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The word "Duḥkha" (Suffering) evokes a "poor axle-hole" in ancient Aryan carts. The wheel's hub fits badly, causing a bumpy, unsteady ride through impermanence
What is happiness?
What is happiness?
You might say it's that fleeting feeling when you're doing what you love—a promotion, a new house, probably a private plane?
You might say it's that fleeting feeling when you're doing what you love—a promotion, a new house, probably a private plane?
That's the trap: we attach to these highs, clinging to impermanent pleasures that dissolve, and doing our best to avoid any pain, breeding dukkha (suffering) as many contemplative traditions warn.
That's the trap: we attach to these highs, clinging to impermanent pleasures that dissolve, and doing our best to avoid any pain, breeding dukkha (suffering) as many contemplative traditions warn.
Happiness IS NOT A FEELING; it's a state to embody through enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose—freed from grasping.
Happiness IS NOT A FEELING; it's a state to embody through enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose—freed from grasping.
Don't chase it, become IT
Don't chase it, become IT
Happiness Macronutrients: A Framework to start fixing our wheel
Happiness Macronutrients: A Framework to start fixing our wheel
Arthur Brooks is a Harvard professor who bridges social science, leadership, and happiness research. He is a former French hornist turned economist and ex-president of the American Enterprise Institute. He is an scientist in the art of hapiness and he has distilled it into three macronutrients: enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.
Enjoyment: Pleasure Meets Connection
Enjoyment: Pleasure Meets Connection
Brooks defines enjoyment as pleasure fused with positive relationships and mindful memory—never solitary highs that crash into dukkha. Pure pleasure (hedonic dopamine spikes) fades fast when attached; shared with others, it forges resilient bonds, like team wins celebrated with laughter or quiet family rituals that echo. This counters clinging by valuing connection over possession, fueling sustained energy for non-linear paths.
Reflect: How might one intentional interaction this week transform routine pleasure into lasting enjoyment?
Satisfaction: We grow through challenge
Satisfaction: We grow through challenge
Satisfaction is highly related with deliberate struggle: investing deeply in obstacles, enduring the friction, is part of all hero stories from ancient times, the leader navigating a painful transitions, letting go friends and loves ones, emerging with renewed clarity and resilience.
Brooks highlights this macronutrient as life's true meaning-maker; without resistance, achievements hollow out, echoing The Matrix's cautionary paradise where AI delivered effortless bliss, yet humans rejected it.
Reflect: What recent challenge has amplified your deepest growth?
Purpose: Living the WHY Questions
Purpose: Living the WHY Questions
Purpose, Brooks' deepest nutrient, PURPOSE, comprises: coherence, purpose, and significance. These are lifelong companions, not puzzles demanding final solutions. To help orienting ourselves these are the leading questions that help cristalizing these three elements:
Life's 'bigger picture' (Why do things unfold this way?)
Inner Compass (Why this direction?)
Reframing (Why does it matter—to whom?)
Reflection :
"Why are you alive right now?"—anchor in your irreplaceable gift to the world.
"For what would you be willing to die?"—sharpen priorities, revealing true north.
"Why this path?"—weave personal growth into collective belonging.
These questions don't solve meaning—they summon it, transforming non-linear careers into heroic arcs of agency and emergence.
Attachment: The Broken Hub Causing Dukkha
Attachment: The Broken Hub Causing Dukkha
Across Buddhism and Hinduism, attachment—clinging to impermanent roles, wins, or futures—shatters the wheel's hub, scattering spokes into chaos. Leaders grip titles amid volatility, yet all dissolves, amplifying unsatisfactoriness. Brooks aligns: macronutrients thrive without grasping—enjoy without owning, satisfaction through release, purpose as contribution, not control.
Integration Action Steps
Integration Action Steps
Balance weekly: Log one enjoyment ritual, one satisfaction challenge, regular WHY reflection (specially in hard times!)
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