The Happiness Project: This Saturday: a happiness quotation from the Dhammapada.

I'm working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will hit the shelves in late 2009 (HarperCollins).

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Every Wednesday is Tip Day.

Secrets of Adulthood.

The best reading is re-reading.
Outer order contributes to inner calm.
The opposite of a great truth is also true.
You manage what you measure.
By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.
People don’t notice your mistakes and flaws as much as you think.
It's nice to have plenty of money.
Most decisions don't require extensive research.
Try not to let yourself get too hungry.
Even if you think they're fake, it's nice to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day.
If you can't find something, clean up.
The days are long, but the years are short.
Someplace, keep an empty shelf.
Turning the computer on and off a few times often fixes a glitch.
It's okay to ask for help.
You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you LIKE to do.
Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy.
What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE.
You don't have to be good at everything.
Soap and water removes most stains.
It's important to be nice to EVERYONE.
You know as much as most people.
Over-the-counter medicines are very effective.
Eat better, eat less, exercise more.
What's fun for other people may not be fun for you--and vice versa.
People actually prefer that you buy wedding gifts off their registry.
Houseplants and photo albums are a lot of trouble.
If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.
No deposit, no return.

Happiness theories I reject.

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Sartre: "Hell is other people."
Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”
G.K. Chesterton: “Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.”
Solon: “Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.”

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« It’s Friday: time to think about YOUR Happiness Project. This week: read Sonja Lyubormirsky’s THE HOW OF HAPPINESS. | Main | How to boost your happiness by keeping a list of your "Things I've Learned So Far" or "Secrets of Adulthood" or "Notes to Self" or whatever. »

This Saturday: a happiness quotation from the Dhammapada.

“Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy. A fool is happy until his mischief turns against him. And a good man may suffer until his goodness flowers.” --The Dhammapada.

I'd read this quotation many times and never remarked on it much, but lately I can't get it out of my head. That's one reason I like to keep reviewing my treasure trove of quotations; sometimes, it takes years before I really start to appreciate a particular passgae.

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Pick the Brain has an intriguing post on the nature of happiness. Ah, an inexhaustible subject!

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If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Happiness Project Group on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

January 26, 2008 | Permalink

Technorati Tags: Buddha, Buddhism, daily life, Dhammapada, happiness

Comments

Good quotation. Here's one of my favorites:

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I think of this one whenever I feel the need to "let it go".

Posted by: Alex C. | January 27, 2008 at 12:10 AM

I love this quote! In fact, I stole it from you and put it at the top of my blog so I could read it every day for a while. :) I just found your blog and am enjoying being challenged by your ponderings and research. Thank you!

Posted by: Pamela | January 28, 2008 at 12:29 PM

What a great quote. I've read some modern Buddhist writing - the Dali Lama's books, for instance - but haven't tackled any of the 'original' texts yet.

Posted by: Helen | January 28, 2008 at 03:27 PM

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My earth-shattering happiness formula.

To be happier, you need to think about FEELING GOOD, FEELING BAD, and FEELING RIGHT, in an atmosphere of growth. Clunky, but it works.

My second ground-breaking insight into happiness.

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

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What started me thinking.

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." Mark Twain.
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
“For the love of God and my Sisters (so charitable toward me) I take care to appear happy and especially to be so.” St. Therese
“Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
“All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.” Samuel Johnson
“I must do the work that I am best suited for…” Edward Weston daybook
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope
“How slight and insignificant is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.” Horace

My books

Gretchen Craft Rubin: Profane Waste: Essay by Gretchen Rubin And Photographs by Dana Hoey
A collaboration with artist Dana Hoey that examines the question: why do people destroy their own possessions?
Gretchen Rubin: Forty Ways to Look at JFK
A biography that grapples with the enduring puzzle: what made Kennedy such a dazzling, unforgettable figure?
Gretchen Rubin: Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill : A Brief Account of a Long Life
A concise biography of Winston Churchill.
Gretchen Craft Rubin: Power Money Fame Sex : A User's Guide
Social criticism in the form of a user's guide.

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