Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. In our quest for happiness, as we get happier and things

start working well because we have our mind and our heart in a much better place,

and we start applying the principles of impermanence, living in the present moment, flowing with things.

I've learned over the years that sometimes we get the idea that things just start going

smoothly for us, that we stop having tragedies, and bad things don't happen to us anymore.

And that actually isn't the case.

Things continue to happen to us that many people would look on and say,

wow, I'm really sorry for you, I'm sorry this is happening

to you.

Tragedy still strikes us, no matter how great a place we get at in our lives. Let's think of an example that illustrates this. The Buddha, who

clearly was an enlightened being, lived many years after he had his first Enlightenment.

And though he lived for a long time into his 80s, he didn't just a healthy fit and everything

went well for him.

People that he loved died. He got older. His body wore out and he got illnesses.

Again, what we think is that if we get to that point of happiness that everything's going

to go smoothly, let's use a Western example. Think

of Jesus. Though his ministry wasn't as long as the Buddhas and his life was cut short, during

that three years where he surrounded himself with people that loved him,

there are many people that still despise him. And in the end, even those who professed to love him turned against him and he was left very much alone.

And clearly he died a horrible death.

So it isn't as if that everything's going to go smoothly once we reach a point of living a happy life.

That isn't how it works.

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