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Sunday, March 7, 2004 |
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Sunday, March 7, 2004 |
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The Art of Happiness at Work
The Dalai Lama discusses with him the question of happiness at work from the standpoint of the employees, and shows how they can draw more satisfaction from work through their own efforts, by changing their outlook and increasing their self-understanding. But the employer and the management, who can influence the happiness of the employees, have been left out of the discussion. Dr Cutler promises to cover this aspect in a subsequent effort. The book takes the reader to the reasoning of the Dalai Lama and shows how it can be applied to day-to-day life. In his quiet for happiness at work, Dr Cutler asks the Tibetan leader questions about how to cope with dissatisfaction at work, how the relationship between your values and those of your employer affect your happiness, how to cope with conflicts with your co-workers and your bosses and several other questions that have a bearing on happiness at the place of work. In the process, the Dalai Lama seems to listen more than he speaks but he does show how his wisdom can be applied to situations in your day-to-day life. The book starts with a discussion on human happiness, but fearing that the vast subject might take several looks, Dr Cutler steers the conversation to the activity that consumes most of our waking hours: work. Dissatisfaction at work is the most common complaint of working persons, and very often this dissatisfaction spills over to their homes. The Dalai Lama reminds you that if you can change some of the external conditions that contribute to your dissatisfaction, you should do that. If not, then it is still possible to be happy at your place of work by reshaping your attitude and outlook through inner training. You cannot always separate the sweet from the sour. Life will always have some good things but also some problems you do not like, such as troublesome and backstabbing colleagues and overbearing superiors. To deal with them, he advises development of a wider perspective. A particular person’s behaviour may be due to causes unrelated to the workplace, maybe his problems at home. Patience will help, but that does not mean that you should passively allow yourself or others to be harmed. Instead of harbouring a feeling of fear, envy, or hostility towards them, think of them as human beings worthy of your occasions. If these challenging situations are treated as opportunities to practise human qualities such as compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness, the workplace will lose much of its tension. In a joke at his own expense, the Dalai Lama laughs that he is not sure if placed in such a situation, he would himself be able to follow his own advice. The Dalai Lama accepts that the salary or pay one draws is a measure of how much one is valued by the employer. It is also linked with one’s own sense of self-worth. Thus while money happens to be the prime motivation for work, the problem arises when making money becomes an end in itself. Then the person becomes a slave to money. Contentment, the Dalai Lama says, is the answer. One must learn to say, "that is enough for me." And such contentment is the key to his recipes for tensions arising from differences over values and the resultant dissatisfaction. At the end, there are stabilising meditation exercises that can enable a person to overcome problems of an unfocused and undisciplined mental state. The book brings to us the Dalai Lama’s rationale and wisdom, but how much an ordinary person is able to put this wisdom to practice is the question. But it can surely be a source of inner strength to anyone who sincerely follows his advice. |
THIS book has emerged from a series of conversations
Dr Howard Cutler had with the Dalai Lama on different occasions. It is
in fact a sequel to his earlier work, The Art of Happiness: A
Handbook for Living, which contains the Dalai Lama’s message on
happiness and which had proved a best seller. In this book, Dr Cutler,
together with the Tibetan spiritual leader, explores ways to finding the
ultimate happiness at work.