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once in a millennium that sweetness and light descend upon this mortal world in the form of such blissful, enlightened souls. If you ask the majority of people about happiness they will take it as an occasion to let off steam and inform you in no uncertain terms the foolishness of presuming to be happy here below. And so all-pervasive is this cynicism that under its influence one sometimes wonders if even the great ones were speaking the truth when they talked of the happiness they had attained.
In spite of this, the truth is that the world is filled with happiness. The reason why man seems to live under the perpetual shadow of suffering is that he lives in a state of tension under the burden of his ego-this is what suffering really is. You come across a man who seems to have all the means of material well-being-a car, a fine house, good clothes, plenty to eat there seems a complete absence of anything that might cause him misery. You say to yourself: "Here is a man with whom I should like to change places!" You tell him you envy him for being so happy, and he will say: "My friend, the less said about it, the better!"
You might say that a man may be materially welloff, but he may have some other cause for complaint.
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