The secrets of happiness
Subtitle: three thousand years of searching for the good life
By: Richard Schoch
Edition: 1st Scribner ed.
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9780743292924; 9780743292931
Subjects: Lebensführung; Glück; Happiness; History
Description: Richard Schoch shows readers how they can enrich their lives by recovering the ancient philosophical and religious traditions of happiness--and then putting them to work in their own lives today. In a journey across cultures and centuries--from the trials of Job to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and from Buddha's Four Noble Truths to the ecstasy of medieval Sufi mystics--Schoch answers questions that, although fundamental to our well-being, are rarely asked: What kind of effort does it take to be happy? Do you have a right to be happy? Can you be happy if others are unhappy?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-231) and index.
Table of contents: title: Living for pleasure. The greatest happiness (the Utilitarians) ; Pleasure is good (the Epicureans); title: Conquering desire. Get busy with your works (Hinduism) ; The Enlightened One (Buddhism); title: Transcending reason. Only in heaven (Christianity) ; The alchemy of happiness (Islam); title: Enduring suffering. It's all in your mind (The Stoics) ; The hidden face of God (Judaism).