-from The Book of Joy
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others." -Philippians 2:3-4
The following is what I wrote in September of 2017 after my first reading of The Book of Joy.
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 ("Joy is much bigger than happiness. While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not." Archbishop Desmond Tutu), 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!
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 ("Joy is much bigger than happiness. While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not." Archbishop Desmond Tutu), 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!
And now for an update on my second reading....
I added quotes to this post/repost because the first encompasses an important theme of this book and the second is from the Bible, a passage I read recently that seemed to echo themes from The Book of Joy.
I mentioned in my earlier post that I should read this once a year. That didn't happen---it took 8 years to get back to it but I'm so glad I gave myself this refresher! Hopefully, I will put at least some of it into practice! It still gets a 5 rating from me.
In the past couple of years, I have been doing yoga a couple of times a week. In some of the practices listed at the end of the book, I noted similarities like deep breathing, quiet and meditation.
I googled the two spiritual leaders and found that Desmond Tutu died in 2021, and the Dalai Lama still lives at age 90.
No comments:
Post a Comment