Dalai Lama Books
Christopher Castellani is an American novelist and educator, author of several acclaimed works including 'Leading Men'. He serves as the artistic director of GrubStreet, a creative writing center in Boston, and teaches writing at various institutions.
Known for: The Art of Happiness, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Voice for the Voiceless: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Books by Dalai Lama
The Art of Happiness
In this insightful volume, novelist Christopher Castellani explores the craft of narrative perspective—how the choice of who tells a story shapes everything from tone to meaning. Drawing on examples f...
Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama
This book presents a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and leading scientists, exploring the nature of destructive emotions such as anger, fear, and hatred. It examines how Buddhist philosophy and moder...
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
The Art of Happiness es una guía práctica que combina las enseñanzas del Dalai Lama con la perspectiva psicológica del Dr. Howard Cutler. A través de conversaciones y reflexiones, el libro explora cóm...
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
The Book of Joy is a collaborative work between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with writer Douglas Abrams. It explores the nature of joy and how to cultivate lasting happines...
Voice for the Voiceless: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
A collection of speeches and writings by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, focusing on compassion, human rights, and the moral responsibility to speak for those who cannot. The book emphasizes univers...
Key Insights from Dalai Lama
The Author and the Narrator
Too often, writers assume the author and narrator are aligned, as if the story’s voice speaks directly from the writer’s soul. But fiction is an act of ventriloquism. The author invents a narrator—a consciousness distinct from his own—to mediate the story’s world. In this separation lies imaginative...
From The Art of Happiness
The First-Person Lens: Intimacy and Blindness
Writing in the first person is seductive. The immediacy of the ‘I’ promises authenticity, a sense of confession. Yet every ‘I’ is also a crafted mask. The intimacy between narrator and reader depends on carefully managed illusion. In first-person narration, truth is always filtered through memory, b...
From The Art of Happiness
Setting the Dialogue
The setting of our dialogue was as remarkable as its purpose. High in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, Western scientists and Buddhist monks met not as antagonists between faith and reason but as partners in inquiry. The Dalai Lama’s motivation was deeply human: h...
From Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama
Scientific Foundations
The scientists began by presenting the latest findings about the emotional brain. Emotional reactions, they explained, are rooted in the limbic system—the amygdala, hippocampus, and related circuits—which respond to threats or rewards in milliseconds. Anger and fear are ancient survival mechanisms, ...
From Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama
Defining Happiness
When people think of happiness, they often imagine success, wealth, or comfort. Yet, from my understanding, happiness begins with the mind. It is a mental state—a sense of inner balance and peace that does not rely on circumstances. Too often, we confuse pleasure for happiness. Pleasure is temporary...
From The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
The Purpose of Life
What is the purpose of life? When asked this question, my answer has always been simple: the purpose of life is to seek happiness. Regardless of religion, culture, or background, all humans share this same aspiration. Every choice we make, ultimately, seeks to reduce suffering and bring joy. But th...
From The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
About Dalai Lama
Christopher Castellani is an American novelist and educator, author of several acclaimed works including 'Leading Men'. He serves as the artistic director of GrubStreet, a creative writing center in Boston, and teaches writing at various institutions.
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Christopher Castellani is an American novelist and educator, author of several acclaimed works including 'Leading Men'. He serves as the artistic director of GrubStreet, a creative writing center in Boston, and teaches writing at various institutions.
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