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SCMP Reporter

Heartfelt spiritual advice for those who see life at the office as a living hell
Book The Art of Happiness at Work
Authors The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler
Publisher Hodder Mobius
For many people, work is the antithesis of happiness. This problem has baffled some of the brightest minds in human history. How do people find happiness in a place where they are forced to work with others they did not choose to be with, and forced to bear the stresses associated with common things such as taking abuse from colleagues, overtime, lack of resources, and doing repetitive tasks day in and day out?
This point is illustrated early on in The Art of Happiness at Work by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. When the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was presented with the clinical description that modern workplaces were breeding grounds for inequity, unfairness and stress brought about by the quest for profit, he was also asked how the modern worker could seek inner calmness and satisfaction amid this turmoil.
His answer was not what people would expect from a respected spiritual leader. Instead of a knowing smile followed by words of wisdom, he laughed, and good-naturedly admitted to his co-author that he really didn't know either.His exact words were: 'Howard, some of your questions are so impossible. It is almost as if you are asking, How can beings in the hell realm learn to practice patience, tolerance, and tranquillity?'As with its successful predecessor The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living,  which was also a collaboration between the Tibetan spiritual leader and Mr Cutler, a psychiatrist, this work highlights the Dalai Lama's simple messages for living - perhaps most famously that the purpose of life is happiness.
While the first book looked at people's inner development, this one is intended to help people live in the exterior world, interact with society and have an impact on those around them. Book number two is therefore dedicated to applying Tibetan Buddhist spiritual values to find greater happiness at work.
One of its central themes is that happiness is obtained more by the state of one's mind than one's external conditions, circumstances or events - at least once one's basic survival needs are met.
Other ingredients in this recipe for joy include the systematic training of our hearts and minds, through the reshaping of our attitudes, as well as the understanding that the key to happiness ultimately lies in our own hands.
The main message of this second tome therefore is to place our working lives in the context of our lives as a whole.
Although the style can be a bit grating, as the co-author features himself a little too loudly and clearly through his first-person narration with the Dalai Lama, there is much to gain.
Firstly, there is a lot to be said for a self-help guide that is humble, generous and paints a rich but down-to-earth picture of the daily life and thoughts of one of the world's greatest spiritual leaders.
Secondly, it's generally far easier to absorb a spiritual leader's advice when you feel that you are receiving it head on, rather than as a distant recipient of a sermon from on high.
And Mr Cutler puts the reader in his shoes as he rather charmingly meanders through his wordy questions, fumbles with his tape recorder and muddles his way through to enlightenment.
'I often gave [the Dalai Lama] no end of difficulty as we struggled to reconcile East and West, pestering him with endless questions, a fair proportion of which he labelled so silly or impossible to answer that it had become a running joke between us, trying even his legendary patience,' Mr Cutler wrote.
Thus, we experience the Dalai Lama not only coming up with answers, but gradually developing his lines of thought, step by step, as he and Mr Cutler whittle away at knotty problems such as dissatisfaction at work, striking the balance between boredom and challenges or reaching self-awareness in the work environment.
The Dalai Lama advises people who want to increase their feeling of autonomy or freedom at work to take the example of someone in prison. 'Even in that situation, where a person may be deprived of freedom, he or she may discover small choices that they are able to make,' he said.
Citing spiritual practices that lessen mental frustrations and provide peace of mind, such as internal development or meditation, which are valuable in a prison context, he applies this to the work environment.
'If people can do this under the extreme conditions of prison, in the workplace people may try to discover small things, small choices that they can make in how to go about their work,' he said.
Finally, a word of caution for people with sensitive political leanings. Like everybody else, it is natural for people to draw examples from their daily lives in order to illustrate concepts, and for the exiled Tibetan leader there is no greater issue than his people's struggle for independence.
Thus, the topic of tension between the Tibetans and the Chinese tends to pop up sporadically over the course of this 212-page book.
In a nutshell
Who should read this?
If you are unhappy, stressed, or feel you have been treated unfairly at work, this book is for you. The Dalai Lama illustrates his points with a good balance of both metaphorical parables and grounded practical advice.
Why should they read this?
You will receive advice from this book on how to make your life happier at work from one of the world's most prominent experts on human spirituality.
Five insights
1 Training the mind to find happiness is possible, writes Mr Cutler, via a process that the Dalai Lama calls analytic meditation. 'One way to train our minds is to use our human intelligence, to use human reason and analysis to reshape our attitudes and outlook,' he says. So, someone who didn't get a promotion at work and is upset about this should deliberately analyse whether responding with anger or jealousy brings a happier, more peaceful state of mind.
2 For many people, income is an objective measure of how much they are valued by their employer. In addition, how much money they make can be intimately connected with how they value themselves. According to the Dalai Lama, there is nothing wrong with seeing one's job simply as a way to make money. 'The problem is, however, when the motivation to make money becomes an end in itself,' he says.
3 Boredom and a lack of challenge are both common sources of dissatisfaction at work. While the Dalai Lama combats boredom by contemplating the vastness of time and the need for long-range dedication to his duties, which is all well and good for a religious leader but perhaps not so easy for the rest of us, his principle of renewing enthusiasm and reawakening dedication by reflecting on the wider purpose of one's work is useful.
4 Self-understanding is helpful. 'There is an intimate connection between how we see ourselves and how we tend to relate to others and the world ... [and] how we see ourselves also affects how we react to a given situation,' said the Dalai Lama.
5 Look into the nature of the work you do and the impact it has on the world around us. '[Consider] the benefit or harm caused by the work that one does,' the Dalai Lama said. 'The Buddhist concept of right livelihood means that you strive to engage in an activity that has no potential for being harmful to others, either directly or indirectly.'



Wisdom in the workplace