How to Create Sustainable Happiness

The desire to feel happy, fulfilled, and satisfied is the basic force that drives every person. We are made of a desire to receive pleasure, and as we develop, we increasingly consider not only what will satisfy us now, but what will provide lasting happiness in the future.

Throughout history, our definition of happiness has continually changed. Once, happiness meant surviving, finding food and shelter, and raising a family. Later came the pursuit of wealth, honor, power, knowledge, and education. Simultaneously, we gradually discovered that our personal well-being depends on increasingly larger circles around us.

Today, this dependence has become global. Our security and happiness can be affected by events occurring thousands of miles away, from economic crises to wars to health threats to environmental disasters, and technological changes. Reality has become integral, and we are beginning to understand that individual happiness depends increasingly on the well-being of the world.

This requires a fundamental change in our relationship with other people. We must move from a narrow egoistic perception toward an integral one in which we increasingly feel that our own well-being and the well-being of others are inseparable.

Environmental measures such as recycling and reducing emissions are important, but by themselves they cannot address the deeper problem. A more fundamental transformation is required within human beings and human society. According to the integral approach, changes in our relationships influence the entire system of nature because humanity is an integral part of that system.

But where can we find the power to rise above our egoistic nature?

There is a connecting, unifying force inherent in nature, and the integral approach to education teaches us how to awaken its influence through connection. In small groups, people study human nature and the integral structure of reality while practicing mutual support, consideration, and connection above egoistic differences.

As participants increasingly strive to connect as one, they develop an integral perception in which each person becomes included in the others. From this new perspective, they can begin approaching personal, social, economic, and environmental problems as parts of one interconnected system.

This is the next stage of human development. We cannot achieve sustainable happiness by accumulating more for ourselves while remaining separated from one another. It depends on developing relationships that correspond to the integral structure of nature. By learning to complement and support one another, we can build a new humanity, one that is harmoniously connected, sustainable, and capable of continually advancing toward greater happiness.

Based on "New Life 244 – Happiness and Sustainability" with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.