To begin, I find it a really interesting reflection to sense when we're feeling well-being,

when we're really feeling happy, when we're feeling peaceful, what's going on at those times?

What are the conditions that give rise to that?

And what we find is that the circumstances are really varied.

We can feel a deep sense of peace or happiness when we're completely solitary.

We could be with the thousands at the College of Chakra, with a group of people at a concert or whatever.

We can be in nature, we can be dancing, we can be reading, we can be immersed in a project.

Tons of different conditions are settings.

And the common denominator, when we're really happy, is that there is a quality of presence.

There's a quality of hearingness that we're aware of hearingness and there's some quality of beingness that goes with it.

And interestingly, this is the kind of underpinnings of this presence,

is what is our sense of self at those times?

What's our sense of self in the moments when there's really a quality of well-being?

And when we check, when we kind of step out a little and check, we find it's just not so much of, it's just not there.

It's vague, it's airy, it's spacious, it's undefined.

That at the times that there's real well-being, there's not a centralization, a fixation, a narrative of self going on.

Now there are kinds of happiness that are more narrow or fleeting,

that where we might be thinking about things we accomplished and get a burst of pride or something.

But I'm talking about a very deep kind of happiness in the Buddhist tradition, it's called Suka.

A Suka that really arises from presence.

So if we contrast that to times that we're not so happy, when we're miserable, it's exact opposite.

There is a very solid sense of self. There's a centralization on self.

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