"Joy is much bigger than happiness. While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not."
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Wow! This book is a treasure of insight and inspiration, chock full of profound thoughts and pithy statements. I have read it electronically, borrowed from the library, and now have to give it up. I will be buying a copy to "have and hold" because I have a feeling I should read it at least once a year. Such beautiful life lessons!
The meeting of these two ultimate religious and moral leaders took place in Dharamsala, India on the occasion of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Author Douglas Abrams facilitated a weeklong discussion of joy---essentially how to find it and keep it. Both of these holy men have won the Nobel Prize and are respected and loved by most of the world. Both are extremely wise and have had to overcome great adversity in their lives.
At the beginning of the book, there is discussion of the obstacles to joy such as sadness, fear, anger and frustration. Later much of the conversation between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu centers around "The Eight Pillars of Joy": perspective, humility, humor, acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, compassion and generosity. The two friends are excellent examples of all these traits. Each has a wonderful sense of humor and they love to tease each other and laugh together.
I learned the term Ubuntu from the Archbishop. It means humanness or "I am what I am because of who we all are." The necessity of connections with others is stressed numerous times. There are also many Buddhist terms explained along the way.
I chose a brief quote to begin this post, one I think points to a major theme and one of the first I highlighted. However, I marked something deeply significant on almost every page!
I am rating this book a 5. There is a good chance it is already changing my life! I can't wait to hear what the group thinks tomorrow.
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Page Turners met today to discuss The Book of Joy. We enjoyed lovely refreshments specially themed to the book by two of our members. One friend who belongs to 3 other book clubs (How DOES she do it?) had already read the book. She was able to supply discussion questions specific to the book where I had only found generic ones. Turns out we didn't really need a printed list since everyone had things they wanted to talk about! Our conversation lasted about an hour but could have gone much longer.
The group gave an average rating of 4 with more than half voting 5's. Some said they really did not want to read the book and only did because it was the September selection. Most thought it was so much more than they expected and very worthwhile. The lowest ratings were given by a member who found it repetitive and another who said the content was important but she didn't find it compelling.
Our discussion was very enjoyable as folks shared opinions of the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop, favorite parts of The Book of Joy, personal experiences, related books and ideas about applying some of the Eight Pillars of Joy. I wasn't the only one who is determined to buy a hard copy.
By the way if you search YouTube with the book title you can find several interesting ones, a few including dialogue between these two great leaders.
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