Happiness and the Art of Being: An introduction to the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana (Second Edition)

by Michael James

Book Overview

Happiness is our true nature, our essential being. The transient happiness that we seem to derive from external experiences actually arises only from within ourself, and is experienced by us due to the temporary calming of our mind that occurs whenever any of our desires are fulfilled. So long as our mind is extroverted, attending to anything other than our own essential self-conscious being, we can never experience perfect, permanent and unqualified...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1475111576
• ISBN13: 9781475111576
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 502 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The art and science of "being"

I'm loving this book. I read the introduction and last chapter and am now re-reading a page-a-day and making notes. If your intention is to just "be", author Michael James analyzes everything Bhagavan Sri Ramana (an adept at existence) ever said, wrote or did, repeating over and over in every conceivable way, that happiness IS our essential being. To attain true and eternal happiness, we must attain the experience of true SELF-KNOWLEDGE--absolutely clear consciousness of our own essential being.

From the source ...

Based on what i read from the website http://www.happinessofbeing.com about this book, I immediately ordered and have begun reading it. I'm very much attracted to this book due to the science/practicality of how to know one's Self and that is enough for me. My recommendation? Check the site first and if you're open minded enough to understand and accept what is there, you will not have a second thought to invest in this book. And if you want to quickly get started, get this book first: THE MOST DIRECT AND RAPID MEANS TO ETERNAL BLISS - Michael Langford Thanks Michael James!

Very helpful, very clear

When I finished this book I started re-reading it the same week; the last book that did that to me was "I Am That". This is a very thick book about very deep (as in deep inside you) ideas. The author takes Ramana Maharshi's teachings as written by Sri Ramana in the orginal Tamil, and systematically (and sometimes a little repetitively) explains. I had read "Be as you are", "Garland of Guru's teachings" (by a different translator), "40 verses on Reality", "Day by day", etc, and this book really and finally tied it all together for me. The quality of the translation makes a big difference. If you are interested in understanding Ramana Maharshi, I recommend reading this book and going to the author's website (where this book is available as a PDF).

Excellent resource on Advaita Vedanta as explained by Bhagavan

I was blown away by David Godman's "Be as you are". It provided all the answers to the basics on man's apparent problems & solutions. However I could not find a single book that explained all the nitty, gritty of Advaita Vedanta direct from a master like Sri Nisargatta. They were all scattered in a zillion books on Sri Ramana & other Saints from India. Michael James has done an excellent job of consolidating all the relevant teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana in his magnum opus must have book for a spiritual aspirant at any stage of his apparent journey.