as told to (your name here)

Book Review

The Art of Happiness - By His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, M.D.

A bit of background refresher about me- I was brought up in a fairly traditional Catholic household, which meant Mass on Sunday and that's about it. We never discussed religion, philosophy, or spirituality as a family and although differing viewpoints were never dismissed as invalid, they weren't discussed either. I don't know where the idea came from but I grew up thinking Buddhism, outside of Eastern Asia, was New Age hooey. With age has come a bit (just a bit) of wisdom and respect for other ideas, even if I don't subscribe to them. Over the past couple of years I've begun to think that maybe religion isn't for me, though I think I'd like to maintain some semblance of spirituality, perhaps adopting some Buddhist, Islamic (and other) philosophies. Jumping ahead to the end of this book, the Dalai Lama explains that this is a perfectly natural and acceptable feeling for some people, those who just don't feel like they can completely subscribe to one official doctrine or another. 5 Billion people on the planet are never going to agree on one thing.

That said, this is the first philosophy book I've ever read. It isn't about Buddhism, it's literally about happiness. But just because it isn't about that particular religion doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of that subject covered. The key things to take away from this book are the Dalai Lama's thoughts on compassion and suffering, understanding what each really means and methods for using each for the gain of yourself and those around you (i.e. the world at large). For most of us, this is the journey, not the destination. The book is co-authored with a Western psychiatrist and is loosely written in the style of a dialog between the author and the Dalai Lama, based on meetings both personal and public. In the user comments at Amazon, you will see some criticism of Dr. Cutler's opinion and writing on the subjects, as if they somehow dilute the importance or meanings. On the contrary, I think it's helpful to have the insights of a non-Buddhist, sometimes comparing and contrasting the Dalai Lama's teachings to traditional Western philosophy (which many of us are familiar with thanks to PHIL 101 being part of the required curriculum at many universities). Other times, Dr. Cutler's remarks help to translate the various twists and turns His Holiness takes on the path to proving his point. It's not the most difficult book I've ever read, and while I found much of it thought-provoking, I'm not quite ready to shave my head and chant. I will probably read more about Eastern philosophy in the future, but it's probably best to let this sit for a while. It may also be worth pointing out, I didn't find anything in this book that even the most devout Christian/Jew/Muslim/whatever would find contradicts his or her beliefs (and yet some criticize Harry Potter).

Tomorrow I will probably write about some of the thoughts on suffering and romance (but not suffering romance) from the book and a bit of the things it encouraged me to think about. Also tomorrow, vote on the next book I will read. Tonight I'll leave you with a bit about hatred, something I'm far too quick to give in to (and if you had to drive the Southwest Freeway at rush hour, you would too!):

So, for a spiritual practitioner, one's enemies play a crucial role. As I see it, compassion is the essence of a spiritual life. And in order for you to become fully successful in practicing love and compassion, the practice of patience and tolerance is indispensable. There is no fortitude similar to patience, just as there is no affliction worse than hatred. Therefore, one must exert one's best efforts not to harbor hatred towards the enemy, but rather use the encounter as an opportunity to enhance one's practice of patience and tolerance.

In fact, the enemy is the necessary condition for practicing patience. Without an enemy's action, there is no possibility for patience or tolerance to arise. Our friends do not ordinarily test us and provide the opportunity to cultivate patience; only our enemies do this. So, from this standpoint we can consider our enemy as a great teacher, and revere them for giving us this precious opportunity to practice patience.

The Art of Happiness, p. 178

posted by tinyhands @ 11:59 PM