Dalai Lama and The Art of Happiness

He talked and an author wrote the book based on the interviews. The Art of Happiness is a wonderful intro to the Buddhist approach to the world, and on achieving a Happy state of mind.

There are no absolute mantras, but many of the factors that cause unhappiness are dealt with in a frank and no-nonsense manner, including all the usual questions that we have about illness, death, love, marriage, kids born and unborn...you get the drift. His candidness comes through when he says "I don't know" to some difficult questions, underlining that he is not a know-all. Solutions to many things lie within us, he says, and there are many layers to every problem. But he does give a few solid pointers- compassion is the key, towards all human beings. The way he explains it is- the test of it being good or not lies in how you feel when someone is kind to you.

He says we need to anticipate sorrow (including anything that gives us pain), and think about it so that we don't get overwhelmed if it happens. You can deal with it much better that way, instead of living in a fool's paradise and expecting everything to go the way we would like it to.

Romance according to him is fanciful if you expect it to last a lifetime. Instead, you should be prepared for other phases of an initially romantic phase in a relationship, and take it to a different plane. All relationships can be "rich" not just the romantic, and we have several people around us who provide us joy. If not, you can always go out and find a few. The ideas on handling enemies/rivals are also an eye-opener. Wonderful read.