Books
Happiness Is an Inside Job
Publishers Weekly. From renowned Buddhist teacher Boorstein comes a small, polished gem of a book that seems somehow even more intimate and heartfelt than her previous books Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake and It's Easier Than You Think. Boorstein begins with an anecdote about a day when her writing was interrupted by a call from a friend with a very ill brother; the effort of consoling her made Boorstein forget what she had been about to write. Boorstein uses her moment of resentful impatience at the interruption to illustrate how easily the mind can fall out of caring connection. The whole idea of this book, she writes, is that "restoring caring connection... and maintaining it when it is present, is happiness." This insight is a jumping-off point for Boorstein to explore three planks of the Buddhist path: wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise concentration. Skillfully using story and humor, Boorstein shows that she is no saint and that her life is made up of the same moments of vulnerability, aversion, joy, pettiness, depression and humor as all of our lives are. Her quiet insistence that the Buddhist practices of mindfulness, meditation and metta (lovingkindness) can quiet the mind, deepen concentration and lower anxiety is ultimately both convincing and inspiring.
Reading this wonderful book is like having a heart-to-heart with Sylvia. It is wise, warm, and full of great stories that will make you smile. Best of all, it will cheer your spirit by showing you how to practice happiness.
- Jack Kornfield
Easy to read and smooth as silk, Sylvia Boorstein's lessons from a life of internal reflection and mindful teaching are delivered with such openness, love, and affection that it feels as if you are sitting with Sylvia in her living room soaking in the wisdom of an enlightened friend - wisdom that is also consistent with findings about how mindfulness changes the brain. I couldn't put this gem of a book down, grateful for the illumination and growth of the experience.
- Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.
Written by a well known and beloved teacher who leads a lively, balanced life as wife, mother and grandmother, this book reveals how Buddhist principles enable her to maintain her joy and tranquility in the fact of the inevitable sorrows and frustrations of our journey. A generous gifit to all of us to enjoy, to savor and to learn from
- Judith Wallerstein Ph.D.
This book will draw you in with its down-to-earth candor, marinate you in delightful stories of perplexity unveiled and dispelled, and convince you that your own happiness really is much more available to you than you may have thought. Rather than giving you recipes for how to meditate or cultivate happiness, Sylvia skillfully shares her inner and outer life with you and lovingly entrains your mind and heart into the real practice of meditation, which is always how you know and live your life right here and right now.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Happiness Is An Inside Job is a wonderful book, heartwarming and wise. It conveys the essence of what the Buddha taught in the voice of a gifted storyteller, teacher, friend, and compassionate human being.
- Sharon Salzberg
Happiness Is An Inside Job is Sylvia Boorstein in full voice. And what a voice it is!-- authentically infused with the kind of friendliness-toward-all-beings that is her specialty. Boorstein has always been a world-class story-teller. But the stories in Happiness are altogether at a new level, each one slicing laser-like to the heart of the dharma. I found myself talking back to this book repeatedly, saying, Yes! That's it! Exactly! as Sylvia portrayed precise moments of human difficulty, and the skillful application of dharma thereto. Through the cultivation of her own idiosyncratic voice, Boorstein touches the hem of the universal. Masterful. It should be required reading for all human beings
- Stephen Cope
With wonderful stories from her own life and with memorable phrases to keep in mind through difficult times, insight meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein, a self-proclaimed fretter and worryer by nature, demonstrates that all of us have the ability to become aware of our thought patterns, habits, and tendencies without being held hostage by them. She gently but firmly points out that it is our own contentiousness that stands in the way of personal happiness. By sharing with readers her own challenges and shortcomings, as well as the tools she uses to see through them, we clearly see the potential for a calmer, more mindful, and happier life. This is a truly delightful book filled with simple wisdom for the journey.
- Sarah Susanka
This refreshing book offers an honest, down-to-earth presentation of how mindfulness meditation actually works. Non-sectarian in its approach and animated by personal stories, Happiness Is An Inside Job will be of value to anyone who seeks to live in this world with greater self-awareness, sensitivity and kindness.
- Stephen Batchelor