Review of “Zen and the Art of Happiness” by Chris Prentiss;

The first line of this short read sums it all up: “There is only one way to achieve lasting happiness. That way is simply: Be happy.” The focus of the book is to address just how to achieve this task. We all would enjoy happiness all the time if it were easy to achieve; being happy all the time is an incredibly complex and difficult task. What it takes is practice, “if you are willing to give what you have read a chance to be true, you will do it.”

Although the title includes the word “zen”, the topic is not addressed in detail. The lessons are for someone who has not spent much time studying zen, or even meditating. This work falls in the same vein as much of the work of Alan Watts. Alan Watts great gift was explaining the complexities of philosophy; he helped people learn both western and eastern philosophies, but his work is concentrated on concepts like zen. Reading this book can help you to apply lessons of Zen, of Buddhism, or meditation, without spending much time learning the pillars that support them.

D.T. Suzuki, a Japanese scholar who helped Alan Watts along his way, wrote, “The Zen of doing anything is doing it with a particular concentration of mind, a calmness and simplicity of mind, that brings the experience of enlightenment and, through the experience, happiness….Done correctly, happiness is an inevitable end.”

Beliefs change the way that we experience our lives; this is a common thought in Zen. Consider a father and son who run a deli. This deli treats people with great generosity, going the extra mile, as it were, for their customers. The national economy, meanwhile, begins to falter, but you couldn’t tell at this deli. Every single person continues to be a regular customer, as no other shop around offered so much. But one day the son learns of the economy, and shares with his father how things are going to get bad. They plan to hunker down and ride out the downturn. They stopped giving away free chips, and scaled back the portions on sandwiches. Before long, many of their disappointed customers stopped returning.

Your beliefs matter too. If you get a speeding ticket, and you are operating with the belief that everyone gets tickets all the time, you will brush off the ticket. But if this is your second ticket in as many months, and the reality is that the average driver receives only one ticket every four years, then you may want to change your behavior. Your beliefs matter.

The nagging thought that plagued my brain throughout reading was, “that’s not how it works.” That is a belief, and not a factual one. I am not someone who is happy all the time, but I have not tried the lessons of this book in earnest. If these practitioners can make the claim that they are happy, then maybe they are. Maybe it’s just that easy. If nothing else, the stories are endearing to life, and the lessons can help you down the road towards a more mindful existence.

Check out Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss. There are higher levels of happiness that you can experience each and everyday; let this short book tell you the way to get there.