ABSTRACT
Can you to bring to mind a person who seems to have achieved a state of harmony, both between the different parts of herself and between herself and the world? Someone who is actively involved in life, who is successful, who seems to be unusually happy and satisfied, and who also enhances and make happier those around him? Hopefully we can all think of at least one such person, who seems to have reached some “optimal” way of functioning and being. What is different about this person, compared to those more entangled in the ordinary? Can his or her quality of living be measured and quantified? Could his or her mode of being have been predicted in advance, knowing everything about that person’s constitution and history? Is there a theory out there that can explain this person, and perhaps tell us how to be more like him or her? Obviously these are very pressing questions, whose answers might tell us much about how to improve both individual lives, and human life as a whole. In this book I hope to begin to provide some answers to them.
