The Search for Happiness

There was a man who decided that life was not as it should be for him. In fact, truth to tell it was not good at all. He decided that his life was empty and shallow. He was surrounded by people who really did not care for him at all. He decided that he needed to find happiness. He had been told that if he really wanted happiness he had to find chi in his life. He decided that no matter how long this took he would not settle until he had found happiness, chi.


It seemed that the obvious place to beginning looking was in the temples and places of worship. At each place he stopped he was told that if he really wants to find this chi then he would have to travel to a temple further away in another place. He did just this, each time making the journey to a further place. After visiting more than one hundred such places he felt that he was not further forward in his search for happiness, for the chi, it was suggested that maybe he was searching in the wrong places. That rather than places of worship and temples he should go to the shrines and the places where in historical time’s great things and events had occurred. Once again he undertook many years of search and pilgrimage. The desire within him to find happiness was still very strong. Again after many years of such a pilgrimage he had not found what he was looking for.

It was suggested to him that what he was looking for would only be found in the mountains where there lived wise hermits. So he set off climbing many high mountains and speaking with many mountain hermits. Finally, with his hair gray with age he was told of an old hermit that lived in an isolated high mountain cave. He began the torturous climb with a determination. Finally he arrived where he found an old man, a solitary ascetic. He told the man of his goal and his search. The old man gave a wry chuckle. “If you want to find the chi and happiness,” he said “sit down and close your eyes.” He took hold of his hands and said again, “Chi is here within your grasp, it is within every being.

As the artist searches for the best painting, the best sculpture, the best piece of art. The search must begin within the artist. Others may be able to help bring it out to give tips and hints. But the search for happiness in the creative process begins in each artist own hands.