本文探討宗教信仰之有無，是否影響幸福感，並討論宗教信仰與幸福感之關係。此外，也介紹佛教的幸福觀，並說明佛教的幸福觀與世俗生活及其他宗教之異同，最後以聖嚴法師「人間淨土」的思想作總結，說明佛教教義的生活幸福實踐綱要。本文內容涵蓋量化的實證分析， 以及質化的觀念論述。在量化分析部分，以二○一二年東亞社會調查（EASS2012）對日本、中國大陸、韓國及臺灣四個社會之調查資料，使用序位邏輯斯迴歸（OLOGIT）方法進行實證分析。實證結果顯示，東亞地區民眾有宗教信仰者，雖有較高的機率感到生活幸福，但其影響不顯著。然而，有宗教信仰又積極參與宗教共修活動者，這類民眾生活幸福的機率會有顯著提昇的效果。虔誠信仰對幸福感的顯著影響，一方面是因為宗教信仰具有苦難時心靈慰藉的功能，另方面則因宗教團體及宗教活動具有社會功能，能使信仰者從宗教信仰中得到安慰與安全，不僅得到「小我」苦惱的慰藉與身心焦慮的安頓，而且從所信仰的教團中得到「大我」的團體歸屬感與安全感。佛教的幸福觀念，超越一般人認知的精神寄託性或教團的社會性功能，直指人心的幸福或不幸福，都是人自身的身心行為所產生的結果，而非神鬼所決定。因此，人品的提昇及行為的淨善，是佛法幸福生活的實踐核心。佛教所說的幸福，有人天福，更有超越世間的出世解脫福。太虛大師所提倡的「五乘法」是佛法修福的具體綱要，而「人成即佛成」則是佛法幸福法門的核心。因此，五戒十善是世間幸福的保障，八正道、六度是幸福永續的實踐方針，而「心靈環保」則是幸福生活的核心價值觀念。世間學問的幸福研究，可以說明影響生活幸福的因素，卻無法解說永續幸福如何經營。佛教是以人為本的宗教，其教義在教人如何「離苦得樂」，從個人的幸福生活的營造，到人與環境間的永續和諧，再到超絕個人與環境的縛著，都直指幸福生活的核心問題在人心。幸福的生活需要「環保」，尤其是讓心靈遠離貪欲苦惱的束縛的「心靈環保」。若能以「心靈環保」的理念來建設「人間淨土」，才能獲得永續幸福生活的保障，這也是佛法對世間幸福觀念的貢獻之處。

This paper first explores the association between religiosity and subjective life satisfaction, by making quantitative empirical investigation on this subject, and then explains the Buddhist philosophy and practice on the realization of happiness. On the empirical part of the study, this paper uses the data of the 2012 East Asian Social Survey (EASS 2012) to investigate predictors of subjective life satisfaction of adults in the East Asian societies. The results from the ordered logistic regression (OLOGIT) indicate that religious people tend to have higher odds ratio (OR) to report being happy than non-religious people, though the OR isn’t statiscally significant. However, the empirical results also indicate that people who have religious belief and frequently participated in religious activities in the past 12 months do have significant higher odds of reporting happy life than those who don’t. Moreover, people with certain socio-economic characteristics, such as having higher subjective evaluated income and self-evaluated socio-status, do have higher odds to report higher life satisfaction. The empirical findings only answer what factors are associated with higher life satisfaction, it still fails to answer how people can keep themselves happy in their daily life. As a result, this paper proceeds to provide answer from Buddhist teaching. The conception of happiness in Buddhism is different from that of secular studies and other religions’ teaching in the world. Therefore, a special effort of this paper is to illustrate the Buddha’s teaching on the path of happiness. For the Buddhist, receiving and upholding the five precepts and doing good deeds are the foundation worldly happiness. Moreover, the Eightfold Noble Path and Six Paramitas is the guideline for attaining liberation and cultivating virtues so that one can achieve positive livelihood to enhance happiness. The accomplishment of the Utmost Bliss (or Nirvāna) in Buddhism is achieved by practicing cessation of vexation and clear observation (śamatha-vipaśyanā) to attain purification of mind, so that “Pure Land on Earth” is realized in the current worldly life.