everything: To be
happy is to be in tune with God.
-Paramahansa Yogananda
The
purpose of life is...the expansion of happiness.
-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
If you wish the joy, happiness and the composure of the spirit and the
peace of the conscience of Abdul Bahá, strengthen the bonds of union and
harmony amongst yourselves so that all of you may become the waves of one sea,
the drops of one river, the flowers of one garden, the links of one cuirass,
soaring in the atmosphere and breaking forth into one glad song.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá
You pray
in your distress and in your need, would that you might pray also in the
fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
-Kahil Gibran
Ever since
happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to
find you.
-Hafez
Material progress insures the happiness of the human world. Spiritual
progress insures the happiness and eternal continuance of the soul … In
accordance with these principles and actions and by the assistance of the Holy
Spirit, both material and spiritual happiness shall become realized.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
As a blind
man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin, so am I amazed by the miracles of
awakening rising in my consciousness. It is the nectar of immortality that
delivers us from death, the treasure that lifts us from death, the treasure
that lifts us above poverty into the wealth of giving to life, the tree that
gives shade to us when we roam about scorched by life, the bridge that takes us
across the stormy river of life, the cool moon of compassion that calms our
mind when it is agitated, the fun that dispels darkness, the butter made from
the milk of kindness by churning it with the dharma. It is a feast of joy to
which all are invited.
-Shantideva
What is
the difference
Between
your experience of Existence
And that
of a saint?
The saint
knows
That the
spiritual path
Is a
sublime chess game with God
And that
the Beloved
Has just
made such a Fantastic Move
That the
saint is now continually
Tripping
over Joy
And
bursting out in Laughter
And
saying, “I Surrender!”
Whereas,
my dear,
I am
afraid you still think
You have a
thousand serious moves.
-Hafez
Through suffering he will attain to an eternal happiness which nothing
can take from him.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Happiness
is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human
existence.
-Aristotle
Thousands
of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will
not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
-Buddha
Man is, in reality, a spiritual being, and only when he lives in the
spirit is he truly happy.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which
your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into
your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine
the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes
your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into
your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that
is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in
your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has
been your delight.
Some of you say, "Joy is
greater thar sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the
greater."
But I say unto you, they are
inseparable.
Together they come, and when one
sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your
bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales
between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at
standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you
to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or
fall.
- Kahlil Gibran
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| Reflection Questions |
- In what way are spirituality any happiness intertwined?
- Considering world events, what is there to be happy about in the world today?
- In what ways can happiness be defined to reflect spiritual principles?
- Forgiveness is a pervasive spiritual principal. How does this relate to happiness?
- In what ways is happiness a universal path of enlightenment?
- Is the pursuit of happiness virtuous?
- What role does happiness play in being successful?
- Share your special message of inspiration on Happiness?
- When are people happy enough?
- How does gratitude play into spirituality and happiness?
- If joy became the national currency, what kind of activity would make us wealthy in the currency of joy?
- How is ego a barrier to spirituality? Is it also a barrier to happiness?
- How can living in a spiritual world bring perpetual joy?
- If our reality is spiritual can we be happy in the ephemeral world?
- What may be the relationship of sacrifice to joy and happiness?
- How is our happiness impacted by being a source of joy to hearts of others?
- How do bonds of union and harmony contribute to happiness?
- What role does material progress play in happiness?
- What role does human suffering play in happiness?
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