If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered why chasing external success often leaves us feeling empty, and where the true source of lasting joy actually hides?
- What if you could transform your relationship with stress and social media fatigue using a simple mental shift practiced by monks for centuries?
- Are you curious about how to find a 'sanctuary' within your own mind that remains peaceful no matter how chaotic the world around you becomes?
Listen to A Monk's Guide to Happiness — Free Audiobook
Loading player...
Key Takeaways from A Monk's Guide to Happiness
- Learn how to develop on-demand happiness like a superpower by training your mind to find peace and keep cool under any pressure.
- Discover the three core components of true happiness: feeling a sense of fullness, staying anchored in the present moment, and experiencing freedom from negative emotions.
- Understand why seeking happiness outside of yourself creates a never-ending loop of desire and puts your well-being at the mercy of uncontrollable forces.
- Recognize how modern culture, social media, and sensory overload trick you into feeling incomplete and turn you into an addict constantly craving the next hit of pleasure.
- Master the ability to break free from the trap of insatiable desire by realizing that external sources of pleasure are temporary and true contentment must be generated from within.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from A Monk's Guide to Happiness
Mind Map
A Monk's Guide to Happiness
The Nature of Happiness
Fullness
Presentness
Freedom
The Root of Unhappiness
Incompleteness
External Seeking
Grasping & Pushing
The Trap of Modern Culture
Toxic Messaging
Sensory Overload
Impermanence
Meditation as Mental Training
True Purpose
The Method
Redefining Failure
Realism
Everyday Mindfulness
Mindful Moments
Micro-Moments
Reframing Annoyances
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 8
According to the book, what are the three main components that make up the feeling of happiness?
A Monk's Guide to Happiness — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Happiness is a sense of wholeness and freedom in the present moment.
Chapter 3: Unhappiness includes a feeling of incompleteness, arising from desire and seeking happiness outside ourselves in life.
Chapter 4: Modern culture worsens the problem of endless desire and our sense of lack.
Chapter 5: When we seek happiness outside ourselves, we’re bound for unhappiness eventually.
Chapter 6: Unhappiness ultimately comes from trying to grasp and repel our inner experiences.
Chapter 7: To sidestep the traps of grasping and pushing away, we must develop the skill of neutral observation in our experience.
Chapter 8: By practicing mindfulness in daily situations, we can make it habitual for life.
Chapter 9: Be aware of how you practice mindfulness meditation.
A Monk's Guide to Happiness Summary & Overview
A Monk’s Guide to Happiness (2019) provides readers with a philosophically insightful and practically useful manual on how to break free of suffering and achieve inner peace. Drawing from the author’s 25 years of training at Buddhist monasteries and intensive meditation retreats, the book distills more than two decades of hard-won wisdom.
Who Should Listen to A Monk's Guide to Happiness?
- People who are sick and tired of the rat race
- Social media users feeling exhausted by their Facebook and Instagram feeds
- Anyone wondering what the mindfulness fuss is all about
Books Similar to A Monk's Guide to Happiness
Readers who enjoyed this also liked these titles.
