Happiness

I found myself thinking of the hymn below the other day. It is one that I have always loved. The words reach into my heart and fill it with peace and hope. I can almost hear the sound of the congregations voices singing all as one.

The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, & the way to be happy is to make others happy & we'll have a little Heaven down here. unknown

When I came across this quote by the Dalai Lama it made me realize the similarities in what he is teaching and that hymn that I was taught as a child. Back then everything seemed so simple. My church was right the rest were wrong. "I don't care what you believe, Just believe it" is my personal philosophy. As long as you are not causing harm to yourself or others that is. Believing in a higher power by any name we use is a comfort to us all in good times as well as bad. The Dalai Lama had this to say on the subject. His words for me say it all.

"Human beings by nature want
happiness and do not want suffering

everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner, believer or non-believer, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and so on.Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same." HHDL

.