Hello Do you want to be happy? Do you know how to be happy? Sounds like a silly question, but most of us don't! Although earning piles of money, finding a wonderful partner or 'the perfect job' may seem like the answer for a while, eventually life teaches us that true happiness lies elsewhere! Well, welcome to the Los Angeles Meetup Group “Buddhist Methods for Developing True Happiness & Wellbeing”. We are a group of friendly, sincere, warm-hearted Buddhist practitioners studying Mahayana & Vajrayana Buddhism, who are dedicated to providing both newcomers to Buddhism as well as established practitioners an opportunity to study, learn, & practice the Buddhist teachings. Buddhism is an insightful and inspiring journey to discover the true nature of ourselves and the nature of reality around us. It provides us with tools to analyze and reflection on our life and see the causes and conditions that create the world around us. Through reflection and contemplation we can better understand the causes that create happiness and the causes that create suffering, giving us the wisdom to transform life as we know it. By uprooting negative emotions and habitual patterns and instead training the mind in loving-kindness and compassion we can cultivate true inner beauty, happiness and peace of mind. We have the great good fortune to be guided on our journey by Lama Namnang Mingjo Dorje Rinpoche, a very humble yet immensely accomplished yogi, whose sincerity, dedication & guidance is very inspiring & brings the Buddhist teachings alive in our daily lives. The aim of our group is to provide our members with both an in-person as well as online learning environment to explore the incredible wisdom and application of Buddhism. We have teachings and meditation/ study groups that provide practitioners with an opportunity to not only learn Buddhist philosophy, helping us to better understand the interplay of cause and effect (the law of karma) and help us to contemplate and look at ways to change ourselves. As well as learn Buddhist meditation practices that help us to increase & stabilize key virtues (charity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom) within us, and give us a first-hand personal experience of what it is like to experience a mind that is stable, quiet, calm, peaceful, joyful and light. In addition, we will be posting insightful & inspiring quotes from teachings by our Lama Mingjo Rinpoche, as well as other great masters on our message board. We encourage everyone to ask questions, discussion, & post on these precious gems of insight. So if you've always been a little bit curious/excited about Buddhism, or you're just plain fed up with feelings of discontentment, frustration, meaninglessness/stress, this group could be just what you need to motivate you. Reading books alone at home only goes so far! So come join a friendly group as we support each other in this essential journey, both through online communication and face-to-face meetings. We look forward to meeting you. Let's enjoy this journey! Sincerely, Michelle and Pailin