How to find True Happiness!

To maintain an unchangeable sweetness of disposition, to
think only thoughts that are pure and gentle, and to be
happy under all circumstances, such blessed conditions and
such beauty of character and life should be the aim of all,
and particularly so of those who wish to lessen the misery
of the world. If anyone has failed to lift himself above
ungentleness, impurity, and unhappiness, he is greatly
deluded if he imagines he can make the world happier by the
propagation of any theory or theology. He who is daily
living in harshness, impurity, or unhappiness is day by day
adding to the sum of the world's misery; whereas he who
continually lives in goodwill, and does not depart from
happiness, is day by day increasing the sum of the world's
happiness, and this independently of any religious beliefs
which these may or may not hold.

He who has not learned how to be gentle, or giving, loving
and happy, has learned very little, great though his book
learning and profound his acquaintance which the letter of
Scripture may be, for it is in the process of becoming
gentle, pure, and happy that the deep, real and enduring
lessons of life are learned. Unbroken sweetness of conduct
in the face of all outward antagonism is the infallible
indication of a self-conquered soul, the witness of wisdom,
and the proof of the possession of Truth.

A sweet and happy soul is the ripened fruit of experience
and wisdom, and it sheds abroad the invisible yet powerful
aroma of its influence, gladdening the hearts of others,
and purifying the world. And all who will, and who have not
yet commenced, may begin this day, if they will so resolve,
to live sweetly and happily, as becomes the dignity of a
true manhood or womanhood. Do not say that your surroundings
are against you. A man's surroundings are never against him;
they are there to aid him, and all those outward occurrences
over which you lose sweetness and peace of mind are the very
conditions necessary to your development, and it is only by
meeting and overcoming them that you can learn, and grow,
and ripen. The fault is in yourself. Pure happiness is the
rightful and healthy condition of the soul, and all may
possess it if they will live purely and unselfish.

"Have goodwill To all that lives, letting unkindness die,
And greed and wrath, so that your lives be made Like soft
airs passing by." Is this too difficult for you? Then unrest
and unhappiness will continue to dwell with you. Your belief
and aspiration and resolve are all that are necessary to make
it easy, to render it in the near future a thing accomplished,
a blessed state realised.

Despondency, irritability, anxiety and complaining, condemning
and grumbling; all these are thought cankers, mind-diseases;
they are the indications of a wrong mental condition, and
those who suffer therefrom would do well to remedy their
thinking and conduct. It is true there is much misery in
the world, so that all our love and compassion are needed,
but our misery is not needed; there is already too much of
that. No, it is our cheerfulness and happiness that are needed
for there is too little of that. We can give nothing better to
the world than beauty of life and character; without this, all
other things are vain; this is pre-eminently excellent; it is
enduring, real, and not to be overthrown, and it includes all
joy and blessedness. Cease to dwell pessimistically upon the
wrongs around you; dwell no more in complaints about, and
revolt against, the evil in others, and commence to live free
from all wrong and evil yourself. Peace of mind, and true
reform lie this way. If you would have others true, be true;
if you would have the world emancipated from misery and sin,
emancipate yourself; if you would have your home and your
surroundings happy, be happy. You can transform everything
around you if you will transform yourself. "Don't complain
or feel sorry for yourself...

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad,
but chant the beauties of the good." And this you will
naturally and spontaneously do as you realise the good in
yourself.

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