Zen and the Art of Happiness Paperback – June 28, 2006

Very quick read. Also very generic. Quickly turned into an advertisement for the author's rehab center and his other books. Here's the jist: Everything happens for a reason, just go with it, it could be a blessing in disguise. Not a bad message, but not at all what I expected. Not very Zen at all.

I loved this book! Its small, big print easy to read but gets straight to the point. It just basically explains and helps you understand that NOTHING in the universe is a mistake, and that things happen for a reason. Even though things might be tough at the moment be patient because things are often blessings in disguise.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. If you are someone going through any stressful events in life this book can be a great first step in a direction where you have a more positive out look on how to handle the grind of life. I've read and re-read this book twice now. Marking out things I've found important to myself personally and helpful to others. Overall an amazing read. Always recommend

IT literally changed my life, it created totally different mindset and I have the quotes from this book all over my office!

Firstly, this book is not about zen. I have studied Zen, eastern religion, and eastern metaphysics for years and this book misses the mark almost entirely.

Zen is not about labels, striving for happiness and avoiding sadness, It's not about using belief as a superpower.

There are several problems with this book, which I stopped reading after some 70 pages.

1. The idea that there is a seperate 'you' that can create thoughts and emotions and actions ex-nihilo, that can simply choose to be happy. Eastern religion is about recognizing the illusory nature of the self, and the deepest self being the 'whole works', not granting it godhood. The man goes on to state that there is no seperation in any of it, then goes on to state there there is a seperate 'you' acting as some sort of minature first cause.

2. The idea that we are free to choose our emotions. Your emotions are happenings, just like your thoughts are. If we were free to choose our emotions, noone would choose to be sad or angry.

3. The idea that if you 'wish for' and 'believe in' something that the universe will manifest it for you. This is "the secret". It's newage wishful thinking magic, and it is NOT zen.

4. The idea that everything that happens is good, is conflated with the idea that everything that happens is harmonious. His examples of bad things magically becoming good things involve rediculous outcomes, like the construction next door is actually a gift house for you, or you can get hit on the head by a rock and suddenly understand old obscure buddhist texts like the I Ching.

5. His endorsement of wholy' disproven medical interventions like acupuncture.

6. His blatant advertisement of his addiction center.

7. His idea that belief is powerful is a good idea. The problem is that we don't choose our beliefs. We do not choose what we are and are not convinced of. You can choose to ACT as if you believe something, and you can choose to PROFESS a belief in something, but if you believe it or not is not a choice.

8. The idea that the universe is based on continuation, and will always continue, and will always do what is neccessary to continue. The Second Law of thermodynmics, known as the law of entropy states exactly the opposite.

9. The idea that there are "laws of nature" that somehow exist and act as cosmic traffic cops somewhere out in the aether, is not even an eastern idea. That's completely western. The illusory nature of abstractions is not the super-realism of abstractions. Between the self illusion and this, he's completely misunderstood eastern metaphysics.

10. His conflation of metaphysics with supernatural.

11. I've run out of counter points, but Im sure there are more, because I only got about halfway through the book. If I had finished the book, this would be too long. I have taken a permanant maker and made a new title subtitle for it, "The secret" 'manifesting your reality through wishful thinking, with non-relevant zen quotes.'

If you are really interested in a self-improvement book based in an eastern worldview, I recommend 'the wisdom of insecurity' by alan watts. This half-baked book doesnt hold half a candle to it.

I didn't even mean to buy this book, I was trying to buy Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance, which is also much much better.

I enjoyed reading this book and found a lot of the ideas interesting. Some of the good ideas can be put to use to increase your happiness and make you a more optimistic person. You have to take some of the advice with a grain of salt. Some of his philosophy doesn't make sense to me or he doesn't explain why things are connected and these come off as giant assumptions with no basis. It's also a very literal.

Pros:
* Look for the good in everything, if you don't see good then have faith that it will benefit you later or in some way you don't understand.
* We can control our happiness and how we respond to events.
* There is a brief, but interesting scientific explanation about how being in a good mood makes it easier to be in a good mood.
* Problems should be viewed as challenges that we can 'workout' with to strengthen ourselves and grow our wisdom.
* Stress and anxiety come from imagining a bad outcome and we don't need to do this.

Cons:
* The author says the main reason every moment is to our benefit is because the universe wants to continue and we are apart of it, so it wants us to benefit.
* He speaks very literally and in absolutes. Every event benefits us. Some events seem to not have any benefit. Now just because something doesn't benefit to you doesn't mean you should react in a negative way, but some things are neutral or bad. For example, if I spill a drink on the carpet, I don't think this has some hidden benefit in the future. Should it cause me to be unhappy? No, but we don't have to 'pretend' it has a benefit.
* Title is misleading - there are small references to Zen, but the author seems to pull most of his philosophy from I Ching, which is an ancient chinese book, as well as a lot of other sources. And some of it it may just be his personal opinion.
* If you follow his philosophy, you'll start to have better luck/fate/fortunate. This has to do with the universe 'giving' you good things because it likes your attitude. He makes it seem like you have control over external factors, you don't and this is one of the big things where his philosophy actually conflicts with Buddhist teachings. We don't control things like the weather. You do have complete control over yourself and how you respond to events and how you perceive your reality. With these things, even though you don't have control over what happens, you can have control over your happiness. And the author does touch on this as well.
* Some of his philosophy is not in line with Buddhist beliefs. It's not about trying to be happy every moment, but experiencing everything as-is, rather not rejecting or grasping.

Remarks:
What he calls The Universe he notes some people refer to as God or something else. This is interesting and depending your belief system, you can align what he says with your own beliefs. In this sense, this book can be extremely useful to people of many different religions. The message could become "Have faith in God and trust in his will. Trust that he loves you and wants what is best for you in the end". A lot of people may find this more useful then his term "The Universe".

Regarding most of the Cons listed above, if you don't take what he says so literally, I think there is great potential for anyone to apply the ideas, become happier, and have a more positive attitude.