The Happiness Imperative: Mankind's Need for Real Happiness

This book is about happiness. Personal happiness, societal happiness, spiritual happiness and political happiness. It also tells the story of my own journey in life, which began well, took a turn for the worse, but mercifully - through a lot of great fortune - corrected itself in my mid-thirties and has grown better ever since. Some years ago, on pondering my good luck, I felt obliged to take some action to share my peace and joy. This led to a number of initiatives on my part, one of which got me interested in the idea of introducing some of what I had learned to others and even to attempt to encourage its introduction in politics. The book evolved as I thought and read my way into these topics and I hope it may serve as a support to those who are seeking real happiness in life and in society.The myriad of insurmountable problems that face us all individually and societally will require a fundamental change in the way we approach these issues if we are to make any impact in seeking to deal with them. I believe that this change will involve humans learning how to be happy in the true sense of the word or in other words how to be spiritual. Spirituality is a difficult word in the 21st century because of its historical connection with faith based beliefs. I have tried to develop a framework definition of spirituality which could be acceptable to people of all faiths and none. I believe that this should enable us to fully embrace the spiritual side of our personalities in a way that can ultimately lead us to personal and societal peace.