Samba Dancing Their Way to Happiness
A samba school brings joy and The Way to Happiness to dancers and
Samba is a rhythmic music and dance style of Afro-Brazilian origin, and the Bloco Folclorico Afro Samba School in Minnesota wants you to know it’s easy to learn. “If you can count to four and divide by two, you can play samba,” their website proclaims. Not only will they teach you to move like you grew up in Brazil, but they will also help you on your way to happiness.
The school incorporates The Way to Happiness (TWTH) in their studies and then uses their music and dance to reach others with the precepts. For example, at the Golden Valley Arts and Music Festival, the samba students wore The Way to Happiness T-shirts and played and danced samba while others distributed the booklets to festival attendees and onlookers.
In the process of giving people the 21 precepts covered in The Way to Happiness, they were also practicing the precepts themselves, such as Precept 6, “Set a Good Example,” which states, “Don’t discount the effect you can achieve on others simply by mentioning these things and setting a good example in your own right.”
They also demonstrated Precept 17, “Be Competent,” through the quality of their music and dance. This precept states, “Encourage the attainment of competence in any worthwhile pursuit. Compliment it and reward it whenever you find it.”
In this way, the Bloco Folclorico Afro Samba School students demonstrate that it just might be possible to dance your way to happiness.
WE REALLY WANT TO hear FROM YOU
INMATE, LA ISLETA CORRECTION CENTER
“I used to be a haughty and arrogant person. But in reading this book, this jewel, I can tell you that my behavior toward other people is a change received from heaven.”
PARISHIONER, EVANGELICAL CHURCH
“After I found The Way to Happiness, I learned how to face my past experiences. For example, I learned how to be temperate. So I decided to no longer be part of the problem, but to be part of the solution.”
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, MOCA DISTRICT POLICE
“I feel very good as a person—beyond satisfied. During the distribution, some people told us they wanted us to come to their neighborhood council. That was the objective of this book we’re distributing. A thousand thanks.”
DIRECTOR, ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
“The Way to Happiness campaign changed the scene in the Dominican Republic. If we change and become better, our next generations will be better. These are valuable life lessons we have to follow.”
ATTORNEY GENERAL, ESPAILLAT PROVINCE
“This is the program that you have to spread through the society. You can see the results. You see it in the education. You see it in the neighborhoods. You see it in the community associations. So there is this greatness about The Way to Happiness program.”
MULTIPLIER, THE WAY TO HAPPINESS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
“Being part of The Way to Happiness campaign is very gratifying because it gives us the chance to impact people, to change lives, to change the world.”
FACTS
WELCOME TO PRISON
The undeniable true statistics of our global prison system.
2.2
MILLION
the number of inmates in US prisons, making it the nation with the largest prison population
618
PER 100,000
people are in prison in El Salvador, giving it the 2nd-highest prison population rate in the world after the US
460%
OCCUPANCY
in prisons in the Philippines, making it the most overpopulated prison system in the world
77%
OF INMATES
released from US prisons eventually return
$80
BILLION A YEAR
is the estimated cost of running US prisons and jails
RESTORE TRUST & HONESTY
The Way to Happiness Foundation International works to reverse the moral decay of society by restoring trust and honesty through widespread distribution of the 21 precepts. Donations support production and distribution of The Way to Happiness booklet and curriculum material.
