The short version of Happiness & Suffering. A quick way to recap and remind yourself of the book’s ideas and methods. It might also be read as a quick introduction if you are that kind of a person.

The Root Truth

Every sentient being seeks a deep sense of satisfaction and inner peace.

The Truth About Satisfaction

True satisfaction or contentment cannot be found outside yourself.

The Truth About Our Nature

A deep sense of satisfaction and inner peace is the innermost nature of every sentient being.

Two rules for change

1. If you really want to change your way of life, you have to change your way of looking at life.
2. If you really want to change your behaviour, you need to change your feelings. Feelings are the driving force of life.

About basic feelings

1. Satisfied
2. Unsatisfied
3. Primary and secondary satisfaction
4. Deeper and more superficial satisfaction
5. The Satisfaction Index, TSI.

The two tendencies of the mind

1. Towards movement
2. Toward silence

The four truths about needs

1. A sentient being experiences needs
2. Needs may be true or false
3. False needs can be eliminated
4. True needs are difficult to eliminate

The three consequences

1. When a need is met, the feeling of satisfaction goes up.
2. When a need is not met, the feeling of satisfaction goes down.
3. Behaviour is a consequence of feelings.

The three mistakes

1. Taking false needs for true needs.
2. Taking high stimuli for needs.
3. Mistaking other peoples’ feelings for our own.

To meet needs

1. Meet need
2. Eliminate need
3. Postpone need
4. Ignore need
5. Replace need

The map of needs

• True needs
• False needs
• "Satisfaction barometer" for every need
• Resources to meet every need
• Strategy to meet your needs
• Your needs and other people's needs

Five building blocks for prioritising

1. Inner peace and harmony
2. Physical health
3. Goals and visions
4. Family and friends
5. Work and career

The Three Motives for Action

1. Find pleasure
2. Avoid suffering
3. Collect and conserve resources

The three "anti-motives"

1. Accept deferred pleasure
2. Accept suffering
3. Accept loss of resources

Discipline

• can work as a short-term effort
• goes against the 3 motives for survival and
• can only work supported by motivation and inspiration.

Reward staircase

1. High stimulants
2. Normal stimulants
3. Low stimulants

High stimulants

• can be almost anything
• does not have to be the same for different people
• does not have to be the same for the same person on different occasions
• can be habitual
• can be false needs with super powers

Motivation ratio

• Calculated by reward through effort.
• For a quick fix and short term contentment, choose big reward and little effort.
• For deeper, more lasting contentment, choose less reward and bigger effort.

The special place of food

1. Foods today often act as high stimulants.
2. Is sometimes more stimulating than drugs.
3. When you change your biochemistry, you change your emotional life. When you change your emotional life, you change your biochemistry.
4. Overfed but malnourished?
5. If you want to eat well, you must spend time in the kitchen.

The concrete way

1. Identify your needs, make your map of needs.
2. Distinguish between true needs and false needs by reviewing the secondary effects when you meet a need.
3. Assess how well you met the various needs by making a "satisfaction barometer" for every need.
4. Identify resources or lack of resources for meeting every need.
5. Meet as many true needs as you can.
6. Eliminate as many false needs as you can.
7. Repeat - start at number one again.

Your Path

1. Everyone's life is different and even if the principles in this book apply to more or less all of us, it is not certain that we can apply them to our lives in the same way. However, being true to yourself and aware of how you handle your needs is a very good start.

2. It's not a bad thing if you find you have to tackle the same challenge over and over again. Such is the nature of "the game”.

3. Focus on the secondary effects of your actions to reveal and eliminate false needs. Your reward will be greater self-awareness and deeper self-knowledge, better health and a more alert mind. As the map fills with red “I-am-here dots", the feeling of true satisfaction and contentment will arise. One day you will realise that those feelings are not dependent on what happens on the surface of your life. A deep sense of true satisfaction and contentment.