As Kadampa Buddhist, we train in the art of happiness! The first thing we learn is that happiness is simply not a passive state of being, but an active, joyful, engagement with our meditation practice and our life. Growing a meditation practice takes time; and with time our practice itself becomes a source of great peace and happiness. As we grow our meditation practice we are encouraged to “bring in joy early and often” so that our meditations become a place of refuge, a place we look forward to going to and to spending time. We also learn how even with a distracted mind our meditations can bring us joy because we are still creating the cause for happiness just by practicing meditation. We are sowing the seeds of happiness simply through our training. We remind ourselves again and again of our good fortune to be training and cultivating such beautiful minds as gratitude, compassion, kindness and admiring faith. We even learn how to rejoice in the meditations on renunciation, death and the lower realms by considering how lucky we are that we get the chance to wisely contemplate these challenging concepts that definitely will impact our life. In this way we grow our insight and wisdom through our practice. Interested? Come along and train with us and learn for yourself the art of cultivating more joy and happiness!