The Book of Joy

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of The Book of Joy pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. Joy is not the same as pleasure or even happiness. Pleasure depends on external conditions and fades; joy is a durable way of being that both men insist can grow *stronger* in the presence of suffering, not weaker.
2. The root of most anxiety is a self-centered, grasping focus on 'I, me, mine.' The Dalai Lama's counterintuitive prescription is that the fastest route out of your own suffering is to turn your attention toward relieving someone else's.
3. Joy rests on Eight Pillars, split into qualities of the mind (perspective, humility, humor, acceptance) and qualities of the heart (forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, generosity), a trainable curriculum, not a personality trait you're born with.

The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 9 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Two Friends, One Improbable Week
2. The Nature of True Joy
3. The Obstacles: Fear, Anger, and the Grasping Self
4. Suffering and Adversity as Teachers
5. Pillars of the Mind: Perspective, Humility, Humor, Acceptance
6. Pillars of the Heart: Forgiveness and Gratitude
7. Compassion and Generosity: Joy in the 'We'
8. The Science of a Joyful Brain
9. Practices for Everyday Joy