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The last nine months have been an intense search for life’s meaning. I scoured through many books, tried diverse kinds of spiritual practices, did volunteer charity work, did thins that made me fill fulfilled and happy like teaching in a university, traveled around, started a business, did freelance consulting, met many different kinds of people and tried so many other things. I was searching for meaning.

After intense soul searching, I discovered that I felt happiest when I wasn’t working for money, when I was able to make a difference in someone else’s life no matter how small and when I could be with friends without any sort of political agenda. I have been mired in Corporate politics for so long that I have forgotten how good it felt just “being” with people just for the sake of “being” with people. I didn’t have to convince them to do anything, make a good impression, say the politically correct thing…..I can just “be” with them. I never felt freer! Money, power, advancement, ambition does put a major crimp on our quest for happiness.

I have been blessed to see many people in the past nine months who are a lot worse off financially than most of us, and yet are terribly happy. They work for next to nothing, dont know where their next meal is coming from. don’t know what will happen to them if they get sick, not sure if they can send their kids to school, and yet spend an inordinate amount of time trying to help other people. Yes, they help other people even though most others would think they should just be focusing on helping themselves. I have seen peace and joy in their eyes. What is their secret? From them, I have learned that the real path to happiness is when you forget about your own problems and try to fix other people’s problems. Seems like ridiculous logic, but if you think about it deeply, it starts to make sense.

The tourists that glutted Lijiang were in a party mood. In the evening they danced around a fire in the town square, lilting to the wailing lute and the folk singers’ desirous voices. The waterways were romantically lit by candles floating in paper boats. The restaurants were full, the air laden with beer and cigarette smoke, and groups of Chinese were guffawing over table games. I had inkling that it was Naxi, an ethnic group descended from nomadic Tibetan tribes that infected the tourists with out-pouring of merriment. Naxi traditional songs accompanied us throughout our journey, and in small villages we sometimes encountered groups of men drinking and singing in the evenings. Lijiang, capital of the Naxi people, is set in the fold of the mountains of northwest Yunnan. It’s one of the best preserved traditional cities in China, an evocative town girdled by walls and elaborate town gates, and meandering alleyways and waterways that are lined with weeping willows and follow the alleys to provide supply of running water to all households. The stone houses are designed around central courtyards, and their saggy slanted roofs are tiled in the Chinese vernacular of bamboo reliefs. The Naxi now make a living from the deluge of tourists that visit their town.