What Makes You So Busy?: Finding Peace in the Modern World

by Khenpo Sodargye

A Tibetan Buddhist lama gives advice on the issues facing people in the modern world.

In this book, Khenpo Sodargye, a world-famous Tibetan Buddhist lama and scholar, offers guidance on an issue that troubles so many of us in the modern

What is true happiness, and how do we achieve it?

Bombarded with information, endlessly pursuing possessions—we look for happiness in all the wrong places. Khenpo Sodargye, one of the busiest Buddhist teachers in the world, shows us how to redirect our attention away from such distractions and instead calm our minds and find true contentment. His wide-ranging advice covers careers and conventional notions of material success, romantic relationships, and the environment. Erudite and compassionate, he points the reader to inspiration from sutras, Zen masters, Confucius, and the daily news, offering warm, heartfelt encouragement for these troubled times.

256 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2019

About the author

Khenpo Sodargye (Tibetan མཁན་པོ བསོད་དར་རྒྱས, Wylie mkhan po bsod dar rgyas; Chinese: 索达吉堪布) is one of the principle disciples of H.H. Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok, who placed him in charge of the Larung Gar Serthar Buddhist Institute upon completion of his studies there. He additionally served as Khenchen Jigphun's chief translator for Chinese disciples. Many of his Chinese-language translations of Tibetan texts have sold over 100,000 copies, and he has lectured or given talks at over 100 universities around the world, including many in China and the U.S.

Reviews

[Juliana Poh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this book 3.8 stars out of 5 - but I have to give it a whole number so I scored it 3 stars.
It was the title that attracted me and I didn’t think it would have many Buddhist references, but it did, and it was rather heavy-going at some bits cos I felt the translations were difficult to understand. Took me 3 weeks to finish it meaningfully, without just rushing through the “deep” portions. The book touches on the 8 secrets to happiness, according to Buddhism, and has several excellent quotations throughout. For eg, it tells the reader to “live in practice and practice in daily life”. The gist of the book is to encourage us to cultivate an altruistic mind, give up forms of attachment, and not take things to heart no matter what happens, through meditation to explore our inner world and consider benefit of all beings over self-benefit. After all, all things are an illusion and impermanent.

[Lisa]

I picked this up at the library after finding the title intriguing, but the question didn't seem to be the focus of the book. It's a collection of essays that appear to have been lectures, with Q&A at the end of each one, which ended up including some seemingly random questions to me. This book wasn't really for me.