What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.

Another thoughtful (and humorous) TED talk was the one given by Bob Thurman sometime ago. It is one of my favorite TED talks and I have blogged about it previously. But it is probably appropriate to include it once more: