A Fool's Guide to Actual Happiness

Starred review from May 28, 2018
Van Buren (Your Life Is Meditation) lays out a concise but informative crash course on finding happiness through Buddhist concepts and practices in this powerful book. In the first section, he takes up Buddhist teachings such as the three marks of existence (impermanence, suffering, and non-self) to call into question the belief that happiness comes through spiritual or material self-improvement. He then guides readers into an investigation of the conditionality of happiness and suffering, writing that actual happiness is contentment. The second section presents various kinds of practices to help readers settle into and accept the present moment: mindfulness, sitting meditation, tonglen and metta meditations, shenpa practice, cultivation of compassion, and more. The final section contains advice to support practice, including how to find inspiration, discover one’s sense of humor, and handle a formal meditation retreat. Throughout the book, Van Buren regularly reminds readers that it is acceptable to be a foolish person so long as one is cultivating awareness, taking steps to avoid hurting oneself and others, and being exactly oneself to the fullest extent. Although he treads familiar ground, Van Buren proves himself to be a shrewd synthesizer of Buddhist principles for newcomers and novices on the path toward mindful living.