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

“Joy, it seemed, was a strange alchemy of mind over matter. The path to joy, like with sadness, did not lead away from suffering and adversity but through it.”

A prayer for cultivating Mudita:

As for suffering I do not wish even the slightest; as for happiness I am never satisfied.
In this, there is no difference between others and me.
Bless me so I may take joy in others' happiness.

“we should recognize our shared humanity. These are our human brothers and sisters, who have the same right and the same desire to have a happy life. This is not a spiritual thing. It is simply common sense. We are part of the same society. We are part of the same humanity. When humanity is happy, we will be happy.
When humanity is peaceful, our own lives are peaceful.“

“Mudita recognizes that life is not a zero-sum game, that there is not just one slice of cake in which someone else's taking more means we get less. Mudita sees joy as limitless.”

Wow. Love that

“the Buddhist concept of mudita, which is often translated as "sympathetic joy" and described as the antidote to envy. Mudita is so important in Buddhism that it is considered one of the Four Immeasurables, qualities we can cultivate infinitely. The other three are loving-kindness, compassion, and equanimity.”

"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."