Our ideas of happiness and what will bring us happiness can be the very things that keep us from experiencing happiness. In this Dharma talk, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh offers three practices to help us touch the happiness that is available to us right now, wherever we are.

The first is letting go of our ideas of happiness. Such ideas include the notion that happiness is dependent on the accumulation of wealth, power, fame and sex. The second practice is mindfulness, which is the ability to go home to the present moment and see that everything we need to be happy is already here. We do not need to seek other conditions to be happy. The third practice is concentration—the way we recognize true happiness and deepen our appreciation of the elements of happiness present to us.