The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living

His Holiness has the amazing ability to say things that are both simple and profound. After listening to the XIV Dalai Lama or reading his words, I often find myself saying, "Why didn't I think of that?" Why not indeed? A previous reviewer states that this is a wonderful book but that it's hard to "get" the idea of being compassionate to ALL beings regardless of their own actions. It IS hard to "get" that. The Dalai Lama has been a Buddhist monk for the last 71 years, and HE works at it every single day. The Buddha himself, after his Enlightenment, didn't say, "Well, since I'm one with all that is I guess I can retire now." Nope. Shakyamuni began teaching. And he kept practicing, whether through sitting meditation or through workaday tasks. His practice matured him. He may have come up with the Four Noble Truths on Day One and he may have taught them throughout his life, but there's a great deal of evolution between those original thoughts and the Parinirvana Sutra uttered on his deathbed. He would have heartily endorsed the Dalai Lama's call to Happiness and accepted Tenzin Gyatso as a worthy Dharma successor.

But, I digress. Unlike many of the Dalai Lama's earlier books this one is geared specifically toward and for the general public. Just as you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy's Rye, you don't have to be a Buddhist to appreciate this book. As a matter of fact, although every idea in this book is quintessentally Buddhist, every idea in this book is, more importantly, quintessentially human. The Dalai Lama's basic thesis is that we are all born to be happy. Reading this, I kept being reminded of Jefferson's words, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It's too bad that our modern culture conflates "Happiness" with "Pleasure" (which is far more fleeting) and that "Pleasure's" main attribute is "Money" and lots of it, or the things that "Money" can buy. Not that "Money" is unimportant, but the idea that "Money can't buy Happiness" is a core idea here, and is proven over and over again.

This book and its sequels grew out of a series of personal interviews between the Dalai Lama and noted Psychologist Howard C. Cutler, who has become an important exponent of the Positive Psychology Movement of the last decade. Positive Psychology focuses not on what's wrong with an individual but on what's right and how to reinforce what's right through positive practices---essentially, Cutler's approach amounts to a primer on classical Buddhist Psychology. The Dalai Lama speaks here, but it is Cutler who amplifies and expounds on the Dalai Lama's core ideas in a Western idiom. His Holiness does detail certain meditative practices as well.

According to the Dalai Lama (and most Positive Psychologists), Happiness is not the end result of a thought process but is the process itself. Acting kindly, compassionately, mindfully and with awareness result in a person being, in effect, happy, even in the face of the day-to-day toxicity of much of our culture. His Holiness also believes that Happiness is highly contagious, and that it will spread virally if only we maintain our positive practices.

Yes, it is hard to remain "happy" in the face of dealing with obnoxious bill collectors or dishonest repairmen, but that is where compassion comes in. Compassion is not a form of blind forgiveness---I don't have to say, "It's okay" to the mugger who's just stolen my wallet---but, rather, it is a form of understanding that bad things do occur, that although they may occur to me, the universe is not personally out to get me, and that the mugger who mugged me, the bill collector who cursed me or the repairman who overcharged me, is acting out of their own unhappiness. I don't have to turn any cheeks or allow it to happen ever again. I don't have to embrace them as misguided souls. I don't have to let it fester and make me sick and angry either. I just have to grasp the idea that the mugger, the bill collector and the repairman are all human, like me, and all subject to the same faults and foibles that I am. Sound tough? It sure is. That's why it's a lifelong practice.

Anybody coming here for a bullet-point approach to solving all of life's problems or to be reassured by pop-psychology tripe will be disappointed in this book. This is a substantive popular work that gives back to the reader exactly what the reader puts in.

Having been a student of Mahayana Buddhism for the past couple years, I had been meaning to read a book by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, and was overjoyed to purchase this one after being alerted that the Kindle edition had gone on sale by the excellent ebook deal-alerting service Bookbub. Since it was the first book by the current Dalai Lama that I ever read, I wasn't sure what to expect but I did expect it to be of high quality—especially since it is his most well-known book. Fortunately, it did not disappoint me in the slightest!

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living was co-authored by psychiatrist Howard Cutler, who posed questions to the Dalai Lama over the series of many interviews. Cutler provides the setting and context for their meetings and also incorporates his own reflections on the issues raised in their discussions. In addition, transcriptions from several of the Dalai Lama's teachings are scattered throughout the book. It was first published in 1998, and I read the ten-year anniversary edition that was published in 2008 which includes a new preface and introduction.

The book delves into the concept of using various techniques to train the mind in order to achieve true happiness. In the preface, His Holiness the Dalai Lama states, "If you want others to be happy practice compassion; and if you want yourself to be happy practice compassion." This focus on developing compassion is consistent throughout the book and is a main focus in many of the answers that the Dalai Lama gives to Cutler's questions. It seems that this is a sort of prerequisite for cultivating happiness, a foundation upon which all of the other advice is based upon.

Another point that is made time and time again is that happiness comes down to one's state of mind more than by external events. There are a plethora of examples provided in the book, such as how lottery winners do not sustain their initial delight over a longterm period and instead return to the level of moment-to-moment happiness they were accustomed to prior to winning the lottery. Or how studies have shown that people who are struck by tragic events like cancer and blindness typically recover to their normal level of happiness after a reasonable adjustment period. Psychologists label this process "adaptation", which simply refers to the tendency of one's overall level of happiness to migrate back to a certain baseline.

From a Buddhist perspective, the root causes of all suffering are ignorance, craving, and hatred. The book fleshes out this idea and suggests methods for one to overcome them. For example, the Dalai Lama advises, "We cannot overcome anger and hatred simply by suppressing them. We need to actively cultivate the antidotes to hatred: patience and tolerance."

Overall, I was very impressed by this book. When I first started reading it I wished that the Dalai Lama had been the sole author, however I eventually grew to appreciate Cutler's additions. That's mainly because I did not realize that the book was co-authored until after I started reading it, so I had unknowingly and unintentionally set an improper expectation for myself. However, by the end of the book I had overlooked the co-authoring aspect entirely and focused more on the book's content, which is excellent. I would advise this book to anyone who is interested in the Dalai Lama, Buddhism, mindfulness, or becoming truly happy.

Namaste.

I have read some reviews regarding the book not being the original work of the Dalai Lama himself. Yes it is true, it is written by Howard C. Cutler solely (not even partly, but completely). However one has to pay attention that Cutler will not be able to complete his work without the innumerate visits to the Lama, and the wisdom gotten from the Lama himself.

The book is very helpful if you have a "western" mentality. It doesn't mean that you have to be from the West though. I myself am an Asian who has lived half of my life away from the East, and thus very much have my inner paradigm shifted towards the west (especially because time living away from east is after age of 17 and onwards..). It provides a good guide in terms of understanding the wisdom, which sounds very simple and straight forward, but not so easy in terms of putting into practice.

Be compassionate, be tolerance towards suffering of life, etc. Sounds really easy. But is that easy for anyone of us to practice and thus cultivate a peace of mind? Not so much I guess. This book will give you good insights, illustrate in simple example how the concepts fit into a western life-style, with the help of Cutler's interpretation.

I give it a 4 stars though, because I think the writer himself (by some examples of his own experience such as going ballistic in India because of a careless cab driver, etc), has not fully absorbed the wisdom himself, and that I think has "discounted" the value of the wisdom. He'd be much more successful, if he could contrast his experience by giving example of how I would have done in the past, and how I do it now because I understand so and so..

It's the first book I purchased regarding the wisdom of Dalai Lama, I think I'm ready to read a book more sophisticated, in the sense that it is written solely by the Lama. I would imagine it becomes more philosophical, more conceptual. So this book would be a good start, for people like me, who looks for something more concrete and "tangible".

Happy reading!

In terms of its effect (that is, the evocation of happiness), I'd have to give this book five stars plus. The reading of it, however, was a bit of a chore until I found the adventure humorous. Howard Cutler is obsessed with scientifically validating the Dalai Lama's very simple (but not simplistic), practical, common-sensible observations of human nature and potential. That happy people tend to be healthier, for example, seems self-evident, an assertion not begging for research and statistical justification. Cutler is reminiscent in moments of the young Carlos Casteneda, whose occasional obtuseness served to make Don Juan's teachings all the more clear and luminous. I often have the feeling that the Dalai Lama is patiently instructing a small child, simplifying and simplifying again till the tike finally gains purchase. Yes, relationships based solely on sexual satisfaction, for example, are less likely to endure than those which combine physical attraction with genuine affection and respect. Imagine that. Actually, in his dialogs with the Dalai Lama, psychiatrist Cutler is a worthy representative of science-worshipping westerners. One gets the feeling that he'd sooner trust the results of a remote clinical study than believe what's before his own eyes and defer his own immediate, real, personal experience to the results of research. I reckoned years ago that science is the REAL religion of our culture, what we truly believe and live by on Friday night and Monday morning. Now I begin to see that our dependence on objective, detached, remote validation of reality is not merely our religion; it's also in substantial measure superstition. And the Dalai Lama, bless him, is as patient and compassionate with his American friend as a kind-hearted anthropologist might be in explaining the workings of a technological gadget to an isolated "primitive" tribesperson. I'm not accustomed to seeing technically proficient, well-educated Americans, particularly doctors (who are surely our high priests with the perceived power to induce or alleviate pain, to kill or cure, even perhaps one day to achieve something like immortality for the species), as primitive, and this was the amusement. To Cutler's immense credit, he routinely "busts" himself. And to my own credit, just after I stifle a smirk at his dunderheadedness, I frequently find myself busted as well, as some long-held perceptual bias breaks down and the light shines through. All in all, the journey of this read has so far been immensely worthwhile though often tedious and plodding in the going. Perhaps this is altogether fitting. The pursuit of happiness is indeed arduous, like walking 359 degrees round a circle towards an illusory end point. Surrendering to it is deceptively simple; could be as simple as stepping backward one little click.