The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for living by the Dalai Lama

I landed on another great source!  I finally found a book that I can cite that talks about the Dalai Lama encouraging people to tell stories.  In fact, he is the one who wrote it!

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living is by the 14th Dalai Lama.  It is made for all audiences, no matter where they are at in their personal journey.  He says that "Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, the very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our life is towards happiness." 

As a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, His Holiness uses this book to talk about the things that bring inner peace and the keys to building a happy life.  This book is interesting though because it combines Buddhist philosophy with a Western psychiatrist (Cutler).  


One of the most important things I can gather from this book is that through meditations, stories, and the meeting of Buddhism and psychology, we can learn to defeat day-to-day depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy, or just an ordinary bad mood. In this book we have discussion on relationships, health, family, work, etc to show us how to get over the mundane and make life meaningful. 

Not only is this going to be a good source as far as finding the answer to the great question of where encouragement for telling stories is quoted, but I also think it is straight up interesting.  I am really fascinated with depression, and I think a Buddhist take on it will be an interesting read.  It is definitely going on my "to read" shelf on goodreads.com.  Hopefully I can add it to one of my course contracts and read it in the field as well.

Lama, Dalai.  The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living:  New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.  Print.