(Kiri focuses on happiness and how being happy with yourself without trying to be someone else is key. She places a lot of importance on being spiritually happy which leads to happiness in all areas of life while searching for a spiritual goal makes it tougher.) 

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Kiri: okay which brings me on to a very important topic, happiness. Happiness and being self-confident in what you do and how that affects your spiritual being. If you’re spiritually happy, nine times out of ten you’re physically happy, mentally happily and happy in your relationships. Somebody that is constantly seeking doesn’t appear to be as happy because they don’t know what they’re looking for. They haven’t settled for one thing so that they’re constantly looking and searching and they’re not happy with what they’ve got and if they’re not happy with what they’ve got, they’re not happy with what they have and they’re not happy with who they are which is important. The most important thing is happiness of being who we are. I’m happy to be Kiri, I’m happy to be the way that I am, my body in my opinion is perfect, my outlook on life is perfect, I’m very, very happy. But if you take some other people that appear to be constantly complaining and striving and looking and searching but have no specific goal, then are they’re happy? No they’re not.

Skip: no, uh-uh.

Kiri: we’ve seen quite a lot of examples recently of people that are striving and looking and searching and they’re not happy. (Name edited out) was one. She is a searcher, she is not happy, she is not happy with what she’s searching for so therefore she retreats and hides and changes her name and changes her personality at a whim which suggests that she is not happy with herself. Now all the negative stuff in the world that can happen to somebody does not have anything to do with their outlook, what has to do with their outlook is whether they’re happy with what they are. Now the environment around them nine times out of ten does contribute to that factor and the factor is that in your society you have the ideal woman. Whether her name is Christine Brinkley, Uma Thurman….

Russ: Cindy Crawford.

Kiri: Cindy Crawford, Nicole Kidman, they are perfect, they have the perfect body, they’re slim, they’re fairly tall, they’re perfectly proportioned…...…what's it, Cindy Crawford is the one with the eyebrow?

Russ: no she got the mole.

Kiri: okay, now who’s the one with the eyebrow?

Russ: Uma Thurman.

Kiri: the continuous eyebrow? There’s one that has…..nevermind. But those ladies or those women are actually happy with as they are, they don’t go around wanting facelifts and so on, they’re happy as who they are and unfortunately society looks up to them and idolizes them and says that you have to be like these people which is total tosh and bunk, it's total baloney, it’s totally irresponsible. There are some people that are naturally frumpy, there are some people that are naturally skinny, there are other people that naturally have acne problems, that’s who they are. If they learn to be happy with themselves then they are truly happy and they can be spiritually happy, physically and mentally happy. Now on the guy front, you got people like Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and they’re all fairly good-looking, muscular men and again they are happy with who they are.

Skip: uh-huh.

Kiri: and men have to live up to those standards. You know Fabio, you have to be strong, muscular and good-looking. Again that is total tosh, total bunk. The most important person that you have to look up to is yourself. Be yourself, be who you are, be who you want to be, not who somebody else is. You can’t be Tom Cruise can you Russ? You can’t be Tom Hanks Skip.

Skip: no.

Kiri: both of you were happy as you are.

Russ: oh yeah.

Skip: uh-huh, I worked the same trade for 48 years, I guess I’m happy with me, I’ve enjoyed it.

Kiri: you just said it right there, not in how you said it but the way you were saying it, you are laughing, that is happiness, that is contentment. It's good to strive to improve yourself but to live up to a standard that is somebody else’s standard is wrong. The most important thing is to be happy with who you are…….

Skip: that’s it.

Kiri: regardless of who you are. As I keep on saying, you can’t be Cindy Crawford, you can’t be Tom Hanks, you can’t be Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can't be Nicole Kidman, you’ve got to be who you are.

Russ: yeah we’re not guaranteed those people are all happy with themselves either.

Kiri: no.

Russ: Cindy Crawford might look at Nicole Kidman and want to be more like her.

Skip: yeah, yeah.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: we don’t know these things.

Skip: my favorite comment is, God didn’t make any junk.

Russ: yeah.

Kiri: uh-huh. You are who you are which is my dissertation tonight is being who you are. Now once you’ve achieved the understanding that you are who you are….

Skip: uh-huh.

Kiri: then you can start on true happiness. Not living up to anybody else’s standards, be yourself, be who you are. Not some idealized version, you’ll never get that, you’ll never ever get that. You’ve got to be who you are. I am Kiri Tanaka, I’m happy, I’m very happy, I’m very contented and in being very contented I can focus on the more important things like learning more about my engineering, learning more about electronics, learning more about my spirituality which is the most important things, not just one but all of them are just as important. Learning the spirituality, learning the happiness, learning the developments in your chosen field of business.

Skip: Kiri you just said the magic word……

Kiri: which magic words were those?

Skip: learning.

Kiri: learning, exactly.

Skip: that’s it exactly.

Kiri: uh-huh. Learning is very important, first of all learn to be yourself, secondly learn to use this as I point to the host’s head, learn to use this gray matter in here. That will bring happiness, not all the money in the world, not all……..what’s one of Mark’s favorite comments? Money hasn’t brought him happiness…..

Skip: uh-uh.

Russ: uh-uh.

Kiri: it’s brought him pain, grief and aggravation.

Skip: yeah.

Kiri: when you don’t have it you struggle and you’re a lot more happier than when you do have it and you don’t have to struggle because you’re worrying about other things. I’ve heard Mark talk about it and I’m paraphrasing him. There are a lot of times where it has caused him nothing but pain and aggravation and when he’s done without it he’s been very happy.

Skip: uh-huh.

Kiri: he struggles, he works hard and struggling and working hard is good for your human condition because it gives you goals and objectives, it gives you advancements.

Skip: it also makes you appreciate it more.

Kiri: uh-huh. Okay questions.

Russ: yeah, I have one. Your dissertation contradicted itself in one important fact…

Kiri: okay.

Russ: mainly at the start and at the end.

Kiri: okay.

Russ: at the start you said people are unhappy because they are struggling, at the end you said working hard and struggling makes you happy.

Kiri: ahh, they’re struggling with themselves. Let me preface my opening comments by saying that they struggle with themselves.

Russ: I’ll put that in later on then.

Kiri: yes.

Skip: not financially.

Kiri: if you struggle with yourself, struggle with who you are, then you’ve got problems. If you struggle financially you don’t have problems, well you do but it’s something of a challenge that you enjoy and relish. If you’re constantly struggling with yourself, then you can’t concentrate on the second struggle of improving yourself. The struggle is with being happy with who you are, that’s why I did the long thing about being a struggle about Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cindy Crawford, Nicole Kidman……

Skip: somebody's trying to be something you’re not, yeah.

Kiri: uh-huh. Okay, any more questions?

Skip: uh-uh.

Russ: uh-uh, thank you.

Skip: I think you done just fine babe.

Kiri: okay.