Almost every day I have a conversation with someone about happiness. Sometimes it’s a client, sometimes a friend, and often an inner dialogue with myself. On a recent trip to Stockholm I visited the Nobel Museum and was once again reminded who these exceptional people, the winners of the Nobel Prize, were and why they were so honored. The Peace Prize winners especially interested me and I spent some time viewing the exhibition on the life work of the Dali Lama. I’ve had the honor twice in my life to be in the same room with this man. Once at an event at San Jose State University where there were thousands of people gathered just to hear him deliver a scheduled lecture and conduct a kirtan and meditation, and another time in Santa Fe while I was at a conference on “Addiction and the Family”. There were about 75 of us in the typical small hotel conference room when the program was interrupted for a “special guest”. In walks his Holiness the Dali Lama, smiling, beaming in fact, and nodding at each of us with his hands in the prayer position as he walked, without entourage, down the center aisle of the room. He had come because he was in town and heard that a group of therapists was also in Santa Fe and that we were focusing on the family.
He came to thank us. Wow! Aside from the “Thanks” I don’t remember much of what he said and he didn’t stay long. What I DO remember, is my impression that this man was truly happy. He didn’t speak of happiness that I remember, but he radiated it. I think he probably lives it, moment by moment. At the Nobel Museum, the quote offered representing the Dali Lama’s philosophy was “The purpose of life is to be happy”. So simple, uncluttered, direct and,
