On Happiness

Five years ago,on September 11, this month also became forever tinged with sadness. In response to that, I've been reading a book by Matthieu Ricard called Happiness. I'm not far along, but already I'm learning new ideas.

Many yogis are familiar with sukhasana. A cross-legged seated pose, many translate the posture as "easy pose," or sometimes as "pose of happiness." (Some with tight hamstrings find it anything but easy or happy!)

But sukha in Sanskrit means something more beautiful and more encompassing. According to Ricard, sukha is "a way of being that underlies and suffuses all emotional states...A happiness so deep that, as Georges Bernanos wrote, 'nothing can change it, like the vast reserve of calm water beneath a storm.' " Find Out More about Ricard's Happiness

If you wish to read something shorter on happiness, try the provoking article on happiness by another favorite author of mine, Sally Kempton - click here. Perhaps building on that definition of sukha, Kempton tells us how "yoga teaches us that happiness is always available to us, no matter what our circumstances." Find Out More about Ricard's Happiness