Loving Life as It Is: A Buddhist Guide to Ultimate Happiness

Happiness and suffering are not antithetical—they’re inextricably linked, according to this lucid English-language debut from Tibetan Buddhist teacher Wangdrak. Instead of spending one’s life avoiding pain, readers should harness the “power, energy, and spiritual growth” within suffering to make way for an “all-pervasive happiness” rooted in the mind’s “pure true nature,” and eschew the “grasping” that causes one to “shrink away from the totality of experiences.” Contending that the attachment to self is the root of suffering, Wangdrak offers guidance on cultivating gratitude, using meditation to receive positive and negative stimuli with equanimity, and practicing “tonglen,” wherein practitioners take on the suffering of others. Moving from meditation basics to thornier concepts such as making peace with physical illness, Wangdrak builds a convincing if challenging case for embracing pain as fuel for personal development and the source of a deeper contentment. Buddhists of all stripes will find value. (June)