Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.
Interpretation
Happiness is cultivated through personal growth and effort.
Matthieu Ricard emphasizes that happiness is not a fleeting emotion but a lasting state of being that comes from inner maturity and self-discipline. It requires consistent effort and patience in our daily lives, highlighting that the process of building happiness is as important as the outcome itself.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development.
Happiness is the main object of our aspirations, whatever name we give to it: fulfilment, deep satisfaction, serenity, accomplishment, wisdom, fortune, joy or inner peace, and however we try to seek it: creativity, justice, altruism, striving, completion of a plan or a piece of work.
True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.
We do all kinds of things to remain beautiful. Yet, we spend surprisingly little time taking care of what matters most - the way our mind functions.
Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment.
Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.
Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.
It dances today, my heart, _x000D_ like a peacock it dances, _x000D_ it dances. _x000D_ It sports a mosaic of passions like a peacock’s tail, _x000D_ It soars to the sky with delight, it quests, _x000D_ Oh wildly, it dances today, my heart, _x000D_ like a peacock it dances.
It makes me happy to encounter goodness, love of work, humane intelligence, and people no matter at what kind of job, be it ever so humble, or ever so exalted, who do it well and con amore.
When you first get money, you buy all these things so no one thinks you're mean, and you spread it around. You get a chauffeur and you find yourself thrown around the back of this car and you think, I was happier when I had my own little car! I could drive myself!
Maman used to say that you can always find something to be happy about. In my prison, when the sky turned red and a new day slipped into my cell, I found out that she was right.
There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
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