The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World is a book by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu published in 2016 by Cornerstone Publishers. In this nonfiction, the authors discuss the challenges of living a joyful life.
One of the most interesting questions I have in life, is "How can God allow so much of the world to be wrong?" Here's a breakdown based on the approximate global population of ~8.2 billion people and the religious texts that they most revere: Religious Text Faith Est. Believers % of World Bible Christianity ~2.4 billion ~29% Quran Islam ~1.9 billion ~23% Bhagavad Gita / Vedas Hinduism ~1.2 billion ~15% Tripitaka / Buddhist texts Buddhism ~500 million ~6% Torah / Talmud Judaism ~15 million ~0.2% Guru Granth Sahib Sikhism ~30 million ~0.4% Tao Te Ching Taoism ~20–50 million ~0.3–0.6% A few important nuances: Overlap is real. Many Hindus also revere Buddhist texts. Many Christians also read the Torah (it forms their Old Testament). Chinese people often blend Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism simultaneously. Cultural vs. devout believers. Someone may identify as Christian or Muslim without regularly reading their scripture. Conversely, many secular people have read the Tao Te Ching or Bhagavad Gita purely philosophically. The unaffiliated. Roughly 1.2 billion people (~16%) identify as religiously unaffiliated, atheist, or agnostic — though some still engage with religious texts culturally. China complicates things. China has ~1.4 billion people, many of whom practice folk religion blending Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship, making clean categorization difficult. The big picture: roughly 74% of the world's population identifies with a faith tradition tied to one of these texts, with Christianity and Islam alone accounting for over half of all humans on Earth. John 16:33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. There is a mystique
I have learned that maybe we should challenge the conventional definition of the good life. We tend to think financial success means being able to afford more: a bigger house, newer cars, nicer clothes, frequent restaurant meals and increasingly expensive experiences. But the people who have actually accumulated substantial wealth often do almost the opposite. They deliberately consume less so they can have more freedom. Millionaires and six-figure earners describe buying used cars, shopping at Aldi, cooking at home, wearing secondhand or long-lasting clothes, cutting their own hair, using travel points and choosing inexpensive or free activities. Their frugality isn't really about deprivation. They're trading consumption today for something they value more: financial independence, flexibility, time with family and the ability to work less. That idea connects directly to the argument about aging in a paid-off house. A house can be completely paid for and still be expensive. The mortgage may be gone, but maintenance, repairs, property taxes, insurance, yard work and the sheer effort required to keep a large house functioning don't disappear. Eventually, the question becomes not "Can I afford this house?" but "Do I still want to spend my time, energy and money maintaining it?" The author sold a paid-off house in her sixties and moved into a condo, largely because she recognized that the economics of staying weren't as simple as "no mortgage." She was able to make the decision while she and her husband still had the health and energy to choose. Her aunt did something similar by moving into a community while she was still healthy, allowing her to establish friendships and routines before she actually needed assistance. That suggests a broader principle: "The smartest financial decisions aren't necessarily
May is upon us and we are now truly ready to plant our gardens - clearing and cleaning up the beds as we see the early spring bulbs blooming fully. "Meditation is the breath of your soul. Just as breathing is the life of the body, meditation is the life of the soul."—Osho
Reprinted from https://www.gq.com/story/gq-transcendental-meditation-guide?__s=qfsmmxwaomvfwvhvxixz zabuton-sewing-instructionsDownload
