Blurb

An instant New York Times bestseller. Over 1 million copies sold!

Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.

In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness’s eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecedented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.

We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.

The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.

Review

This is one of my favorite books I have read and has quickly become one I would recommend to anyone. This book actually got me to thinking about my “universal” books that I would recommend to anyone despite interests or experience. It made my very short list.

Ultimately, The Book of Joy is about compassing and perspective. If you can have both, you can have joy. Early on the author jokes about this book sounding like a setup for a joke: A Buddhist, a Christian and a Jew walk in into a bar… But what they explore is largely their similarities, both in life strife and how they have handled it, from Chinese oppression to apartheid Africa.

There is a section that ultimately turns into a “list of universally agreed upon good qualities”, the eight pillars here. I think every personal development book is obligated to have such a list. Just like every leadership book is expected to mention the man in the arena speech. But, this list comes with perspective from two elders who have seen so much and handled it with such grace that it still hits home. There over over 150 years of hardship between these two. That provides a depth of perspective not held in any other book in recent times.

As always, I emailed myself notes while reading

• Do we focus too much on preparing our children on how to meet their needs and not enough on preparing our children on how to help others meet their needs?
• Our opportunities are far greater now, but with that comes greater anxiety.
• There is an idea that sadness has its benefits. Sadness ultimately leads to compassion. This explains why sad music resonates so heavily with some people.
• The chapter on envy and keeping up and comparing yourself with your inner circle hit a little close to home.
• Was I fortunate to learn early on to make my life better myself and not wait for someone else to do it for me?
• Perspective is the skull key that opens all the locks on our way to happiness.
• Joy is the destination, the path to joy is littered with compassion and perspective.
• It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.

TL;dr: This is one of my favorite philosophy books yet. 5 of 5 stars. Also, go back and drink every time I say perspective.