Happiness is the Ultimate Good-the final end of all our actions: everything we do, we do with the hope that it will make us happy. Why, then, do so few of us attain this ideal? Why do we spend most of our lives in suffering, emptiness, and dissatisfaction?

How do we attain happiness? Across all cultures, major philosophies, and world religions, the answer to this question is nearly universal. But if the path to happiness has been so firmly established for thousands of years-if the wisest thinkers from disparate regions, throughout the ages, have essentially agreed on how we achieve...