"You can’t find something that’s already there. Happiness exists now. It’s not something you have to find. That’s like trying to find your breath."

Lesson 32: The Secret to Happiness: Stop Caring.


Our lives are plagued with practicality and productivity. We think that if there’s no purpose to something, there’s no point in doing it. In reality the best things in life have no purpose. We sacrifice our time and our sanity doing what we don’t want to do, so at some future point we will create the freedom to do what we love. We seek happiness in things. We seek happiness in the acceptance of others, in material possessions, in social status.  We sabotage ourselves and our entire lives because we fail to understand a very simple but easily overlooked fact.

[The Search for Happiness is the Single Greatest Cause of Misery.]

It’s the grasping of the mind that causes unhappiness. If you’re not happy, it’s because your mind doesn’t allow you be happy. And the reason your mind doesn’t let you be happy, is because you’re stuck in the vicious cycle of productivity, judgment and purpose. That’s not to say productivity is bad, or that doing things that have a purpose is wrong. It’s basing the reason for your existence on them that causes so much anguish.


What now?

• The best way to solve the problem of not having a lot of cool friends is to stop caring about having cool friends.
• The smartest way to be happy with the place you live is to stop caring about living in a two story house with a pool, a fireplace, central air and satellite TV.
• The simplest way to be content with yourself is not to achieve greatness and praise, but to accept yourself fully for who you are now.
• The quickest route to happiness is to stop caring about finding happiness and to start being happiness.