The light in my cube

The art of happiness

I dont know whether I'm a philosopher, but I had formed my own unbiased opinion of life and its purpose at a early age. And now as I grow older (wiser..huh?), I'm tempted to read and compare the opinions of worldy greats.

My recent read was The Art Of Happiness, and quite frankly it struck a chord. Even though the book is not written by tht Dalai Lama himself, Cutler has posed some common questions that come to a commoners mind like mine.

Here's my interpretation of the book,

The Art of happiness - HH Dalai Lama & Howard C Cutler

"The very purpose of life is to seek happiness."

That quote says it all. There can be no self help book, The lama's answers are drawn from the rich nuances of life.


The source of happiness is in our minds.
The comparing mind, is never content, sportsmen drawing million dollar salaries are as discontented as you and me. When our annual income jumps from X to Y, we'll soon figure out a need for more and be discontented. I could'nt agree more, once our basic needs of food and shelter are met, any new need is nothing more than a superficial need created by our minds. Does that mean we give up all and live like an ascetic? (The word balance, is the clue).

Our feelings of satisfaction often depends on whom we compare ourselves to, Which can be used in a positive way, we can increase our feeling of satisfaction by comparing ourselves to those who are less fortunate. (changing our perspective)

Working on our inner outlook is a more effective means of achieving satisfaction

Happiness vs pleasure. We are always confused between the two, most of the times we confuse our need for sensory pleasure as happiness.

Training the mind for happiness is simply a matter of cultivating more positive mental states like kindness. There is one key / secret,
Change takes time.

Quote: "Every day as soon as you get up, you can develop a sincere positive motivation, Deliberately selecting and focussing on positive mental states and challenging negative states."

Quote: "Ethical discipline, wholesome action, reclaim our innate state of happiness"

Quote: "Human nature is essentially compassionate and gentle, when life becomes too complicated and overwhelming, it helps to stand back and look at a higher goal (After reflecting on what gives value to our life, and what gives meaning: of seeking happiness and spreading kindness)"

Quote: "lonliness and connection: is something that we have created in our minds, compassion is not something that comes out of a romance, once we do away with the childish definitions. Its actually opening up with compassion to other people. Intimacy is not about the popular opinion of two people in love, its about compassion, the experience of connectivity."

Quote: "Put yourself in the other persons shoes and experience his pain, and your anger will fade"


Facing suffering
Kisagowtami asked the buddha to revive her son , and the buddha asked her to get mustard seeds from a house that hasnt seen death.

Self created suffering
We often add to our pain by being overly sensitive and sometimes taking things too personally

But its not fair! (why tolerate somebodys nonsense?)
look at a problem objectively, you may be annoyed by your boss, he may be annoyed by something else: by analysing this you would'nt be faced with additional anxiety. It does not mean being passive, be active (evaluate your alternatives)

Balance: is all about avoiding extremes, which is often fueled by discontentment.

Have realistic expectations.

posted by Girish Bellalcheru @ 3:20 AM