Spiritual direction or spiritual guidance helps people become whole, healthy, healed, and live an integrated, vibrant life. Happiness is an inherent part of being human.

During the American Public Media show Being "Pursuing Happiness" host Krista Tippett said: "The Dalai Lama reflected on the meaning of happiness in a public gathering in Atlanta in mid-October—together with three leading figures in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. What are their mental and physical practices, their spiritual insights, to cultivate happiness and sustain it? Can happiness as a way of being in the world also encompass suffering and conflict?" Listeners heard:

"I always believe and also share with the people, the very purpose of our life is for happiness. The very purpose of our existence is for happiness." -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

"There's this ongoing tension between seeing happiness as joining with God, as communion with God, that's only possible in the afterlife, and the insistence that human beings are created to be happy, that happiness is possible in this life." -- Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori

"We're created in beauty. We're drawn to beauty and our soul is drawn to beauty. So, yes, there's a very deep nexus between beauty and happiness, and happy is the person who realizes inner beauty." -- Professor Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

"Sometimes we don't need to pursue happiness. We just need to pause and let it catch up with us." -- Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

What does happiness evoke in you?
These are the type of questions and ponderings you can talk about with your spiritual director or share in conversation with friends, family, and coworkers.

Links
Locate a spiritual guide near you
Watch Being show: Pursuing Happiness