This page presents the core ideas from the ‣ briefly, from a practical standpoint.
The desire for happiness is a fundamental desire of every living being. Happiness is a state of alignment between the internal tendency of a mind and the external world.
In humans, the desire for happiness is fundamentally infinite. We want things, we get them, we want something else. No wealth, achievement, relationship, or sensory experience permanently resolves this. No finite object can satisfy an infinite desire.
Material wellbeing is necessary but not sufficient. Economically developed societies still experience epidemic levels of depression, addiction, and existential crisis. The material conditions improved; the underlying longing did not.
To satisfy an infinite thirst, you need an infinite object. It is not possible to satisfy the desire in the physical sphere or the psychic sphere — both are inherently limited. The only way to satisfy it is the spiritual sphere. To quench this thirst, only internal effort is required. This effort is hence called spiritual practice.
To properly engage in spiritual practice, the mind needs a degree of stillness, or peace. Morality provides the foundation for this. The more distorted and disturbed the mind is, the less capable it is of experiencing higher, more abstract ideas. Without it, the mind races toward crude objects which ultimately cannot satisfy it. And until universalistic thinking is accepted intellectually and thoroughly practiced, people will ultimately be led to accumulate more and more limited objects, depriving others of the necessary foundation of wellbeing and increasing harm.