1. Happiness is not the ultimate value
2. Happiness is not the same as meaning
3. Improve happiness levels before setting goals
4. Idling for happiness
5. Prioritize happiness over writing.
6. What we call happiness is a mental state.
7. Fame is terrible to happiness
8. Compassion leads to happiness
9. If my happiness depends on how I experience the world, I need to take good care of my senses. I will be relying on them for most of my life, esp if ginhawa and experience are my goals.
10. presence is the foundation

Unprocessed

But can’t happiness really be the purpose?

Why shouldn’t it be pursued? Because it is a by-product of pursuing a selfless goal.

What am I being called to do?

What research is saying isn’t that happiness shouldn’t be the ultimate goal. What it is saying is that the way towards happiness is not through pursuing it but through pursuing these other things that lead to it as a by-product.

It is like meditation. If you keep on thinking about achieving transcendental experiences, you won’t achieve them. You achieve them by focusing on the breath on the practice.

At the same time, we shouldn’t be too preoccupied about the destination (happiness or Ginhawa). What we need to focus on are the practices that we need to do every day, the middle strivings that get us to the mental states we desire.