Imagine going through life in a state of deep peace
Fully present and available to others
Completely at ease and brimming with optimism
Seeing the beauty in everything
According to Buddha, this is our potential.

Where is Happiness?

Everyone wants to be happy all the time. As a consequence, we are all always working hard to find it. Thinking that it  happiness lies in getting rid of our problems, we work day and night to keep them away. Yet still we don't experience the happiness we long for.

According to Buddhism, the happiness we long for doesn't arise because we're looking for it in the wrong place - in external objects.

In How to Transform Your Life, founder of the New Kadampa Tradition, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso gives the following explanation: 

"Although all living beings have the same basic wish to be happy all the time, very few people understand the real causes of happiness. We usually believe that external conditions such as food, friends, cars and money are the real causes of happiness, and as a result we devote nearly all our time and energy to acquiring them. Superficially it seems that these things can make us happy, but if we look more deeply we will see that they also bring us a lot of suffering and problems."

"The real source of happiness is inner peace. If our mind is peaceful, we will be happy all the time, regardless of external conditions, but if it is disturbed or troubled in any way, we will never be happy, no matter how good our external conditions may be. External conditions can only make us happy if our mind is peaceful."

Our center in Water Mill exists to help people learn how to cultivate inner peace, the real and lasting source of happiness. The center's program follows the structure designed by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso that is practiced in all 1,200 Kadampa centers throughout the world.

Through listening, contemplating and meditating on Buddha's teachings, we will naturally cultivate virtuous minds of wisdom and compassion that are the causes of deeper inner peace and happiness.

These minds are also the gateway to the spiritual path and the ultimate attainment of full enlightenment.

Quoted from How to Transform Your Life, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and the New Kadampa Tradition.

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