The Essence Of Happiness Chapter Summary

Dawn completed reading the last three sections of the book, The Essence of Happiness, A Guidebook for Living, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. Dawn felt that she could really relate to the entire book because it was about changing one’s perception in regards to certain situations and circumstances of our lives and living our life to the fullest.
Section three, Transforming Suffering, “There are many ways in which we actively contribute to our own experience of mental unrest and suffering. Although, in general, afflictive emotions can come naturally, often it is our own reinforcement of those negative emotions that make things so much worse. For instance, when we have anger or hatred toward a person, if we think about the injustices done to us, the ways that we have been unfairly treated, and keep thinking about it over and over, it feed our hatred. Through this constant familiarity

We need to actively cultivate the antidotes to them. Patience and tolerance…. Someone who gains victory over hatred and anger through such arduous process is a true hero”. (Pg. 162). Over the years, Dawn has learned that alcoholism is a disease. Just as diabetes, HIV, and other illnesses are diseases. Once she realized this her “attitude” had shifted. She had become less hateful and less angry. She wasn’t going to let this very unfortunate tragedy consume her for the rest of her adult life.
Consequently, she became involved with Mother Against Drunk Driving and became a volunteer speaker for high schools and colleges. Explaining to teens and adults the effects of drunk driving from a “victims” viewpoint and this helped her a great deal, most importantly, she learned forgiveness. She wrote a letter to the person that killed her father, in this letter she told him that she forgave him, but she would never forget what he had done to herself, and her entire