The Art of Happiness

In the book “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, the Dalai Lama expresses his point of view about inner transformation and how religion plays an important role in life. He considers that the purpose of life is to seek happiness. This is probably the main reason why we created religion. The Dalai Lama believes that the purpose of religion is to give inner peace and strength to an individual. Also, he thinks that having a wide variety of religions is beneficial to humanity because all of us have different mental disposition, natural inclination, temperament, beliefs and cultural backgrounds. The Dalai Lama recommends to each individual to embark upon a spiritual path that best satisfies these unique characteristics. I agree with the Dalai lama when he suggests us to embark upon a spiritual path because we can develop qualities that are beneficial to us in our pursuit of happiness. According to the Dalai Lama, there are two levels of spirituality. The first level has to do with our religious beliefs. This level includes those human beings who practice a religion. He suggests integrating religious teachings into one’s life so we can use them as a source of inner strength. The second level, which is called basic spirituality, includes those who do not necessarily practices a religion or have any religious beliefs but have the following basic and unique qualities: compassion, kindness, goodness and caring. The Dalai Lama is convinced that this second level of spirituality is more important than the first one because these spiritual qualities connect everybody, and the practice of these has greater impact on others than only understanding these qualities in theory.
I agree with the Dalai Lama when he talks about the second level of spirituality and how this level has more importance than the first level because not everyone who practices a religion uses the knowledge learned to help others. I have seen close friends going to church every Sunday, but the rest of the week they do not even care about God or do any charity or good actions for other members of their families.