Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda wrote this insightful look at the nature of happiness in his 2017 essay collection, "Hope Is a Decision." Ikeda spent 50 years writing the essays in the book. They all relate in some form to the nature of hope, and how we can take it upon ourselves to maintain it, even during tumultuous times. Consider it a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you choose to be hopeful, you will be. Just like if you choose to try and make others happy, it will increase your own happiness. And, as Ikeda also notes in his essay, those choices will “illuminate our final years with dignity.”