Summary

The authors’ intricate study of joy begins on a plane to Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu were scheduled to spend a week together discussing how to change joy from a fleeting emotion to a permanent state of being. Douglas Abrams, the writer tasked with documenting the historic meeting, begins his journey airborne with Tutu, where the Archbishop gave his first lesson on joy: “as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard” (12). Abrams follows with a description of the postcard backdrop of Dharamsala’s snow covered-mountains, which have not always been as welcoming in the past. As if by divine intervention, “today the sky was blue, the wisps of clouds held at bay by the mountains” as the men made their...