Dr Vera Ranki, founder of the Examined Life Institute, said that the first lesson towards achieving happiness is to realize that happiness is not the same as fun. In our desperate pursuit of happiness we often forget that when we pursue pleasure itself we tend to be miserable, and that the greatest lessons in life actually come to us through grief, sadness and strife.
Wise people have always recognized that happiness is a byproduct of a life filled with meaning and a sense of connectedness to that greater mystery that stands behind all life. Jesus summed it up in His famous Sermon on the Mount which starts with a series of statements describing those who truly are happy. The strange thing about them is that they have nothing to do with pleasure, power and possessions.