If we consider that Buddha tortured his mind and body as the common custom among holy men in India half a millennium before Christ,to live this life of simple harmony with all and a healthy respect for your own body as well as your mortal soul, and be able to enjoy the nurture of your friends and family, was to begin this personal journey on the road to being eternally blessed.

To be able to count our blessings and savor the joys of life, to thank a mentor and those who taught you to love and be more worthy, to learn to forgive, most of all by asking for forgiveness, to keep friends and family close, to take care of our bodies, and to develop strategies to cope with stress and hardship, are the known common values of those who live the happiest lives.

These are easy to recite as long as I have the notes in front of me from these years long discoveries of his inner soul by Guatama Buddha, whose wise men from the east were surely among those there at the birth of Jesus Christ.

The same lessons of love and humility apply. And if you want to imprint so much, as I have done, you will ponder these thoughts and findings, and not let go of it so quickly as we can so often do. For this, you dear soul, is one of those pivotal opportunities for a lifetime on the sunny side of the street, while the family Grinch suffer with the blizzard in the shade.

And here is where we come in, party hats and joy, like the pom pom girls, or the jocks, who all try to get you crowd off your fat self indulgent Charlie and go do some good. And then notice how you are smiling, as the little old lady counts her bags once you have helped her across the street. you will meet resistance, Sir

Galahad, but carry on against all dragons, in and external.

You should spend at least a day on performing as one of these eight virtues, and enjoy it as the great growth experience yet ahead of you. I am of an age when my years enjoyed now pass the two thirds mark in my life: I have far fewer days ahead of me than I can remember from the past. That itself can give you an alert to spend each next day being better than you were.

Here is a bet. Without looking back up, can you seriously recite those eight principals to happiness and joy? And, if not, why not? Is it that like so many of us, we rush past vital information, yet will watch for hours the daily train wrecks and bombings of the moment.

Emerson spoke of this, and the news shows it daily, hobgoblins of little minds are the details of the day and the mental rituals that keep us small of mind that we were intended, self caged.

We will speak further on this as well. The need to explore our deepest biases and get beyond being the product of our mother and father and become a new us of the world, is critically overdue we all know. We will continue this chat about the eight steps to bliss further, because we notice you still do not have them all internalized, nor do I. God makes so clear how He or She is not finished with us by a long shot.