As a Buddhist living in a Western country, I feel caught between two
very different definitions of "happiness." Both traditions insist that
happiness is something worth striving for, a lifelong goal, but the
similarity ends there. Westerners are pummeled with images of the good
time they should be having all the time. Childhood should be an endless
birthday party, college should end with a spouse and large crowd of
lifelong best friends, one should wake up every day so excited to be
alive that they spring out of bed. For Buddhists, "happiness" is