Laura Hancock - Happiness and Buddhism

In the book "The Art of Happiness" conversations between Howard Cutler and the 14th Dalai Lama were recorded. One of the conversations on desire and happiness was of particular interest to me. True happiness is something that by far everyone wants, yet not everyone can achieve. The Dalai Lama talks about two types of desire - a desire for happiness and happiness based from unreasonable desires. Unreasonable desires create a wanting of something not needed, something selfish. But what makes something selfish? Why is something considered selfish to one person but not another? Living in America, to someone like me and most people at CNU, I have always had food, shelter, and health care. They have always been there for me. I knew form a young age that this wasn't the case for most people though. But at the same time, even trying to live mindfully that I was very lucky for what I had, I still desired excess, frivolous things sometimes. Living in a culture where the essentials to life - food, shelter, health services - are almost always available, makes wanting non needed items seem not selfish to a large extent. If the essentials have always been there, we start to think they are a given in our lives. Even if this is the case, it isn't for by far most of the world. I have often heard that people are happiest when they have had the least in their lives. I think this is because, you are able to truly and completely enjoy just being alive and able to survive. You make your own happiness because you realize how rich you are in the non material; there is not a constant desire for more because you have all you need and you realize it.