"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." --Dalai Lama

 A seeker visited a holy man in search of happiness. He sat down, displaying his bag of family jewels. “There was once a time when this wealth gave me happiness, but I somehow lost it. Can you help me finding meaning and purpose again?” The holy man took the bag, jumped up and ran away. Speechless, the seeker didn’t understand what was going on. Was this so-called holy man a thief? He ran after him to get his bag of wealth back, but the holy man knew the city and all the little side streets too well and managed to slip away. Now the seeker fell in a deep depression. How could he have been so dumb to trust this guy. He would be homeless now. This bag of jewels was all he had. After hours of searching he returned to the market place and guess what, the holy man was sitting in his old spot with the bag of jewels next to him. Grinning, he returned it to the seeker. How happy he was to get his wealth back!

Happiness is always within. It is our self, and our outside seeking for new stimulus that makes us forget what we are blessed with. It took a little trick displayed by the holy man to help the seeker understand that he finds his bag of jewels meaningful after all. Let’s use this opportunity to close our eyes and reflect on the treasures we have so that we feel less inclined to run about to find more meaning and purpose when the treasure chest is already within.