Talks by people studying happiness

The reason for pursuing this stuff is to be happy and to help others become happier. (And a lot of the ideas are interesting.) People who've made a study of happiness are rare, and offer something unusual. Even among gurus and monks and lamas, it's not often you hear one talking much about happiness.

Here is a TED Talk by Matthieu Ricard, a French monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

In another TED Talk, Nic Marks talks about measuring happiness as an alternative to GDP.

Ajahn Brahm talks about happiness and its cause, and how we can become happier. A rosier picture of the Four Noble Truths than the bleak emphasis on suffering.

More of Ajahn Brahm's thoughts on happiness. (The audio is a little too loud on this one.)

Here is a five-part Youtube playlist of a weekend seminar presented by Scott Kiloby and Bentinho Massaro. This was in the Boston area, and I had the good fortune to attend. Though I can't claim not to have nodded off once or twice. Challenging ideas sometimes do that to me.