Maybe you dream about a loving relationship with an amazing partner. Perhaps it’s a beach house or an exotic car or sinful pieces of chocolate cake. Or maybe like Dr. Evil, you wish for a BILLION dollars!

How’s all that going for you?

The fact is, we all want to be happy.  And the problem is, we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. (spoiler alert: it’s not in the cake) We believe happiness resides in some person or object or situation that exists “out there.” But these external sources of happiness are just temporary “fixes” to distract us from dealing with the true source of all our problems: the overwhelmed self, the angry, nervous, the seemingly unworthy self. Or any other deluded versions of ourselves that show up daily and cause us to suffer.

But if happiness doesn’t exist “out there” then where can we find it?

In his book, Eight Steps to Happiness, Geshe Kelsang teaches us that “Happiness is a part of the mind that experiences inner peace, or peace of mind, so the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions.” 

Within us lies an unlimited potential for inner peace, freedom from suffering, and the path to lasting happiness in both this life and all our future lives to come. This potential is called our Buddha nature and every one of us possesses it.

When we learn how to stop identifying with our self-limiting versions of ourselves and start identifying with our true potential, we can transform our lives into something amazing!