By Jamee L.
What does true happiness really mean? Is it found in money, love, or life accomplishments—or is it something deeper?
In this heartfelt letter, Jamee L., a meditation instructor at Santa Clara Meditation, shares her insight into what lasting joy really looks like—and how so many of us are searching in the wrong places.
🌍 Drawing from her experience guiding people through meditation, Jamee introduces the Korean word for happiness: “Heng Bok”, which combines action and blessing.
She explains that happiness isn’t something we find through success or pleasure—it’s something we give through action for others.
☕ Backed by research and real-life transformation, this letter is a reminder that helping others is the key to unlocking our own happiness. And the method taught by Master Woo Myung offers the practical way to make that shift from self-centered stress to a life of meaningful joy.
👇 Read this powerful reflection from a meditation guide who has watched countless lives—including her own—transform from within.
💬 A Letter from a Meditation Guide
By Jamee L.
Dear World,
I’d like to share a few words from the perspective of a meditation instructor.
There are many who believe that happiness means to make a lot of money, to travel the world, to find someone who loves you as equally as you love them, to have children, to make a discovery that’ll change society, to volunteer and help the poor in a third world country, or to find a passionate hobby. However, these activities do not lead to true happiness, just temporary happiness.
In Korean, the word for happiness is “Heng Bok”. “Heng” means action and “Bok” means blessings. This can be interpreted as, “happiness means to do action for others, which in itself becomes a blessing”. This concept is backed by research. A Harvard-led study showed that people who were given $5 to purchase coffee for the person behind them in line were happier at the end of the day than people who were given $5 to purchase coffee for themselves. True happiness comes from when we help others, and this requires that we live an unselfish life.
Many people come to the meditation center in desperation. They are searching for Heng Bok but do not know where to start. They have been held prisoner of their minds and they are shackled by the mental chains that they have created. In essence, they have spent those $5 on their own coffee and only lived for themselves. So, simply, this meditation is the key that helps to free them from those mental chains.
It is so inspiring to see someone’s life, health, and relationships transform before your eyes so I hope everyone can start meditating and realize their true happiness. There is no true happiness without helping others in this world.
