Caveats about The Art of Happiness
Though the Dalai Lama has spent a great deal of time in the West, conversing
with Western experts and acquiring insight into Western science and culture,
he is the product of a very different culture. Even when he is saying something
that sounds relatively simple and straightforward, we need to bear in mind
that the English terms he uses may be rather loose translations of the
Tibetan terms in which he thinks. At some points in the book this is clear,
as when Cutler relates the fact that there is no Tibetan word that precisely
corresponds to the English word guilt. At other times the cultural
problems are in the background, as for example when the Dalai Lama is totally
unfamiliar with the idea of self-hatred. Possibly this exposes a hole in
the Dalai Lama's experience, but it is also possible that it exposes a
deep and subtle difference between the ways that the Dalai Lama and Western
psychologists use the word self. In general, I recommend giving
the Dalai Lama the benefit of the doubt. If something he says seems like
obvious nonsense to you, consider the possibility that he is using these
words very differently than you would use them.