The Spirit of Happiness: Discovering God's Purpose for Your Life
304
The Spirit of Happiness: Discovering God's Purpose for Your Life
304Paperback
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Overview
In his authentic and profound book The Spirit of Happiness, Dr. T. Byram Karasu explores the psychological barriers that prevent so many of us from allowing faith to become an integral part of our lives and from becoming truly serene and fulfilled human beings.
We all experience many difficulties and conflicts in our daily lives, meeting challenges at work and in relationships, suffering through illness, losses, and failures, feeling anxious, depressed, or simply empty and purposeless. If we view such ordeals through the wisdom of the Holy Bible, which Dr. Karasu presents to us here as the ultimate self-help book, we can learn to understand and identify with God's Holy Purpose. Psycho-spiritual exercises, including meditations and affirmations based on God's word, are placed at the end of each chapter to help focus the reader's spiritual intention and lead the way to a more joyful and rewarding existence.
Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Spirit of Happiness begins where most self-help books end.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781416598725 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 04/14/2008 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
The Bible on My Mind: Chapter and Verse
...eternal purpose...is filled with all fullness of God.Eph. 3:11, 19 (NIV)
I have practiced psychiatry for the last thirty-five years. I have written many articles and books about psychological care and sought out factors that might help people to be happy. I've studied the works of many psychologists and philosophers, and I have read the popular books that explore sources of happiness and the meaning of life. They deliver advice on self-actualization, success at work, relationships, marriage, world views, and philosophies of living. The proliferation of these "self-ultimacy" books validates my conviction that the answer to the human dilemma can't be found in the realm of the mind. The works of secular gurus demonstrate again and again that making the mind of man its own center generates only personal confusion, unhappiness, and communal disorders.
In my book The Art of Serenity, I identified six tenets of soulfulness and spirituality as the basic requirements for happiness: The Love of Others, The Love of Work, The Love of Belonging, Believing in the Sacred, Believing in Unity, and Believing in Transformation. I emphasized that a secular person may cultivate these extraordinary tenets, but it will be difficult to maintain them without divine inspiration.
This book begins where The Art of Serenity ended, with the belief in and the love of God. This book will guide you to the next and final step: to become godly.
To believe — to have faith — in God means trusting that there is a reason for the existence of everything in this world and beyond, and that there is meaning in its mystery. It means believing that there is a Holy Purpose. To be godly means to resonate with God's Holy Purpose, to bring all your personal and mundane purposes under its umbrella. If you not only have faith, but also become godly, you'll be a recipient of God's help, friendship, and boundless generosity in every aspect of your life.
In this book I use the Bible as the only source of reference. Throughout the centuries, men of wisdom have praised the Bible's guidance for truthful living; its cheerful urgings of love and compassion; its eternal lessons of serenity amidst the tribulations and adversities of the world; its tender teachings of the mysteries of life. As Heinrich Heine says in Ludwig Boerne (1840), "Great and wide as the world, rooted in the abysmal depths of creation and rising aloft into the blue mysteries of heaven...sunrise and sunset, promise and fulfillment, birth and death, the whole human drama, everything is in this book. It is the Book of Books, Biblia."
I am not a man of the cloth, merely a student of the human dilemma. Any theologian who reads this book will easily see the hand of a layman at work and I hope will forgive any of my shortcomings. With that proviso, I will present how you can find God's Holy Purpose and become godly. I will describe what godliness means in all aspects of your life, ranging from your career to relationships with your spouse, children, friends, and colleagues, and even strangers.
Only by being godly can you be strong and successful, find joy and happiness, and live an extraordinarily meaningful existence while leading an ordinary life.
Copyright © 2006 by T. Byram Karasu
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
The Bible on my mind: Chapter and Verse
Chapter I: God's Holy Purpose
Chapter II: Man's holy purpose is striving to be godly
Chapter III: Striving for godly success
Chapter IV: Striving for godly strength
Chapter V: Striving for a godly marriage
Chapter VI: Striving for a godly family
Chapter VII: Striving for godly friendships
Chapter VIII: Striving for a godly community
Chapter IX: Striving for godly harmony
Epilogue: I believe in God, therefore I am
Key to Biblical Abbreviations
Citations for Chapter-Opening Quotations
What People are Saying About This
"...I am grateful to you for sharing your wonderful work with me and instilling in me 'the spirit of happiness' we all so desperately seek. God bless you."
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
Founder and Chairman
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
Author of the highly-acclaimed The Journey Home
"Like his earlier books, The Spirit of Happiness reveals Dr. T. Byram Karasu's experience, wisdom, and vision. Spiritual writing is a genre full of extravagance, usually having more gush than intelligence. Dr. Karasu is a remarkable exception. I always look forward to a new book from him. This new book offers a spiritual take on the arc of a life. It begins with the understanding that nothing we do in our ordinary lives can be successful if we are not in tune with the large movement of life or the holy purpose. I recommend this new book to the ordinary reader for personal guidance and inspiration, and to the professional trying to find his or her way through the dense woods of spiritual writing."
Thomas Moore
Author of Care of the Soul and Original Self
"A masterful work! In The Spirit of Happiness, Dr. Karasu continues his reflective journey toward the spiritual enlightenment he so eloquently began in his previous book, The Art of Serenity. This companion volume is an even more courageous foray into the realm of the most fundamental and complex issues we all face: how are we to find meaning and purpose in life, and what does it take to make life joyful? The Spirit of Happiness is a profoundly original book, executed with remarkable wit and skill. It is an outstanding contribution to the field of spirituality and an invaluable guide for the seeker in all of us."
Deepak Chopra
Author of How to Know God
"Picking up where his wonderful book, The Art of Serenity, left off, in The Spirit of Happiness Dr. Karasu offers a profound and inspiring exploration of the link between faith and happiness. Addressed to those who share a basic belief in God, the book is rich in practical wisdom and clear guidelines to help integrate that belief into the fabric of daily life. The Spirit of Happiness is a powerfully written work in which Dr. Karasu seeks to help the reader find meaning and purpose, to build stronger relationships, families and communities, and ultimately to find happiness and clarity in our complex and often confusing world."
Howard C. Cutler, M.D.
Co-author, with the Dalai Lama, of
The Art of Happiness and
The Art of Happiness at Work