Everyone wants to be happy. Many, however, wrongly believe that happiness comes from having enough money, fame, personal comfort, worldly success, or even dumb luck. Happiness just seems to be so elusive and arbitrary--something all too often just out of reach. Joan Chittister sees happiness differently. To her it is not a by-product of wealth or success but, rather, a personal quality to be learned, mastered, and fearlessly wielded. Happiness, she says, "is an organ of the soul that is meant to be nourished." In these pages Chittister develops "an archeology of happiness" as she conducts a happiness "dig" through sociology, biology, neurology, psychology, philosophy, history, and world religions. Sifting through the wisdom of the ages, Chittister offers inspiring insights that will help seekers everywhere learn to cultivate true and lasting happiness within themselves.;Happiness is a process -- The meaning of happiness in a global age -- What social data tells us and what it does not -- What makes people around the globe happy -- Group, self, or something else -- What makes a person happy -- Personal health and happiness -- Happiness is a cultural expectation -- Happiness and the brain -- Hardwired for happiness -- Happiness is a goal -- Happiness is a value -- Psychology and happiness -- The foundations of happiness -- The essence of happiness : what it is not -- Happiness : the way to more of it -- The qualities of happiness -- Positivity -- Extroversion -- Relatedness -- Competence -- Autonomy -- Meaning -- When unhappiness washes over us, what then? -- Philosophy : the search for meaning -- Happiness form there to here -- Happiness and pleasure -- Happiness is pursued, not achieved -- Happiness is possible but not guaranteed -- Happiness and choice -- Happiness and human rights -- Pleasure and happiness : the difference between them -- The good life : the happiness that lasts -- Religion : a finger pointing at the moon -- Hinduism : the one thing necessary -- Hinduism : the measure of the happy life -- Buddhism : the call to end suffering -- Buddhism : the path to freedom -- Judaism : chosen to be happy -- Judaism : the people of the law -- Christianity : the happy life is elsewhere -- Christianity: happy are they who ... -- Islam : submission and community -- Islam : living the good life -- Religion and the paths to happiness.