Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill

For me, this is a Guidebook
I am having a different expereince that those reviewers who wished that this book would provide more guidance. I’m 43 pages in, which according to the little Kindle bar at the bottom, is roughly 1/6th of the book. But I felt compelled to let people know that I’m finding LOTS of guidance.I’ve had the good fortune to cycle many times in and out of depression, with 2-3 days of depression, then 2-3 days of depression, over and over again. It became apparent that my depression was not driven by changes in the external world, or as much as what I did. My gift was getting to see that cognitive distortions fueled my unhappiness. I decided that I’m going to get happy.So, I drank in deeply page 19’s statement that, “By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind.” I want to improve the health of my mind, and see this as absolutely key. Dr. David Burns says this. Byron Katie says this. Eckhart Tolle say this. And Matthieu Ricar..So, when he advocates meditation so that we can quiet and better see our own mind, and goes into great detail about happiness, I’m also taking note. That is my work. He is guiding me. I’m hearing him say, “Practice meditation to better understand your mind.” I’m hearing him say, “I’ll give you lots of tidbits where people get led astray, so that if you notice any of these things in your mind, you’ll see where you have opportunities to employ mindful awareness, care and practice, with a the idea that slowly you will move into more happiness.”So, for example, I have been confusing pleasure and happiness, or at least been unclear as to what their relationship is. He carefully defines his terms, such as, “happiness,” “pleasure,” and “joy.” This allows me to better follow what he attempts to communicate.And I appreciate his background. For me his deep understanding of science builds credibility. And his amazing youth speaks to me. I’ve been blessed in my life, yet found myself with a deep disasatisfaction that I haven’t understood. So for him to leave the “blessed” life to live in what most Westerners call poverty and hang out with those who are actually experiencing and radiating almost mythical happiness, I want to know what he’s learned. And I currently expect, based on reading that what he conveys in this book will be guiding me for some time to come.

Enlightening book but with a few flaws
I think a lot of the other reviews clearly explain why this is a wonderful book. It definitely has added a lot of perspective to my outlook on things. I believe as Ricard explains, that tweaks to the way we think and our attitude will definitely foster happier thoughts in our minds. There are some very memorable thoughts from this book – the one I liked most was the fact that happiness can never be based on external circumstances for they are fleeting. A loss of a loved one or a job can plunge a man from happiness to despair and darkness in an instant. If like Ricard, you believe that happiness can be a permanent state of mind, it has to be on the inside and all ephemeral, external circumstances will flutter the mind like lines written on water.But there are limitations and not-so-great things about the book which could have been improved.- Too much quoting philosophers and famous peopleAlmost every chapter is filled with various philosopher’s take on things like happiness, emotions etc. I was more interested in Ricard’s own experience and his Gurus’ opinions (which were also there at places) rather than a big collection of differing thoughts of other philosophers.- Lack of explanation on ‘how to do’There is a clear lack of explanation of how to deal practically with the issues Ricard brings up. His theory that negative thoughts like hatred need antidotes like patience is great, but there is not much detail on how to cultivate them. Ricard says the solution is meditation, but how and what to exactly meditate on is short in content.A recurring theme is that when say, you are very angry, look at the anger itself without attaching it to the target of the anger and meditate, and it will melt away. Look at the emotion itself without the object it is related to and it will melt away like ‘snow under the sun’.It sounds good to read but I find it tough to implement. While one is meditating, how is it possible to ‘look’ at something without giving it an image or a mental picture? How to ‘look’ at an abstract entity is mentioned nowhere in the book. Maybe it comes naturally to advanced spiritual practitioners, but for a layman like me, I need more explanation on how to do these things than just a vague paragraph and impressive metaphors.In spite of these limitations, I found it an enlightening book to read.

Excelente leitura, reforçada com exercícios e exemplos. Em resumo, passagens simples, ligadas ao cotidiano de qualquer um mas sob uma ótica difícil de se obter sem as ferramentas e a dedicação necessárias

I’m currently on a quest to understand my emotions and my mind a bit more and this book has been a real treat so far! Some of the quotes are just incredibly inspirational and I found myself highlighting sentences all the time (Kindle style!). Matthieu Ricard manages to explain everything there is about happiness, using examples from his own stories or people he knows. He shows great insight and this book has truly answered most of my questions that no one else seemed to answer before. This book will open up your mind, especially if you’re feeling down at the moment, like I was before I decided to give it a try. Definitely recommend.

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