“The Art of Happiness” by Dalai Lama – Seeking Within Yourself

I believe that regardless of what it is we are doing with our lives, every single person on Earth has the same goal: to achieve happiness. Naturally, what makes a person happy is really something which ought to be studied case-by-case, but the fact remains that we are all chasing after a certain feeling.

If you are anything like me, then chances are moments of happiness serve as interludes to a great, long-lasting period of problems and frustrations.

While I’m not going to claim that there is one road to happiness that will fit all, I do believe that in order to achieve happiness, every person ought to think along a certain mindset; the conclusions they draw may be different, but the reasoning they use should be similar.

In an attempt to share with people what he has come to learn over the course of decades about inner happiness, the Dalai Lama has written a book (although it really is more of a spiritual guide) called The Art of Happiness.

For those who aren't familiar with the Dalai Lama, the book may seem somewhat hypocritical: “What does a man who has been living in the mountains according to age-old traditions know about the plight of the modern man?”. As it happens, he knows a lot about it.

For starters, the Dalai Lama has seen and suffered the loss of his country to the authoritarian Chinese government. However, despite being under constant threat from forces he cannot hope to overcome, the Dalai Lama truly feels happy, unconditionally.

While he did try to get his message across to us before, he didn't exactly have the linguistic capabilities to make his concepts understandable to us. However, for this book he has teamed up with professionals who helped to precisely translate all of his thoughts into simple, concise and accurate words.

So what exactly does he try and teach you here? Well, for starters, he talks about the relationship between life and happiness, and how regardless of everything, we strive to move our lives towards happiness.

Naturally, he doesn’t stop there, also taking the time to answer the question as to how one is to achieve happiness. He not only explains, but also demonstrates with examples for how to overcome the countless little problems that plague our lives, including the day-to-day insecurity, anger, anxiety, desperation, and frustration we all feel from time to time.

He even looks into dealing with some of life’s more serious and challenging situations, including relationships, the loss of a loved one and how one should approach the pursuit of wealth, all to show that whatever life throws at you can be overcome with the help of inner peace.

The book is based not only on what the Dalai Lama has learned in his experiences, but also on more than two and a half thousand years of Buddhist teachings, without forgetting a bit of modern common sense thrown in there for good measure.

This book has already been in circulation for more than ten years, changing many peoples’ perspective on life and helping them to deal with problems literally all humans face.

All in all, regardless of how well you feel your life is going, I believe it is definitely worth a read… at least, it did make a big difference for me.

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His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama Personal site The fourteenth man to be heralded as the Dalai Lama bears the religious name of Tenzin Gyatso, and despite his seemingly ancient approach to the world, his insight into the human nature can only be rivaled by a few, and he even took the time to write a very interesting book, simply titled The Art of Happiness.