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result of the brutal invasion of Tibet by Chineseforces. But even among the moreknowledgeable, perception of him was oftenone-dimensional-some people saw him asessentially a political figure, for example, unawareof his stature as one of the world’s leadingBuddhist scholars, a teacher with profoundspiritual depth and wisdom. And many people atthat time would have been surprised to learn thatfar from considering himself to be a great worldleader, the Dalai Lama’s personal identity wasmost closely tied to his role as a simple Buddhistmonk—one who rose each morning at 3:30 tospend four or five hours in prayer and meditation.So by the early 1990s, I began to think abouta book that would dispel these misconceptionsand add some human flesh to the cartoonlikeimage of him in the popular imagination. But that

was not the main purpose of the book. The farmore important objective was to present hisideas about how to find happiness.

PUBLICATIONI vividly recall the meeting when I first proposedthe idea of the book to the Dalai Lama. I wasfeeling far from confident. Over the years I hadnoted his skill at deflecting such proposals—so,fully expecting that he would turn down myrequest, I had come prepared, ready to argue mycase.“Your Holiness, I know that you have alreadywritten two dozen books,” I began, “but thisbook will be quite different. The objective is todistill the essential principles that you live by,which have enabled you to achieve a happy life.And even though these underlying principles maybe based on Buddhism, I hope to present yourbeliefs in a way that can be applied by individuals

from any background or tradition, showing howto apply these principles in their daily lives tocultivate greater happiness.”“Ah, very good!” he said with enthusiasm.“And then from my perspective as apsychiatrist,” I continued, “I’d like to examineyour views on happiness, on what makes lifeworthwhile, within the context of Westernpsychology, even looking for scientific evidencethat might support your views.”“Yes. Okay!” the Dalai Lama said decisively,nodding his head in agreement to my proposal.Without taking a breath, I pressed on, drivenby my preconceived belief that he would notreadily agree. My mind was so focused onconvincing him, so intent on dazzling him with myarguments, that I had no attention left over toactually attend to what he was saying or to

register his response.Looking a bit perplexed, the Dalai Lamasuddenly interrupted me.“Howard,” he said, starting to laugh, “Ialready agreed. Why are you still arguing thecase?”Finally grasping that he had agreed to myproposal, I felt a surge of elation—among myobjectives and reasons for proposing this book,there was a more selfish motive that I hadconveniently forgotten to mention: I wanted tolearn from him how I myself could becomehappier.We began work on the book in 1993, duringthe Dalai Lama’s first visit to Arizona, my homestate. That week he had an intensive teachingschedule, delivering a brilliant commentary on aclassic text by Shantideva, the great eighth-

century Indian Buddhist scholar. Despite his longdaily teaching sessions, we managed to carve outsome time to meet, aided by the fact that he wasstaying at the same place where his publicteachings were being given, a resort hotel in theSonoran Desert, outside Tucson. So everymorning after breakfast, and in some lateafternoons as well, we met in his suite, as I posedquestion after question, soliciting his views aboutlife, about the things that truly make lifeworthwhile, the vital questions related to humanhappiness and suffering.Over the months prior to our conversations, Ihad spent a great deal of time preparing a list ofquestions, carefully arranging their sequenceaccording to a tightly organized outline that filleda thick three-ring binder. So when I showed upfor our first meeting, I was ready. And it took

only minutes for the Dalai Lama to relieve me ofany illusions I might have had about controllingthe direction of the discussion. I had planned onsticking with my set agenda in an orderly fashion,breezing through the questions one by one likeknocking down a row of dominoes. But I quicklydiscovered that he apparently felt no compulsionto follow my agenda. His answers to myquestions were often unanticipated, suddenlyturning the conversation in a completely newdirection. I might be following a certain train ofthought, when suddenly that train would becomederailed as he went off on an unexpected tangent.So I found our discussions to be challenging attimes. At the same time, the Dalai Lama’s quickmind and robust sense of humor kept theconversations lively, and riveted my attentionthroughout.

Those conversations, supplemented withmaterial from his public talks, provided the corematerial for the book, which was later expandedby additional discussions at his home in India.Quickly becoming absorbed in the project, Idecided to temporarily give up practicingpsychiatry in order to devote my full attention toexploring human happiness, seeking an approachthat bridged East and West. I estimated that itwould take perhaps six months to complete thebook, and with the Dalai Lama as a coauthor, Ifigured that finding a publisher would be easy.As it turned out, I was wrong. Five yearslater, I was still working on the book. And thethick stack of rejection letters accumulating onmy desk from literary agents and publishers wasa growing testament to the prevailing wisdom inthe publishing industry at that time: the belief that

books by the Dalai Lama held no appeal to amainstream audience. In addition, they claimed,the public simply didn’t seem to be interested inthe topic of human happiness.By 1998, after years of continual rejections,and with my financial resources finally depleted, itseemed I had few options left. Still, determinedto see that at least a few new readers couldbenefit from the Dalai Lama’s wisdom, I plannedto use the last of my retirement savings to selfpublish a small number of copies. Strangely,however, it was right at that point that the motherof a close friend happened to make an offhandremark to a stranger on a New York subway—astranger who turned out to be in the publishingindustry—which initiated a series of connectionsthat finally led to agreements with both a literaryagent and a good mainstream publisher. And so,

with a small first printing and modestexpectations, the book was at last released.

UNEXPECTED SUCCESSThat was ten years ago. And the Dalai Lama, thepublisher, and I could never have imagined thesubsequent course of events. Awareness of thebook grew rapidly, spreading more by word ofmouth than by advertising or publicity. Notexpecting such an overwhelmingly positiveresponse, I watched with wonder as the booksoon appeared on the New York Timesbestsellers list, where it remained for the next twoyears. It wasn’t long before we started to seeevidence that the book was truly becoming partof the cultural milieu in America, spontaneouslyshowing up on TV sitcoms, game shows, evenMTV—the very icons of popular culture inAmerica at the time: Friends, Sex and the City,

Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,MTV Cribs—and even the season’s openinggame on Monday Night Football, when one ofthe quarterbacks attributed his preseasonsuccess, in part at least, to The Art ofHappiness.Clearly, there was a kind of universal appealto the Dalai Lama’s basic message: Yes,happiness is possible—in fact, we can train inhappiness in much the same way that we trainin any other skill,directly cultivating it through effort andpractice. Explaining how happiness can beachieved by reshaping our attitudes and outlook,the Dalai Lama shows us how the key tohappiness is in our own hands. No longer do weneed to rely on luck or chance to achievehappiness, waiting for the day when all the outer

conditions of our lives finally fall into place—theday we finally lose weight, get rich, get married(or divorced!), or get that coveted promotion.His fundamental message of hope seemed tostrike a chord in people, resonating deep in thehearts of individuals not only in America butthroughout the world—people from diversebackgrounds, perhaps, but who all shared thefundamental human aspiration for happiness, ayearning for something better in life. Ultimately,the book went on to be translated into fiftylanguages and was read by millions around theworld.

A HAPPINESS REVOLUTIONThe concept of happiness as an achievable goal,something we can deliberately cultivate throughpractice and effort, is fundamental to theBuddhist view of happiness. In fact, the idea oftraining the mind has been the cornerstone ofBuddhist practice for millennia. Coincidentally,shortly after the publication of The Art ofHappiness, this same idea began to take root insociety from another direction—as a “new”scientific discovery—leading to a fundamentalshift in many people’s perception of happiness.When I first began work on The Art ofHappiness in the early 1990s, I discovered thatthere were relatively few scientific studies onhappiness and positive emotions. These were not

popular subjects for research. Although at thetime there were a handful of researchers studyinghuman happiness and positive emotions, theywere the mavericks. But then, suddenly, humanhappiness started to become a subject of intenseinterest to the scientific community and thegeneral public alike, as people began to abandontheir previous notions of happiness as elusive,mysterious, and unpredictable, replacing thatview with the perception of happiness assomething that could be scientifically investigated.And over the past decade, as more and morepeople have rejected the idea of happiness assomething that is merely a by-product of ourexternal circumstances, in favor of seeinghappiness as something that can be systematicallydeveloped, we have witnessed the exponentialgrowth of a new movement—a Happiness

Revolution.The watershed event for this new movementwas the formal establishment of a new field ofpsychology involving the study of humanhappiness. The formal birth of this new branch ofpsychology took place in 1998, when a highlyinfluential psychologist, Dr. Martin Seligman, thenewly elected president of the AmericanPsychological Association, decided to dedicatehis term as president to the establishment of thisnew field, which he dubbed “positivepsychology.” Pointing out that for the past halfcentury clinical psychology had focusedexclusively on mental illness, human weakness,and dysfunction, he called on his colleagues toexpand the scope of psychology to include thestudy of positive emotions, human strengths, and“what makes life worth living.”

Seligman teamed up with another brilliantresearcher, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, to lay thegroundwork for this new field. They were soonjoined by a core group of top researchers fromuniversities in America and Europe, and positivepsychology took off with tremendous momentum.For the first time in human history, happinesshad finally become a legitimate field ofscientific inquiry.Since that time, the Happiness Revolution hashad a growing impact on all levels of society.Feature stories on happiness have inundated thepopular media, while academic courses onpositive psychology have been cropping up oncollege campuses across the United States andthroughout the world. At Harvard University, forinstance, “The Happiness Course” has nowreplaced Introductory Economics as the most

popular undergraduate course, with enrollmentquickly soaring to well over 1,400 students eachsemester. The impact is even being seen on thegovernmental level in nations around the world,with the country of Bhutan, for instance, replacingGDP with GNH (Gross National Happiness) asits most important measure of success as anation. Policymakers in many nations are noweven exploring the idea of shaping public policybased on happiness research. As onegovernment official in Scotland exuberantlyasserted, “If we can embrace this new science ofpositive psychology, we have the opportunity tocreate a new Enlightenment.”

THE BENEFITS OF HAPPINESSOne of the factors fueling the HappinessRevolution has been the startling research in thepast decade revealing the many benefits ofhappiness, benefits extending far beyond merely“feeling good.” In fact, cultivating greaterhappiness can be seen as “one-stop shopping”for those seeking greater success in every majorlife domain. Scientific studies have shown thathappy people are more likely to attract a mate,enjoy stronger and more satisfying marriages, andare better parents. Happy people are alsohealthier, with better immune function and lesscardiovascular disease. There is even evidencethat happy individuals live up to ten years longerthan their less happy peers! In addition,

happiness leads to better mental health, greaterresilience, and an increased capacity to deal withadversity and trauma.There are some who believe that happypeople tend to be shallow and a bit stupid, anotion shared by the French novelist GustaveFlaubert, who once wrote: “To be stupid, selfish,and have good health are three requirements forhappiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all islost.” Recent research, however, has proven thisidea to be nothing but a myth, finding thathappiness leads to greater creativity andimproved mental functioning.The benefits of happiness extend to theworkplace, as well, with happy individualsperforming better and enjoying greater personalsuccess on every level, including higher income.In fact, studies show that higher income is more

directly related to one’s level of happiness than toone’s level of education. Extensive research hasalso shown that organizations with happyemployees are more successful, consistentlydemonstrating greater profitability; this isn’tsurprising considering that happy workers aremore productive, more loyal to the company,take fewer sick days, show up to work moreconsistently, have fewer conflicts withcoworkers, quit their jobs less frequently, andgenerate greater customer satisfaction.So there is no question that happiness bringstremendous personal rewards. But it is alsocritical to point out that cultivating greaterhappiness benefits not only oneself, but alsoone’s family, community,and society In fact, this is one of the keyprinciples underlying The Art of Happiness, a

principle supported by a growing body ofscientific evidence. For example, a stunningrecent study has shown that happiness is highlycontagious, spreading in social networks just likea virus. Other lines of evidence have found thathappiness and positive emotions act as anantidote to prejudice, causing changes in thebrain that prevent the instinctual bias againstthose we perceive as different, ultimatelybreaking down the barriers between Us andThem! The beneficial effects of happiness extendto the broadest level of society; another study,for instance, found that increasing the averagelevel of happiness among the population of anation will result in an increase in freedom anddemocracy in that country!The Happiness Revolution has led increasingnumbers of individuals to seek happiness in a

more systematic and direct way. There havebeen some critics of the positive psychologymovement who have characterized their efforts asbeing nothing more than a self-absorbed, selfindulgent luxury, concerned only with personalgratification. In view of the above evidence,however, it could be argued that if you are trulyconcerned about the welfare of others andbuilding a better world, it is your duty to behappy, or to do what you can to becomehappier.

BUDDHIST WISDOM ANDMODERN SCIENCE: BRIDGINGEAST AND WESTThe coming of Buddhism to the West may well proveto be the most important event of the TwentiethCentury.—The influential British historian Arnold J.ToynbeeOne of the goals of The Art of Happiness is topresent an approach to achieving human

happiness that combines the best of East andWest, integrating traditional Buddhist wisdomwith modern Western science. Following a recenttalk in which I spoke about this approach, anaudience member asked:“If scientists have conducted research onhappiness and studies have now proven how tobecome happy, what do we need the Buddhisttheories or the Dalai Lama’s views for?Shouldn’t the scientific proof be enough?”Good questions. And as a great admirer ofthe scientific approach to happiness, I think it issafe to say that the checks and balances of thescientific method generally result in highly reliableand useful information. At the same time,however, all scientific findings are not some kindof Absolute Truth or Eternal Law. Scientificknowledge is a dynamic, living thing—and

scientific theories are always being refined,modified, or revised as we gather new data. Andin evaluating the validity of any study, there’salways the possibility of methodological errors,flaws in experimental design, statistical analysis,and so on. One also needs to consider how manysubjects were studied and whether the study hasbeen replicated. With this in mind, it’s importantto recognize that the science of human happinessis still in its infancy. While we have learned agreat deal, there is a lot that we still don’t know.The key question is: Does Buddhism haveanything to contribute to the scientificinvestigation of happiness?In considering this question, it is important tounderstand that Buddhism is not a faith-basedsystem in the traditional sense. In fact, when theBuddha first began to teach, he advised his

disciples not to blindly accept his teachings out offaith, but rather to investigate the validity of histheories and test his methods for themselves. Thisreliance on empirical investigation, theuncompromising commitment to truth, and a totaldedication to discovering the nature of reality arethings that both Buddhism and science have incommon. In fact, the Dalai Lama hasdemonstrated his total commitment to theseprinciples, stating, “If science was to conclusivelyprove that some part of the Buddhist

Essential Buddbist Commentaries by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. P.), India. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Bstan-dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, date. The art of happiness.—10th anniversary ed. p. cm. With a new praface by the Dalai Lama and a new intro