Search results
The central message of the book is that true and lasting joy can be found even in the face of adversity and suffering. The book emphasizes the importance of shifting our focus from external circumstances to inner qualities in order to experience joy.
The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu discuss how we can find joy despite suffering. “We create most of our own suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot we as individuals can do.”
In The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, co-authors Douglas Abrams, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu share their discussion on the nature of joy and the methods to achieve it in the face of adversity.
Complete summary of Desmond Tutu, Douglas Abrams, Dalai Lama's The Book of Joy. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Book of Joy.
The Archbishop agrees, highlighting the elusive nature of happiness and the deeper concept of joy. He observes, “Joy subsumes happiness. Joy is the far greater thing” (32), using the example of a mother’s pain in childbirth leading to immense joy.
Written by Douglas Abrams, The Book of Joy documents a week-long conversation between Tutu and the Dalai Lama about the nature of joy—what it is, why it matters, and how you can find it. In this guide, we’ll outline the path to joy that Tutu and the Dalai Lama describe.
“The Book of Joy” is a collaboration between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, two of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders. The book documents a week-long conversation between the two friends as they explore the nature of true joy and how to cultivate it in one’s life.
