Everyone Is Seeking God

Whether they know it or not, everyone is seeking God. As Paramahansa Yogananda explained in a December 9, 1945 talk at the Self-Realization Fellowship Hollywood Temple:

God is ever trying to draw His children back to their inherent perfection. That is why you will see even in evil people there is a search for God, though it may not be pronounced as such. Can you find an evil person who wants to derive misery from his actions? No. He thinks his

The Plane Truth About Happiness

Lenny Dykstra then

In the March 12, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated, a special report by writer David Epstein explains how former baseball star Lenny Dykstra, now forty-nine, lost millions of dollars and wound up being sentenced to three years in jail for fraud. Here’s an excerpt:

In the unreleased documentary, filmed after his bankruptcy filing, the former Met and Phillie explains the importance of a private plane to his contentedness. “I said, O.K., I know I’ll be happy when I buy my own Gulfstream,” says Dykstra, reflecting on the place he purchased in 2007. “But I got down to the end of the nose, I looked back and I said, O.K., happy, come on, come on. So it’s not about the Gulfstream. But it is about the Gulfstream. Meaning it just wasn’t as good a Gulfstream as I wanted.”

Um, Lenny, there’s something you should know. The day a Gulfstream buys anyone happiness is the day

The Buddha on Happiness

Those who have found true happiness have discovered that it cannot be found through the ego or by the fulfillment of desires. This little anecdote is a clever way to convey that message.

A man said to the Buddha, “I want

The Only Way to Die

If I were to check out tomorrow, I’d feel exactly the same way that Mary Lavin’s grandfather and Michael Gartner’s father did:

“Take my own father! You know what he said in his last moments? On his deathbed, he defied me to name a man who

Oh, Still It Was Splendid to Sail It!

If your happiness depends on achieving your goals precisely as you have envisioned, on events playing out according to your wishes, or on other people doing exactly what you want them to do, you are condemning yourself to a lifetime of misery.

When everything has to be right, something isn’t.
Stanislaw Lec

Giving your best and learning along the way are more important than the ultimate outcome of your efforts.

And what if I did run my ship

I Am Thankful That Thorns Have Roses

Opening your mind and your heart to accept life’s endless stream of gifts is a priceless gift in itself.

Some people are always grumbling that roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr

Never again will you revert to a scarcity consciousness that whispers insidiously that you do not and will not ever have enough.

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no 

Growing Happiness Under Your Feet

Fulfilling your desires can produce occasional bursts of happiness, but the pleasures of the material world are both fickle and fleeting. Getting exactly what you want may make you happy today, but it may be the opposite of what will make you happy tomorrow.

More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Instead of fretting about having what you want, you will be happier and more peaceful if you focus on wanting what you have.

The foolish man seeks

If You Need It, You Can’t Have It

A prosperity consciousness is the cause and financial abundance is the effect, not the other way around.

The best time to practice being rich is when you’re feeling poor.
Alan Cohen

If you feel you need wealth to feel wealthy, you will never feel wealthy no

Two Phone Calls Lead to a Life Lived With Reckless Abandon

While researching a magazine article I was writing, I found myself talking to Scott Clemente, the president of St. Louis Park, Minnesota-based Mulberrys Garment Care. Scott had a great story about how disappointment can actually steer you toward your destiny. When he lost his job, he momentarily lost hope . . . until his dad uttered two words that sent Scott’s life spiraling off in an exciting new direction. I interviewed Scott and wrote up his story. I trust you’ll find it as inspiring and uplifting as I did.

Scott Clemente

In August 2001, I was twenty-six and working in an investment bank in London. I wanted to make a career move so I accepted a job at a private equity firm, also in London. Before beginning my new job, I took a month off to travel. While I was in Italy, September 11 happened. A week after that, I was sitting in a cafe in Bologna when I got a call from my new boss to be. He informed me that

Three Rules For a Happier Life

Would you like to live a more positive, peaceful life? Follow these three simple rules and you will.

Never

Portable Paradise!

I am very happy now that I am living in Encinitas. But I was very happy when I lived in Minnesota. And I will be very happy if I end up in Cleveland. My happiness does not depend on what state I’m in, it

Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard: The Happiest Man in the World

I was intrigued by Matthieu Ricard‘s Buddhist-flavored thoughts on the art of happiness. Plus, it’s the first time I’ve seen a Buddhist monk quote Ayn Rand! Here is the Q&A article by Justine van der Leun of AOL Health.

Matthieu Ricard

Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard claims you can practice your way to happiness, and he should know: After MRI scans showed that he experienced extreme levels of positive emotions and few negative ones, he became known as “the happiest man in the world.” Trained as a cell biologist in France, Ricard moved to the Himalayas in 1972 to study Buddhism. He’s now a translator, a photographer and the Dalai Lama‘s

The Whispering of the Hours Turns to Music

Find work that you love and you will be in harmony with life’s soft, sweet melody, adding your instrument to the celestial orchestra that serenades the farthest reaches of the universe.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Kahlil Gibran

If you do not love what you do, you

The Little Joy of the Soul

Paramahansa Yogananda meditating

Meditation is not an emptying of the mind. It is the highest form of concentration in which the mind is focused entirely on God. What we call happiness is negligible compared to the inner peace and exultation of spirit we attain in meditation.

Happiness, the province of the ego, is fleeting. Joy, the

Richard Bach on Security and Happiness

I just finished reading Running from Safety by Richard Bach. It’s a good read about his spiritual approach to life. I especially loved Chapter Twenty-Nine (pages 165-170) in which Bach uses his experience as a technical writer for the Douglas Aircraft Company to expound on what it means to have true security (Hint: It’s not a full-time job working for somebody else).

Shop for security over happiness and you buy it, at that price.
Richard Bach

I agree wholeheartedly with Bach’s conclusions about the illusion of external security. Place your security in the hands of others and your future is anything but secure. The best parts of you will lay dormant, their yearning for expression gradually eroding into fitful dreams of what might have been. Here’s a great quote from Bach in that chapter:

Don’t tell me that my security comes

Calmly Active, Actively Calm

What we call happiness is negligible compared to the inner peace and ecstatic joy we attain in meditation. Happiness, the province of the ego, is fleeting. Joy, the natural state of the soul, is infinite and eternal.

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without a doubt you 
shall be united with me, Lord of 
Love, dwelling in your heart.
Bhagavad Gita 12:8

Enriching your inner life is only half the equation. If the peace and unconditional love you feel in meditation is not