Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness

According to the Dalai Lama, an essential component of compassion and forgiveness is realizing that the other person’s words and actions are not about you, but about their internal reality, which has intersected with yours.

Your ability to love yourself evolves as you evolve, but when you finally love yourself, you have passed a watershed point in your spiritual practice. You no longer are trapped in looking to others to prove that you are okay. When you are unhooked from that need, you can simply open to the love coming your way from others without feeling unworthy o

Embracing the totality of who we are is not about loving only our goodness and disregarding the rest. And it’s not about being fond of just that part of us that is always sweet and kind. True love comes whole and unconditional. Loving the whole package means leaving nothing out. Unless we can do that, our love and joy are compromised. You might thi

The stories that limit you or free you are really all in your mind, and you can change them. I often give students a “prescription” to help in the process. Sometimes I write it down on a piece of paper and suggest they carry it in their wallet. “Whenever you find yourself getting reactive, withdrawn, or confused,” I tell them, “remember that you ha

Speak or act with an impure [confused] mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. … Speak or act with a pure [clear] mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable.

When you let go of thinking that things should be a certain way, you open yourself up to the fact that there are usually a number of options that you hadn’t considered.

Seeing Yourself with Love Bring to mind someone who genuinely loves you. Imagine yourself as that person, and look at yourself through his or her eyes. What qualities do you see in yourself from that perspective? Pause a few moments to fully take in what you see. Now shift your perspective back and feel what it is like for you to have those qualiti

“While it’s true that someone can awaken that love,” I remember him saying, “it can never be lost, since it’s been right inside us all along waiting to be activated.”

Too much on our plate gives us indigestion.

all the goodness, virtue, joy, freedom, even enlightenment if that’s what you’re looking for. Integrity is the first step towards the highest goals you are trying to actualize in this human existence. “When we practice maintaining integrity and demonstrate it through our actions, our speech, the way we treat other people, we become extraordinary ex