Paradoxical as it may seem, the search for happiness is the greatest obstacle to finding it.

     Suppose you could eat your favorite food for every meal, day in and day out, with nothing else: how long would you be satisfied with it? You would probably soon grow sick of it!

     In the same way, if we were happy all the time, we would not be happy, but bored. We can know happiness as happiness only when we have something to compare and contrast it with. Thus, we might experience Nirvana only because we know Samsara; we can know liberation only because of bondage or captivity; one cannot stand alone, by itself.

     Understanding this can help us to deal with the problems and difficulties of life, and transform them from obstacles into stepping-stones.

"The stars

appear

brightest

on the

darkest

night".

Persian proverb.