The Art of Happiness is a book by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, a psychiatrist who posed questions to the Dalai Lama. Cutler quotes the Dalai Lama at length, providing context and describing some details of the settings in which the interviews took place, as well as adding his own reflections on issues raised.
The book explores training the human outlook that alters perception. The concepts that the purpose of life is happiness, that happiness is determined more by the state of one’s mind than by one’s external conditions, circumstances, or events—at least once one’s basic survival needs are met and that happiness can be achieved through the systematic training of our hearts and minds.
In an interview with Bizjournals.com in 2013 Jeff Weiner mentioned the two books that have had the biggest influence on him. Number one is “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama. Jeff Weiner said: “that’s where I learned the true definition of compassion and the difference between compassion and empathy and how important it is to aspire to live compassionately and manage compassionately.”