[Buddha-l] Happiest countries in the world

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 15:19 +0800, [DPD Web] Shen Shi'an wrote:
> On the ironies of "the Pursuit of Happyness" in Samsara:
> http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=12,3821,0,0,1,0 :
> 
> ... Throughout the story, Chris muses upon his pursuit of happiness -
> "And it was at that time that I thought about Thomas Jefferson writing
> that Declaration of Independence. Him saying that we have the right to
> life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I thought about how he
> knew to put the 'pursuit' in there, like no one can actually have
> happiness. We can only pursue it."

I have heard that in early drafts of the Declaration, the phrase was
"life, liberty and the pursuit of property," which would have been a
more accurate description of what America became after it foisted
independence onto itself. Of course, if Dharmakirti had had a hand in
writing the Declaration, he would have pointed out that there are
properties but no property-possessors.

Richard