Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-won wisdom about
living with joy even in the face of adversity.
The occasion was a big birthday. And it inspired two close friends to
get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to
them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both
great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also
known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet.
From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday
cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent
findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that
anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. Both the Dalai Lama and
Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national
adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and
renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want
to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy
to others.
Most of all, during that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated
by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be
transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life.
Narration Credits:
Douglas Carlton Abrams, read by the author
Dalai Lama, read by Francois Chau
Desmond Tutu, read by Peter Francis James
