Five Kinds of Happiness
Teacher: Sharon Beckman-Brindley
"The purpose of life is to be happy." Dalai Lama
The Buddha developed and then taught about states of happiness: those that are dependent on conditions and those that are not dependent on any conditions at all. The path that he has given us is primarily a path to the latter: a happiness that is completely independent of conditions.
Sometimes, however, when we offer the Buddha's teachings on ultimate awakening, it can appear that we are denigrating "lesser" kinds: the happiness of the simple pleasant: contact with the natural world, with belonging, with a healthy body and a mature and healthy and integrated mind.