What is The Way to Happiness?
The Way to Happiness is a non-religious moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard and based wholly on common sense.
A major concern today is the continuing decline of moral standards, a problem which underlies a wide variety of other ills that plague our society.
L. Ron Hubbard was keenly aware of this situation in 1980 when he observed that our modern world lacked a code of morals befitting our past-paced society. Old values had been broken but not replaced and many people left to founder.
Even as he continued with his religious researches, Mr. Hubbard always endeavored to bring solutions to the world from a purely humanitarian perspective. And in this instance, quite separate from his religious works—the Scientology religion already had a moral and ethics code—
he saw the need for a non-religious
moral code.
The moral code he wrote is The Way to Happiness, containing twenty-one separate precepts—each constituting a rule for living—and has relevance for anyone. It is the first moral code based wholly on common sense and the only one entirely non-religious in nature. It carries no other appeal than to the good sense of the individual man or woman, boy or girl who reads it.
Scientologists and others distribute this booklet broadly. The Way to Happiness Foundation in Los Angeles was organized to meet the heavy demand for this booklet and to coordinate groups who use it to improve their families, schools and communities.
The Way To Happiness Extension course, based on the booklet, is a key
element of the Criminon program. As the first step toward rehabilitation, this correspondence course is designed to give students knowledge of right and wrong conduct. The Way To Happiness is practical and incisive and provides fundamental guides to behavior—a vital step often overlooked in the family life and education of the criminal. In fact, The Way To Happiness has broad applicability to our society and has also been distributed throughout thousands of schools, colleges and business organizations.
More than 7,000 schools across the United States have participated in the Set a Good Example Contest, which is based on the precepts in the booklet. The contest promotes drug-free lifestyles, honesty, trust, literacy and competence.
Fifty million copies of the booklet have been distributed internationally to people in more than 60 countries and translated into 22 languages.
The booklet has been broadly distributed in South Africa to help ease racial tensions. In 1992, the South African police requested 114,000 copies of The Way to Happiness—one for every policeman in the country. The booklet has been in such demand that it was translated into Zulu and more than 130,000 copies were printed and distributed in the Zulu newspaper Ilanga.
Five years after the printing of the Russian translation of The Way to Happiness, more than 13 million copies had been distributed nationwide, its text reprinted in Arguments and Facts, one of the most popular Russian newspapers.
In one year alone, 324 major recognitions, including 131 from government officials, acknowledged The Way To Happiness for its role in fostering greater social responsibility and tolerance.
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