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Zen and the Art of Happiness Deluxe Gift Edition Hardcover – Illustrated, September 1, 2008

by Chris Prentiss (Author)

4.6 1,816 ratings

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Cutting-edge science and spirituality tell us that what we believe, think, and feel actually determine the makeup of our body at the cellular level. In Zen and the Art of Happiness, you will learn how to think and feel so that what you think and feel creates happiness and vibrancy in your life rather than gloominess or depression.

You'll learn how to adapt to life's inevitable changes, how to deal with stress in a healthy way, and how to nurture a mindful happiness in your daily life. Most importantly, the gentle wisdom of Zen and the Art of Happiness will show you how to invite magnificent experiences into your life and create a personal philosophy that will sustain you through anything. A timeless work about the art of happiness, the way of happiness, the inner game of happiness. This popular work has been published in more than 20 countries around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A charming book.... Shows readers, with humor and zest, how to live in the now and change our futures." ―Library Journal

"Zen and the Art of Happiness is enthusiastically recommended and user friendly reading for anyone seeking to enhance their spirituality, deal with life's stresses, and improve their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being." ―Midwest Book Review

"This wonderful little book shows that we can overcome the obstacles to happiness. It’s for those who want and need change in expectations, habits, and outlook. Chris Prentiss teaches us how, with a joie de vivre that obviously comes from experience. Use his practical wisdom to get in the habit of being happy every day. Put this book by your bedside and the Zen of happiness can be yours." ―ReverseSpins.com

About the Author

Chris Prentiss is the cofounder and codirector of the Passages Substance Abuse Treatment Center, located in Malibu, California, and the author of The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery. He has also written a dozen books on Chinese philosophy and personal growth. He is known worldwide for his interpretations of the I Ching that make this ancient and sometimes difficult-to-understand subject easy to use and apply. Prentiss has led personal empowerment workshops in southern California and has written, produced, and directed a feature film.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 2.

We Are the Authors
of Every Next Moment.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
It is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
-the Dhammapada

What has gone before in your life has most probably convinced you, first, that the statement "Everything that happens to me is the best possible thing that can happen to me" is not true and cannot be true and, second, that a book based in part on that premise is not going to do you much good. It may seem futile to even attempt to put that to the test.
But this is a new day. We have begun a new century and a new millennium, and you may discover in reading this book that it is your time to take on a new belief that will bless your life from this time onward.

We are the authors of every next moment.

We are powerful beings, creating our futures with our thoughts and actions. We are the mechanism by which life is controlled, and we control the events in our life by our personal philosophy, which determines how we respond to those events.
Each of us has a personal philosophy, but few of us have defined what it is. Although you may have never sat down and defined what your philosophy is, it is fully operative and working in your life at all times. It deals with what you believe about the world in which you live, about its people and events, about how events and circumstances affect you, and about how you affect them.
If you were asked about your philosophy of life in general, you might say, "Life is great, good things happen to me, I'm a lucky person, and I believe the world is a wonderful place with wonderful people in it." Or you might say just the opposite: "I'm unlucky, bad things happen to me, the world isn't a very nice place, people take advantage of me, and they're just out for what they can get." You might believe in Murphy's law-"If anything can go wrong, it will."
Many people say that bad accidents happen, that unfairness is not only possible but likely. They say that real happiness is hard to come by and usually short-lived, that we come into the world, live, and die and what we experience in between is mostly
a struggle and a continual compromise between what we want and what we get.
Because that is what people have generally believed, their actions have been based on that belief and, as a result of natural law, they have brought about that end. Then they have said, "I told you so."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Power Press (September 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 094301557X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0943015576
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.5 x 0.38 x 7.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #230,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #162 in Zen Philosophy (Books)
- #223 in Zen Spirituality
- #2,762 in Happiness Self-Help

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4.6 1,816 ratings

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Chris Prentiss

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Chris Prentiss is the author of several popular works on personal growth, including "Zen and the Art of Happiness," "The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure," "Be Who You Want, Have What You Want," "The Little Book of Secrets," "The I Ching: The Book of Answers," and others books on Chinese philosophy and personal growth. He is the cofounder and codirector of the world-renowned Passages Addiction Cure Centers. He has also written, produced, and directed a feature film.

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Jim Martin

Z-E-N: Maybe there is still hope for us all ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2011

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Hats off to the author! It's so wonderful to discover that there are still people in the world who have a positive outlook on life and a friendly heart towards others. Where can you start with this book? For such a small volume, there are so many valuable lessons entailed. NOTE: Many of the principles listed here are common sense; however we as human beings choose not to listen. What a refreshing take on life itself and how we are supposed to behave.

This is a precious read, and it has stimulated me to look for more books in this specific genre I like to define as: a short read, very valuable lessons, and most importantly, awe inspiring to live a better life by not only helping ourselves, but to be compassionate and thoughtful to others as well. Bravo...

As I normally do, I will list a few highlights:

Everything that happens to you is the best thing that can occur. Sometimes a bad event can turn out to be the best thing that ever happened. Furthermore, there is no use lamenting over anything. If all things that transpire are good in some way, then simply allow the good to flow from these particular events. If you change your thoughts, you can ultimately alter your outcome, because your attitude is of the utmost importance. Be sure not to surround yourself with people who can & will poison your mind.

Everything comes at the appointed time. Events are simply events, nothing more. However your response to the situation will determine whether you will be happy or unhappy. In the end, we make the decision of how we will react to an individual event. This is what shapes our life... The Universe doesn't make mistakes, so appreciate all things.

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, none can help you as much. What you think, and how you feel will directly affect your body in some way, whether positive or negative. How you think and what you say to yourself and others are extremely vital, for this triggers your entire being to respond in that fashion. Be very careful...

Unhappiness can become a habit as it does with most people whether they know it or not. Each incident in life offers only 2 choices: you can curse it, OR call it good fortune. Of those 2, only 1 will bring happiness. Easy enough?

12 people found this helpful

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gol.dengoddess

Reinvigorating

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024

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I found this book through a recommendation from my favorite tattoo artist at a hard time in my life.
It is such a good, easy read for someone who hasn’t gotten on that bicycle in quite some time. I love it and recommend it to everyone going forward.

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Hedgehog M

This book changed my life

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2022

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I have had a tough upbringing and I have been living in the past, resentful of things that has happened to me. After reading this book, I had a moment of enlightenment. I started to see things, feel things and allowed myself to be open, vulnerable and loved. I have completely turned my life around after that because my attitude has changed towards the world and life in general. I have then met my husband, and built myself a career and helping more people achieving their goals in life. I can’t thank the author enough. This book saved my life.

6 people found this helpful

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Tripp Adams

Amazing read

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024

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I absolutely love this book! Buying it for my kids and friends. I always thought I was a positive person but I have a ways to go.

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Elena Fomina

Excellent Book, a Few Arguable Points

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2010

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Upon the appearance of this book in my mailbox and my opening the package, I almost regretted purchasing it: the book was very small, the font was large and "non serious book"-like, and generally it looked like one of those cheap newsstand reads.

However, the book proved to be well written and valuable. It is saturated with great ideas on how to handle one's life, and, most importantly, how to approach the challenges and all the misfortunes of various degrees of importance that inevitably pepper the life of every person. The main idea of the book, derived by the author from various sources of Chinese and Buddhist philosophy and his own life experience, is that there is no such thing as misfortune, that everything that happens to us actually happens to our outmost benefit, even if we don't see how that could be possible when we find ourselves in pain - whether it's moral/emotional or physical, or both. It sounds clichéd, but the way the author presents the idea and the contexts he employs to buttress it, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Generally I felt that the author found a nice balance of keeping the commercial, sales-generating nature of the book, on one hand, and enduing it with some practically and philosophically valuable content, on the other. Another great aspect of the book is that the author references numerous ancient and contemporary thinkers and scientists and their works - from Dogen to a fascinating research of a 20th century scientist titled the Molecules of Emotion - something that can prove useful if a reader becomes interested in going further in the pursuit of the ideas presented or outlined by the author.

I personally am not convinced that everything happens for the better as there are simply too many horrible things that happen in the world at any second. While giving several examples of how the most "seemingly" utterly unfortunate occurrences actually benefited those who had suffered them (such as the author's head injury, which resulted in subsequent revelation-like understanding of the secrets of I Ching). The author, however, blissfully chooses to ignore such occurrences as natural disasters, wars, diseases, murders, etc.; he completely forsakes making an attempt to explain how any of them could be beneficial. He only "gets to them" toward the very end of the book, brushing upon them extremely briefly, more out of the sense of obligation and not wanting to be accused of selective approach to choosing his examples. I feel that there are way too many things that are simply too disturbing and unjust for us to even get the nerve to label them as "beneficial". If only in a cosmic scheme of things, but one would have to be really detached and "philosophical" about everything in this life to consider that scheme when observing an instance of an extreme human or natural injustice. Of course, the is an eternal question of if there is even such a thing as good or bad, and many philosophical schools refuse to label an event as good or bad outside of our perception of it, no matter how disturbing and unjust the event might be, maintaining the "cognitive" approach whose essense is that initially any event lacks any kind of connotation and characteristic (as good or bad), and that it's our perception that makes it such. If you think about this approach objectively and "philosophically", it makes perfect sense. To illustrate the idea, the author of the book being reviewed gives an example of a sports event: whichever team wins/loses makes their fans/"haters" very happy/very sad respectively, so it's not the event itself that is "happy" or "unhappy" in itself, but how a human mind perceives it. But really, how do you go about wars and diseases? It's probably comprehendible that even those events are neither good nor bad as they are, but who on earth would want to interpret them as lacking any type of characteristic if in our emotional/spiritual and physical perception they are pure evil and tragedy?
However, it is a very good point that to a great extent, happiness, just like beauty, is "in the eye and the hands of the beholder" and it comes from within. This definition of happiness is the pillar around which many philosophical schools are built. Again and again I find this to be true. One can't depend his happiness largely upon the external, simply because most things external (wealth, fame, passions, etc.) are fickle in nature and are "subject to change" (often "without notice"); thus, if one has entrusted the external with their emotional consortium, he automatically becomes its dependant and subscribes to risking his happiness when the external changes. I do believe, however, that there is a great extent to which the external influences our happiness, and stating otherwise would border on demagoguery, devoid of any empirical and emotional content, and a lot of things (the well-being of those we love, for one) naturally are a part of our happiness; but the idea that we should have a good grip on our emotions and thoughts is invaluable. Our thoughts and emotions - our inner life - is the smallest kingdom, if set against the backdrop of the government, social groups, or any other molecule that involves the participation of the human element; yet nothing can empower a person as much and give a person as much freedom and balance as obtaining the dominion over this seemingly smallest of kingdoms. To a great extent, this is the summum bonum of human existence.

Another fascinating thing about this book as well as other books on philosophy (such as the ones that deal with Stoic philosophy, for instance) is how the connection between philosophy and psychology becomes apparent. The author of the book, Chris Prentiss, sites the passage from The Dhammapada in the beginning of one of the chapters of the book, which (from what limited knowledge of the subject I possess) presents the essence of the commonly used in the field of psychology Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:

Your worst enemy cannot harm you
As much as your own thoughts, unguarded,
But once mastered,
No one can help you as much.

This book is a great read. A lot of the ideas laid out in it make perfect sense. However, as the author points out, it's not enough to just read this book to actually benefit from it: one should make a conscious effort to actually employ the ideas in his life to see the benefits.

7 people found this helpful

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karthik sagar

A gold for your mind

Reviewed in India on May 28, 2020

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It's an excellent book for your mind and heart .Just believe in the words and follow .full hearted applications can make a world of good .if you have a dent in your past this book can set you free

Rachael

... realizing it was used but the book came in PERFECT shape. Also the whole idea of this book ...

Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2018

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I bought this book not realizing it was used but the book came in PERFECT shape. Also the whole idea of this book being used is very cool to me, especially considering the contents of this book. I get to see other peoples notes throughout the book and which parts spoke to them. Very happy with my purchase :)
Thank you!!!

Cheryl

Found

Reviewed in Australia on June 8, 2020

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Always searching for a true and simple explanation. This book has it. I would like to give everyone in my life this amazing book to read. You cannot go wrong with this one.

Julie

Beautiful read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2015

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I loved every chapter. Perfect read for anyone who has been through hard times and is on a new journey in life. Enlightenment and positive thinking have helped me so much and I am now a really happy person. Regret nothing that happens to you, it builds character and makes you stronger. It may seem like all is lost at the time but what happens to us in life is meant to happen. I went through a tough time 2 years ago, I don't get upset about it at all, I see now it was meant to happen and I saw those that hurt me for who they were. It led to me being the happy person I am today. It opened my eyes to the life I was living, and it was no good for me. This book talks about all of these things and it was a huge comfort to me.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Wonderful teachings on happiness

Reviewed in India on May 23, 2021

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Excellent read with all the wonderful teachings of how to be happy through knowing the true essence of happiness.. amazing

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