Welcome everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to say thank you to our supporters at LinkedIn. People are often asked how do I become happy. I often ask back what is happiness to you? Everyone knows a feeling that they call happiness.

Everyone knows a feeling that they call happiness.

Sometimes they call it joy.

And many times they call it joy and many times they call it contentment and the peace that passes

understanding pick your word but I think you know what happiness means.

Ultimately happiness is the goal of other goals except for one insight missing here. It's not a goal, it's a

natural state of being. Before you have a goal, you're actually quite happy. And then the

goal arises in your mind as a desire, then you go through all the trouble of

fulfilling that goal to return to the state you were when you started.

That's the true meaning of T.S. Elliot's poem which says we shall not cease from exploration and in the end of our exploring

we arrive at the place we started from and know the place for the first time.

So this should be a clue to the understanding that peace, contentment, fulfillment,

joy, happiness is our natural state

prior to the activity of the mind.

The mind creates the notion of unhappiness. And then having created the notion of

unhappiness the mind embarks on a journey to cure that notion, ultimately ending up never being fulfilled because

happiness is not a notion. Happiness is a state of awareness prior to all notions and that is why I have frequently said

that happiness for a reason is a form of misery because the reason can be taken away from you at any time.

But if you're happy for no reason like a baby or a child, then that's called joy.

That's your natural state. Since happiness is at our core, I hope everyone finds happiness in the little things.

Communities is an important part of all of our lives and that includes

your work community as well. Working with and among people who are supportive will enable you to flourish.

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