The Way to Happiness.

The Way to Happiness

George Catlin

De Vorrs Publications

553 Constitution Avenue, Camarillo, CA 93012

www.devorrs.com

ISBN: 0875168043 $8.95, 78 pp.

The Way to Happiness by George Catlin enumerates the questions that seekers of happiness must ask themselves "to make sense of life" and which lead ultimately to "the spiritual life" (p. 1). Important questions are "What are we doing here?" (p. 5), "How can one maximize life's potential?" (p. 9), and "Is there a Purpose to life?" (p. 6).

Catlin suggests that if you yearn for happiness, the process to achieve it includes practicing meditation daily, walking slowly with ease, detachment, and peace, appreciating others and giving them time and attention, paying off all debts--not just monetary debts, but the debts of goodwill and love--and reading great spiritual texts. He outlines a plan to practice and to achieve all of these goals and challenges readers to come along on this awesome and difficult journey that leads to the spiritual path or to reject his plan.

He points out that even though we think we are in a free society, "humanity is a species in bondage" because of the highly ingrained addictive thoughts and behaviors, feelings of inadequacy, and needing to belong to a society that is constantly rushing everywhere, yet nowhere, and having all these feelings perpetuated and exacerbated by advertising and the possibilities of purchasing a flashy new and competitive physical life.

In addition, Catlin explains that even with all these negatives, society clings to them because they are familiar and by being familiar offer an odd sort of security. He says that truly to achieve happiness, seekers of this elusive commodity must review their assets, desire real self-transformation, reject the familiar, and go in search of the unknown beyond the state of thought. Above all, he maintains that, "The small self, the personal self, has to surrender for the 'higher Self' to live" (p. 38), and only when "we have had more than enough of one nation imposing its ways on the rest of the world" (pp. 67-68), can we know real peace and happiness. Catlin says that "those who know life's truths would never impose their will on anyone" (p. 68). Indeed, Catlin finishes his heartfelt work by summarizing that the way to happiness is the process of serving others without regard to what one receives in return. He says it is "a well-worn route to joy" (p. 75) and asks his readers to try it.