It is odd that so many look into the philosophical Buddhist thought as a way to find transcendence beyond the troubles of life and to find happiness. When one thinks of the depth of Buddhist philosophy, what usually comes to mind is the embracement of suffering, not in the search for happiness. The Dali Lama shows us in The Art of Happiness that finding happiness and joy in life is far more than simple instant gratification, but is a soulful journey into what is truly important and meaningful.

The Art of Happiness was written mostly by Dr. Howard Cutler, a psychiatrist who has followed the Dali Lama through many of his lecture tours, and has had many private meetings with him in order to compose this text. While the thoughts mostly belong to the Dali Lama, there is no question of the typical American psychologist coming out in Dr. Cutler’s transcription. At first, I found this undertone to be somewhat disheartening, as I purchased this book mostly to see what the Dali Lama had to say. Upon my journey through this book, however, I came to appreciate how Dr. Cutler helps us relate, in Western terms, to Eastern Philosophy. One myth that one must first dispose of before venturing into this text is that the Buddhist religion requires the suffering of the individual in order to help achieve a state of enlightenment. While it is true that much of Buddhism seems to focus on suffering, it is more of an acknowledgement that the suffering in the world is just another aspect of life, not set apart, or created. What I believe that The Art of Happiness truly addresses is the apathetic Western attitude that everything must be perfect in order for one to be happy. This attitude will end up causing a complete breakdown of self whenever this “perfect” existence is somehow threatened or altered. Because life is nothing but a series of changes, this breakdown of the faux images of reality happen quite often, and thus, happiness is just a fleeting moment, and not part of existence. The Art of Happiness takes the reader through a journey, starting at facing the purpose of life and existence, to understanding human compassion, to facing and dealing with suffering, and leading up to overcoming obstacles which inhibit our happiness.

The purpose of our existence is to seek happiness. This sounds like such a simple statement, yet in discovering what is truly meant by happiness, and how to realize what is happiness to yourself, that is where the rub lies. We are initially taken through a journey, first in realizing that happiness is an achievable goal in which we do have the right to grasp. The Dali Lama then takes us into ourselves, searching for what happiness is to us. Not just the fleeting feelings or events that come along, but happiness that is born from deep with in ourselves. Happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by external events. Realizing that we control our happiness, not circumstances, is probably the hardest thing for many to swallow. We continually rationalize that we are not happy because of something that was done to us or was said to us. To our mind, this is like entropy. Our mind is looking for the lowest state of energy or easiest blame, in order to cope with those things that hurt us. It is much easier to say that someone “hurt our feelings” or “if it were not for XXX event I would be happy.” What the Dali Lama tries to teach us here is that true happiness is what overcomes these obstacles. So instead of “I am not happy because so and so hurt my feelings”, we can come to a state of mind that says, “In spite of what so and so said, I am happy within.”

Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare.
Most people (and by most, I mean ALL) have a tendency to rationalize their happiness, not from what is inside of them, but from a comparison to others. We always seem use phrases like “I am glad I am not a …….” or “I wish I were are …….” to try to rationalize why we are not content in our existence. In this false rationalization comes one of the main reasons why we are not content. We are always looking externally for our happiness, or reasons we are not happy, instead of looking at the true value we already have.

We do not need more money, we do not need greater success or fame, we do not need the perfect body or even the perfect mate – Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.
The Dali Lama teaches us that the first step in conditioning our mind through learning. We first have to learn how negative emotions and behaviors are harmful to us. We then must learn how to embrace, cherish, and support our positive emotions. The most productive way to embrace these positive emotions is to nurture a state of compassion.

Human Warmth and Compassion. The desire for intimacy and love is probably the strongest emotion that we posses, and in reverse, loneliness and loss of connection is probably the biggest inhibition to our achieving happiness. We next learn that we share a common bond with all who are around us. We are all human, we all face suffering; we all have feelings of loneliness and loss at times. We should never feel alone, we need to realize that there are almost six billion other people who feel alone at times, and we all are in the same big boat together.

One of the reasons I consider myself politically conservative is the apathy that seems to arise whenever society acquires the attitude that “someone else” will take care of a situation for them. I feel that one of our biggest problems in the West is that, as society, we have drawn a blind eye to the suffering in the world, and thus, our compassion is calloused over. In the welfare state of society we have let ourselves become, our attitude has become “let someone else take care of the problem”, or “why cannot the government take care of the problem.” For both us, and our society to become more compassionate, we must take upon ourselves the responsibility to enact a change, and stop relying on some poorly run entity to do our work for us. With the apathy we have gained, we have lost a since of what it is like to truly make a difference and help others. From compassion comes the truest happiness and since of self worth. If we are nothing but calloused, we loose our since of feeling, both good and bad. How can we ever expect to feel true happiness if we do not first attack true suffering ourselves?

At this point, much of the Dali Lama’s teaching focus on the realization of suffering. Through this deep realization of pain, comes a new sensitivity to the world around. The deeper our realization of the suffering in the world, the deeper and stronger our capacity to create happiness in the world, and in ourselves. While this practice is great for the apathetic, as most people truly are, there are a few souls out there who associate too deeply with the suffering in the world, and for these people, the Dali Lama admits, this would not be a suitable practice.

Overcoming Obstacles Once we have the realization that we can achieve happiness, that happiness is not just fleeting moments but the deep compassion with in, and that we can work towards reaching happiness through alleviating others suffering, we then must face the obstacles which block us. We find, through the Dali Lama’s teaching, that the real obstacles to our unhappiness are with in ourselves. We must first be determined to bring about the change that is necessary to realize our happiness. We must then learn to face the anger and hatred that builds within us. We usually associate anger and hatred with outside factors, and the Dali Lama does not deny the relevancy of these factors, but he works with helping us cope with those factors.

We finally are faced with the strongest obstacle to our achieving happiness, anxiety and low self-esteem. I feel that if one had to pick any chapter in this book to read and study, this would be it. Luckily for the publisher, life, as well as this book, is not that simple. There is a point where self-doubt is the final obstacle in everything we do. We then spend our time in self-destructive attitudes for the lack of accomplishment in those endeavors, which cause more self-doubt, leading to self-destructive attitudes, and so on…
This cycle continues until our whole journey towards happiness is lain waste in our own mind. This is why creating a since of self worth, and self-importance is vital in our journey towards happiness.

The Art of Happiness by no means offers easy answers to those vital questions of achieving happiness and overcoming suffering. Nor is there the icing answers of Western religion that “happiness is a choice” What Dr. Cutler and the Dali Lama do is set us on a journey, giving us a map, some good shoes, and a walking stick. Whether or not we face the journey, or stand around never moving forward, is all our choice.
We find that actually happiness is not a choice, but a journey to realization and enlightenment.





Recommended: Yes