Happiness may be defined as being at peace and harmony with ourselves and our surroundings. We cannot be happy when we, or our beloved ones, are sick or when our lives are filled with outer and inner disturbances and contradictions. As far as we are able to surmise, the object of life in this universe is progress, which is expressed by ever higher attainments of body and mind. That would be impossible to achieve without harmony.

The search for happiness is a normal desire on the part of every living being. To avoid pain, physical or mental, and to find peace is something we are all striving for. Even the person who commits suicide or the criminal who kills to rob — in spite of destroying themselves in the action — are motivated by a desire to escape from their present state of tension and find peace. Whatever means are employed, it is obvious that the desire to achieve happiness is the greatest driving force in life. Where can we find happiness? Is it in worldly possessions, or perhaps in a position of dignity? in easy living or in harmonious family life? or elsewhere? Let us take a few examples and analyze the matter.

Supposing you always longed to possess something of special value to you — money, property, a new car, and the like. When you did not have the object of your desire you were unhappy, especially so, when you have seen others enjoying the very things you have been yearning for. Let us say that you pursued your goal for a certain length of time until finally you attained it. When that took place you, no doubt, felt happy. After a while you got accustomed to your new possession; its novelty wore off; the thrill was gone; soon you began seeking other things, once more feeling dissatisfied and unhappy. This is a normal sequence of events in most cases and is a clear indication that happiness is not a result of the mere possession of the material things in life.

Now let us take an example of a different nature. Let us say that you have been working on and off all your life and had little fun out of it. You continually dreamed of retiring and living an easy life. Finally you managed to cast off your obligations and lol — you found out that your happiness in leisure did not last long either. After running around for a while you got tired of it, settled down, and soon were doomed to a life of inactivity, loneliness, and misery.

The majority of people are unhappy due to what they consider the drudgery of their existence. In the course of their daily obligations they are forced to perform the same actions over and over, day in and day out, until they become, as the saying goes, "sick and. tired of it." This may equally happen while attending school in adolescence, while doing housework, on a job, or in a business. This belief of living in drudgery is nothing but a state of mind which can be changed into a more healthful attitude by one's power of will as we shall see later.

Another source of unhappiness is the interrelation in a family — man and wife, parents and children, et cetera. We must learn to deal with all situations so that everyone in the family is treated fairly and life goes on in harmony as a result.
Temporary contentment may be found in financial security, love, social position, power, and other similar attainments of spirit. All these cannot be considered as material things; they are achieved by us through our own mental efforts. The more consistently we train our faculties, the more qualified we become. Yet, with all that, we many not achieve happiness if our minds are in a state of disharmony. We see that some people are contented with little, while there is never enough for others. Many are never happy no matter how much they possess.

From all these deliberations we can surmise one thing — that true happiness may be found only within ourselves. It is our state of mind that will make and keep us happy or miserable, no matter what our situation may be. We must train ourselves to find contentment and happiness wherever we are, in favorable circumstances or not, in wealth as well as in poverty. We must make up our minds to always be happy — then we will be so.

However, since all of us are human, and, to our chagrin, we are apt to observe others ahead of ourselves in material or spiritual attainments — it is not too easy a thing for us to be perfectly contented with our own meagre lot. In such circumstances it is of great help to learn how to get along contentedly with what we have, while training ourselves for the subsequent achievement of the better things in life which we are striving for.

What is it that you and I want mostly out of life? Of course, each individual has his own aspirations which are different from those of the next fellow. Some want health, others financial independence, still others are looking for marital bliss, power, refinement, and so on. Only the possession of a healthy combination of these factors is conducive to happiness because no one can be happy while being endowed with one worthy qualification and lacking in all others.
What are the most essential personal attainments without which happiness is unthinkable? Doubtless, the first one would be normalcy — physical as well as mental. We must be healthy in body and mind in order to be able to survive and enjoy our existence.

Next on the list are economic security, social adjustment, and harmony in family life.

Outside of these, which may be classed as basic essentials of happiness, there are many others which are more in the category of personal ambitions. They are not as indispensable to happiness as the ones above-mentioned but they all play important roles in our lives adding zest and interest to them and making living so much more worth while.

Before we go into the study of each separate factor of happiness let us ask ourselves, so that there will be no doubts or misapprehensions about it later on: Is it worth the trouble? Is it really more beneficial to us to learn and acquire the knowledge of life rather than to follow the line of least resistance believing that ignorance is bliss, and the less you know about yourself, the better off you are?
No doubt, for a while, it is easier to take the lazy way out. Ages ago, when life was not as complicated as it is today, one could get by without much knowledge of its meaning. In those days, people lived a simpler and more natural life, were guided by their natural instincts and inclinations, ate plain wholesome foods and did not have to contend with all the destructive influences which we have to face nowadays.

As it is now we live in an age of speed, competition, commercialism, and greed. We have strayed away from normal natural life; we seek excitements; we easily become addicts of harmful habits; and, to make things worse, we are virtually surrounded by highly injurious artificial foods, drinks and medicines manufactured for profit only, regardless of the harm they cause. We are forced to use the latter, whether we like it or not, mainly because they are available everywhere to the exclusion of the simple, natural, wholesome foods God meant for us to live on. As a result of this unnatural existence we deteriorate in physical as well as mental health, get old prematurely, bring forth a sickly posterity, and end up in grief and misery. Only a very few fortunate ones among us, thanks to their inherited physical sturdiness and favorable circumstances, are able to carry mediocre health and contentment into ripe age.

The great majority, however, fall prey to a multitude of diseases before, or soon after, they reach the early age of forty. What little happiness they might have had in their youth is later obliterated in sorrow and despair. No amount of hope or prayer alone can save the ignorant victim from the ravages of cancer, heart disease, polio, arthritis, and the host of other ailments plaguing humanity today. No, ignorance is not bliss, and you are not better off by knowing less! One must find out for himself what is good for him and abide by it if he wants to live long and be happy. There is no justification or excuse for ignorance or neglect — you get just as much out of life as you put into it and nothing comes to you as a gift, you must work for and deserve everything you possess.

Unquestionably, the first and most vital factor of happiness is physical health. Most of our misery has its origin in sickness. Without health, happiness has no firm foundation, and where it does exist it is shallow and transient. To be happy we must first be healthy. Success in life is also dependent on our state of health. Not many sickly people were ever able to achieve success because that requires, in most cases, hard work and perseverance, which are inconceivable without good health.
With the realization of the paramount importance of health as a factor in achieving happiness we are going to devote the greater part of this book to the subject of acquiring and maintaining good health. It will constitute the backbone of our philosophy of happiness as, by rights, it should.

It is not only the state of our physical health that helps make us happy or miserable. Our mental attitude is also a very important factor in this matter. We cannot be happy when our minds are filled with worry, fear, hatred, jealousy and similar negative emotions. We must learn to recognize and overcome these destructive feelings.

It is our intention to take up each one of these factors of happiness separately in the following chapters and explain how to eliminate the negative, and acquire the positive, ones.
The first step for you in achieving happiness is to make up your mind to devote yourself to learning the truth about it, and to practice following the truthful methods religiously after you have acquired the knowledge of them. Once you get on the right road nothing can deter you from finding your goal, since you will always see its bright light ahead of you and will never cease to yearn to get to it.
In this long journey you must not get discouraged if things do not work out for you swiftly or perfectly just as you wish them to do. It takes time and hard work to achieve perfection. We all have our occasional shortcomings and failures, but with perseverance we are always able to overcome them. Let us learn also to content ourselves with less where we cannot have things fully our way. Compromise for the time being while you visualize and strive for an improvement in the future.
To sum up our attitude on the matter — happiness is not where you find it, but where you make it; you must learn to make it and work hard to keep it.