Alanna Thornton’s Reviews > The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World > Status Update

"We are same human beings," the Dalai Lama said, returning to one of his most profound refrains. "No need for introduction. Same human face, when we see one another we immediately know this is a human brother or sister. Whether you know them or not, you can smile and say hello."

“Hope is the antidote to despair. Yet hople requires faith, even if that faith is in nothing more than human nature or the very persistence of life to find a way.
Hope is also nurtured by community, whether that community is a literal one or one fashioned from the long memory of human striving… Despair turns us inward. Hope sends us into the arms of others.”

"Hope," the Archbishop said, "is quite different from optimism, which is more superficial and liable to become pessimism when the circumstances change. Hope is something much deeper."

"We've always got to be recognizing that despite the aberrations, the fundamental thing about humanity, about humankind, about people, is that they are good, they were made good, and they really want to be good."

Do I still believe that? How do I make that true?

Wow, incredible Buddhist story of the woman inconsolable in her grief

Fear and anger are two poles of our natural response, as we prepare to flee (fear) or to fight (anger).

“Once again, the path of joy was connection and the path of sorrow was separation. When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face-together.”

The words literally mean "having a bad (or good) axle." Was it a bumpy ride (dukkha), or a smooth ride (sukha)? Not a bad metaphor for life. What is suffering but a bumpy ride? Every life is rutted and no one can avoid some inevitable bumps, but so much is determined by our own perception of the ride. Our mind is the axle that often determines whether we experience the ride as bumpy or smooth.