Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

Everything zen? I don’t think so. I know so.
The Art of Happiness is American psychiatrist Howard C. Cutler’s famous 1998 attempt to reconcile and combine the teachings of the 14th Dalai Lama with his own Western perspective on people and relationships. From the get-go, the Dalai Lama surprises Cutler with unblinking answers and deeply analytical thought processes. It’s not a lot theoretical mumbo-jumbo devoid of examples and practical applications. The exiled Tibetan leader encourages us to learn to accept suffering as something universal and unavoidable. We are human and therefore we know pain. His Holiness believes that once you understand your own losses as natural — that nobody’s out to get you any more than they’re out to get everybody — then you can dismiss your own selfish desires and accept the loss. Yes the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist monk, but he tells Cutler there’s no one spiritual path and encourages us all to follow one that leads us away from conflict and closer to permanent joy. Amen to that.