Happiness Hangover There are endless seminars, workshops and techniques about touting their benefits to bring us a happy life. Happiness seminars abound. While it is true that we live in very unhappy times and it seems quite reasonable to find ways to bring happiness into our societies I fear that the quick fix methods will only have superficial results at the least and at the most plunge people further into despair. I recently spoke to a gentleman who was on a quest to find happiness and had just attended his 20th workshop on happiness. He travels the width and breadth of the country in search of the magic formula. In a sense, he had become a happiness junkie getting on a high during a seminar then crashing down in a heap soon after with a happiness hangover. I would have found it quite amusing if it had not been for the look of utter despair on his face.
Many people are looking to Buddhism as a path to happiness. The Buddha has given us a well-trodden path to supreme and abiding happiness in a well tried and tested method used by countless folk down through the last two millenniums. However, …