A Buddhist friend in Mexico, Rafael, passed this one on to me. It certainly rang false.

As far as I can see, this precise formulation is from a 1992 book by Paul Ferrini called “The Wisdom of the Self,” where he attributes the following to his friend, Robert Ferre: “there is no path to happiness. Happiness itself is the path.” I haven’t yet found anywhere that Ferre wrote this. It’s been in many books since then, often without attribution or attributed to the Buddha, although this one is certainly a genuine Fake Buddha Quote.

As Guido points out in the comments, below, however, another version of this saying — “There is no way to happiness; Happiness is the way” is found in the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Is Thich Nhat Hanh, then, the author of this phrase? Possibly. So far the earliest connection I’ve found between TNH and this quote is from a 1997 book by Geneen Roth, Appetites: On the Search for True Nourishment.

The same saying is found in Wayne Dyer’s 1978 book, Pulling Your Own Strings (pages 207 and 212).

Guido also points out that the saying, or a version of it, is attributed to A. J. Muste. The American Dictionary of Quotations ascribes “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way” to a piece by Muste in the New York Times dated 16 November, 1967, although he definitely used the phrase well before that time.

Clearly it’s an old saying. It’s found in a 1948 volume of the hearings of the US Senate, (Hearings, Volume 2). It’s found there as the title of a Holy Week message from the executive committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Unfortunately this particular book is only available in “snippet view” on Google books (why!) and I can’t see much of the context. But the Friends’ intelligencer: Volume 107, from 1950, is helpful here. The “peace” quote is found there on page 328, and although this book too is in snippet view, what’s visible connects A. J. Muste with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

I think it’s safe to assume that the phrase belongs to A. J. Muste, (the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations describes it as his “credo”). The “happiness” version may be Wayne Dyer’s, although it’s possible it’s Thich Nhat Hanh’s. I haven’t found any evidence connecting the quote to Gandhi, although it’s often attributed to him.

If anyone finds this in TNH’s works prior to 1978, please let me know!

And by special request (from David St Michael), here’s a brief perspective on the Buddhist path and happiness.

Most people know that the Buddha’s teaching addresses the problem of dukkha, or suffering. Actually dukkha’s a broad term, and covers a wide range of unpleasant experiences from outright pain to mild dissatisfaction. So dukkha crops up in, for example, the four noble truths which state that:

1. There is suffering, which is to be comprehended
2. There is a cause of suffering, craving, which is to be abandoned
3. There is an end to suffering, Nirvana, which is to be directly experienced
4. There is a way leading to the end of suffering, the eight-fold path, which is to be practiced.

Now you might think that since suffering is what we’re trying to get away from, the goal we’re heading toward must be happiness. But in Buddhism that’s not the case. Happiness (sukha) is not the goal. The goal of Buddhism is something more like “peace” (santi), which is something more profound and worthy than happiness. The Buddha recognized that a certain kind of suffering (dukkha-dukkhata) is unavoidable, and that what we really need is to develop the quality of equanimity, which allows us to experience suffering and happiness without lamentation or elation.

Happiness is important on the path, though. Many formulations of the path include sukha (happiness, or bliss). For example in the 12-fold series of transcendental dependent origination, we move through the following experiences:

Suffering (dukkha)
Faith (saddha)
Gladness (pāmojja)
Rapture (pīti)
Tranquillity (passaddhi)
Happiness (sukha)
Concentration (samadhi)
Knowledge and vision (yathābhūta-nāṇadassānaṃ)
Revulsion (nibbidā)
Dispassion (virāgo)
Liberation (vimutti)
Knowledge of destruction [of the asavas] (khaye-nāṇaṃ)

I won’t go through all of these, but you can see that happiness, sukha, sits right at the middle of this list. It’s clearly not the goal, although it is vitally important that we learn how to be happy.

In other formulations, such as the bojjhangas (awakening factors), sukha is not mentioned explicitly, but it’s implied because pīti, one of the jhāna (meditative) factors is listed. Again, these kinds of experiences, positive as they are, aren’t the goal. In the bojjhanga series we have (sequentially) Mindfulness, Investigation, Energy, Joy or rapture (pīti), Tranquility (passaddhi), Concentration (samādhi), and Equanimity. Equanimity can be taken here as the peace of deep insight, where we no longer become elated by happiness nor despondent about pain, but simply recognize both of these experiences as being impermanent phenomena that come and go.