The Book of Joy

face of life’s inevitable suffering and not some abstract or aspirational
theory of joy. We wanted readers to know how to maintain joy at the
most trying moments of our life, not just when all was, to quote the
Archbishop, “hunky-dory-ness.”
“He is asking, How do we help people who really want to be joyful,
who really want to see the world become a better place? They look at the
world and they see the horrendous problems there are. And they face
quite extraordinary adversity in their own lives. Why are you joyful even
when you see these problems and have faced such challenges? There are
very, very many people in the world who do want to be good, who want to
be joyful, who want to be like you. I mean, how do they get to have this
calm in the midst of it all? And yes, I think that you are the most eloquent
statement. But they want us now to translate that statement into language
that they can understand.”
And then as if inspired to answer his own question, the Archbishop
continued, “This is what we want to tell them. We say that you will be
surprised by the joy the minute you stop being too self-regarding. Of
course, you have to be somewhat self-regarding, because the Lord that I
follow said—taking it from the scripture—‘love thy neighbor as—’”
“‘You,’” the Dalai Lama said, finishing the famous teaching.
“Yes,” the Archbishop said. “Thyself. Love others as you love
yourself.”
“Yes, yes.” The Dalai Lama was nodding his head in agreement.
The Archbishop translated the scripture into contemporary phrasing.
“You must long for the best for that other as you would want the best for
you.”
“That’s right,” the Dalai Lama said.
“They look on you and they see you as a wonderful guru, or teacher,
and not just a teacher but an embodiment. And they long to be able to
have the same calm and joy, even when they have all of the many, many,
many frustrations, like you have encountered.”
“This I think merits discussion,” the Dalai Lama said. “You see, in
reality like our physical body, where growth takes time, our mental
development also takes time—minute by minute, day by day, month by