The Book of Joy (Audio Book)

Very interesting listening to the Archbishop Desond Tutu, the 14th Dalai Lama, and a third Jewish guy Douglas Abrahams have conversations. This post is more a collection of thoughts. It might get edited to make some logical sense or I may wait until I read the book and write a different post.

The Dalai Lama is very interested in science and it is very interesting to learn how he listens to science and it seems his beliefs are based on science.

I really like listening to the archbishop talk as he has a very interesting and beautiful voice.

"I would rather go to hell as there are more people to help there"

Look at thing from others view points. Separate your mind from yourself.

Observe more and judge and form opinions less.

Meditate and think about stuff. A cat can sit quietly and not think about anything. Meditation is about reflection, separating yourself from this issue, thinking about thinks in different ways, from other people's perspectives, and thinking about things you normally do not think about. One perspective is your own but in the future.

Connect with people on the human level.

Have fun in life and laugh at yourself. Use humor to defuse situations.

Think about death.

Appreciate thing, be grateful for things. Write down instead of just thinking about them.

We are all connected.

Compassion is the most important thing to have.

There is a lot of talking about Nelson Mandela. His struggle and time in prison is the reason he was such an effective leader. He went to prison angry but learned to be calm and think of things from others perspectives while in prison.

Smile.

Life is broken and imperfect laugh to help accept this. Accept your human limitations. Accept the past and the reality of the situation. Suffering is inevitable and you need to suffer and struggle to find joy. Forgive yourself. You are a flawed human just like everyone else.

True joy comes from other people in deep loving relationships with others. It is not learned, it is lived.

Negative emotions come from 2 things. Too much focus on yourself and accepting reality as it appears. Need to think of others and look at reality from many different points of view (others, future, god's view).