happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile. There is an important cognitive and ethical component to happiness. Our

Buddha’s recommendation was to stop not only the pursuit of external achievements, but also the pursuit of inner feelings.

If happiness is determined by expectations, then two pillars of our society – mass media and the advertising industry – may unwittingly be depleting the globe’s reservoirs of contentment.

This raises the possibility that the immense improvement in material conditions over the last two centuries was offset by the collapse of the family and the community.

Marriage is particularly important. Repeated studies have found that there is a very close correlation between good marriages and high subjective well-being, and between bad marriages and misery. This holds true irrespective of economic or even physical conditions.

One interesting conclusion is that money does indeed bring happiness. But only up to a point, and beyond that point it has little significance.

One study might compare a thousand people who earn $100,000 a year with a thousand people who earn $50,000. If the study discovers that the first group has an average subjective well-being level of 8.7, while the latter has an average of only 7.3, the researcher may reasonably conclude that there is a positive correlation between wealth and

The generally accepted definition of happiness is ‘subjective well-being’.

it seems naïve to believe that the more clout people have, the happier they will be.