Hermann Hesse ⋅ Hapiness

Hapiness

As long as you chase happiness,

you are not ready to be happy,

even if you owned everything.

As long as you lament a loss,

run after prizes in restless races,

you have not yet know peace.

But when you moved beyond desire,

become a stranger to your goals and longings

and call no longer happiness by name,

then you heart rises calmly

above the ebb and flow of action

and peace has reached your soul.

[The Seasons of the Soul, The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse (2011)]

the seasons of soul