The Book of Joy

mass killing, war, this we can eliminate if we have the proper vision and
method. I think, certainly, it is possible to achieve a world without such
sorrow.”
At the Tibetan Children’s Village, in response to the question of
whether joy can be the ultimate source of world peace, the Dalai Lama
had responded, “I think so. I think firstly people should have a clear
understanding of joyfulness. You see, you might get a temporary joy in
killing your enemy or bullying someone. You may get some kind of
temporary satisfaction. But the true joyfulness comes from helping
others. This way you get much more satisfaction. So that kind of thinking
about joyfulness is really an important factor in building a happy society,
peaceful society. In order to create peaceful family, first the individual
person himself or herself should create inner peace, joyfulness. Then
share with other family members. In that way, one family, ten families, a
hundred families. That way, we can change and bring happier community,
happier society, then happier humanity. Seven billion human beings, we
all have same desire, same right to achieve happy life.”
The Dalai Lama then returned to the topic of why he wanted to write
The Book of Joy and why now: “We are learning. In 1996, I had an
audience with the late Queen Mother. At that time she was ninety-six
years old. Since my childhood, I had seen pictures of her round face, so
she was quite familiar, and I was really looking forward to the meeting. I
asked her, ‘Since you have observed almost the whole twentieth century,
do you feel the world is becoming better, worse, or staying the same?’
“Without hesitation, she answered, better. When she was young, she
said, there was no concept of human rights or the right to self-
determination. Now these things have become universal. She shared these
two examples of how the world is getting better.
“I think the majority of people everywhere believe that bloodshed is
not good and have a desire for peace. Around the time of my meeting
with the Queen Mother, I also had a conversation with the renowned
quantum physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who was the brother of
the then West German president. Von Weizsäcker, too, argued that the
world was improving. For example, he said that in the past every German