what is a criminal?

someone who knowingly hurts other people for their own benefit.

ultimately criminal behaviour is selfish behaviour; i win at the expense of you losing, whether this is street crime or predatory lending.

by this standard, much of what passes for normal business practices are criminal, including high rents and low wages. On the other hand, personal behaviors such as gambling, drug use, sodomy, and prostitution, are not.

I distinguish between moral crimes, which hurt others, and legal crimes, where religious and other beliefs are turned into laws against certain behaviours. The usual argument is that society is brought down by things like prostitution. Personally, i think society is much more damaged by repression.

I believe in Freedom, a very unfashionable idea these days.

In fact, i believe that putting people in jail for victimless crimes, such as drugs, is in itself a crime, and those who advocate such brutal repression are themselves criminals, since they seek to hurt others (by locking them up) in order to force the whole society to live by their puritanical beliefs.

So, i ask you, come up with your own definition. What is a criminal?

Happiness is

a state of mind.

So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.

In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).

yes.

Look Deep, think like a chess player

Every action has both intended and unintended consequences.
The phrase "web of life" is amazingly accurate.
Most beings see only what is in front of them, not understanding the effects they have on people, places, animals, they'll never see.

Look deeply, think like a chess player. If you make this move, then what will happen next, and your reaction to that, on and on. That is really how life works; seeds that were planted a long time ago, sending ripples forward in time, effect our lives, yours and mine, today, here and now.