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Happiness and the Art of Being
- Introduction
- The Contents of Happiness and the Art of Being
- Printed Versions of Happiness and the Art of Being
- E-Book Version for Free Download
- Spanish Translation
- Czech Translation
- French Translation
Introduction
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 happiness. To experience true and eternal
happiness, we must attain the experience of true self-knowledge – that is, absolutely clear consciousness of our own essential being, ‘I am’. Such is the truth
revealed by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
The philosophy of Sri Ramana derives solely from his experience of true, absolute, non-dual self-knowledge, an experience that transcends all thought, both rational and
irrational. However, since we imagine the existence of duality, multiplicity and relativity, we seem to lack the non-dual and absolute knowledge of our own essential
self-conscious being that Sri Ramana experienced as his natural state. Therefore he presented his philosophy to us in terms of a rational and logical analysis of our present
experience of ourself as a finite individual consciousness, in order to enable us to be firmly convinced of the absolute reality that underlies this finite consciousness that we
now mistake to be ourself.
However, the spiritual teachings of Sri Ramana are not only a rational philosophy, but are also a precise science and art. He intended his philosophy to serve only as
the theoretical foundation upon which we should practice the empirical science of self-investigation, which is the art of keenly self-attentive and therefore perfectly
thought-free being.
This book, Happiness and the Art of Being, is an in-depth exploration of both the philosophy and the practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
Though it is intended primarily to be a layman’s introduction to his teachings, it is not a brief one, because in a clear and simple manner it provides a very detailed and
deep insight into the core of his teachings. Therefore though it has been written with the intention that it should be easily understood even by readers who have no
previous acquaintance with any form of spiritual philosophy, it should also be useful to readers who already have a good understanding of his teachings.
Like the aim of the teachings that Sri Ramana has given us, the aim of this book is to prompt each one of us to think more deeply about the reality of all that we as a
seemingly limited individual consciousness experience and know, to help us to understand that the only absolute reality in our entire experience of duality and relativity
is our fundamental consciousness of our own essential being, ‘I am’, and thereby to reinforce our love and effort to attend keenly and exclusively to this essential
self-consciousness ‘I am’ in order to discover its true nature.
The author of this book, Michael James, spent more than eight years studying
the original Tamil writings of Sri Ramana and of his foremost disciple, Sri Muruganar, in minute detail under the clear guidance of another close disciple, Sri Sadhu Om, and
since the passing away of Sri Sadhu Om in 1985 he has continued to study and practise the spiritual path revealed by Sri Ramana.
Therefore the central focus of this book is on the teachings of Sri Ramana as expressed in his own original writings, and hence it contains accurate and carefully worded
translations by the author of the whole of Sri Ramana’s prose treatise Nan Yar?
(Who am I?) and of most of the verses of his philosophical poems such as
Upadesa Undiyar,
Ulladu Narpadu,
Ekatma Panchakam,
Anma-Viddai and
Upadesa Tanippakkal.
The Contents of Happiness and the Art of Being
The contents of Happiness and the Art of Being include an introduction and the following ten chapters:
- What is Happiness?
- Who am I?
- The Nature of Our Mind
- The Nature of Reality
- What is True Knowledge?
- True Knowledge and False Knowledge
- The Illusion of Time and Space
- The Science of Consciousness
- Self-Investigation and Self-Surrender
- The Practice of the Art of Being
Printed Versions of Happiness and the Art of Being
After I posted the first e-book edition of Happiness and the Art of Being on this website in December 2006, many people expressed their eagerness to have a printed copy of it, so I carefully revised the entire book and added more explanations about various important aspects of
Sri Ramana’s teachings, after which it was published in October 2007 both in Canada (now in US) and in India.
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American Publication (by Trafford Publishing)
Happiness and the Art of Being is published in the US by Trafford Publishing, and can be purchased
from their online bookstore by clicking on the following link:
Happiness and the Art of Being
Trafford publication
It is also available worldwide through all the major online and offline book distribution channels.
The easiest (and generally the cheapest) way to purchase it is from an online bookstore such as
Amazon, but most local bookstores can also order it from their distributor if you ask them to do so.
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Though it can be purchased from almost any online bookstore, on some of them it is available at a significantly discounted price, so it may be worth checking to
find the cheapest price for it. A comparison of prices for it in the US is available at All Bookstores: compare prices for Happiness and the Art of Being, and a similar comparison of prices for it in the US, UK, Australia,
Canada, France, Germany, Japan and many other parts of the world is available at BookFinder4u: compare prices for Happiness and the Art of Being.
Since the lowest prices are often available on Amazon, the following are links to the regional Amazon pages from which it can be purchased:
However, if you prefer to purchase Happiness and the Art of Being from any local bookshop, most of them will be able to order it for you, particularly if you
quote the ISBN number, which in the old 10-digit format is 1-4251-2465-8 and in the new 13-digit format is 978-1-4251-2465-6.
The contents of this book can be searched on Google Book Search: Happiness and the Art of Being or
Google Book Search UK:
Happiness and the Art of Being.
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Indian Publication (by Aditya Prakashan Mandir)
Happiness and the Art of Being is also published in India by Aditya Prakashan Mandir, whose contact details are as follows:
Aditya Prakashan Mandir
266/28, Jyoti Park, Lane 6
Near Hansraj Model School
Gurgaon
Haryana 122 001
Telephone: +91 (0) 124 2300 561
+91 (0) 935 033 0002
E-mail: trademediaindia@gmail.com
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Copies are also available from:
Sri Ramanasramam Book Stall
Tiruvannamalai 606 603
Telephone: +91 (0) 4175 237 292
E-mail: ashram@sriramanamaharshi.org
Website: www.sriramanamaharshi.org
E-Book Version for Free Download
Besides being available as a printed book, Happiness and the Art of Being is also available here for free download as a
PDF e-book. In order to download this PDF version,
you can either left-click on the following link to open it in your web browser, after which you can save a copy, or you can right-click on this link and select
‘Save Target As...’ from the pop-up menu:
Happiness and the Art of Being – e-book
This version of the e-book is its third edition,
which I posted here on 23rd August 2007, and which is an exact copy of the printed publications. In this edition I
incorporated in various places a total of about 48 pages of additional explanations, which were not in the first two e-book editions, and I also added a detailed
index. For a detailed list of the major additions and modifications that I incorporated in this third edition, please refer to
Third e-book edition of
Happiness and the Art of Being.
For archival purposes, copies of the first e-book edition, which I posted here in December 2006, and the enlarged
second e-book edition,
which I posted here in March 2007, are both available here, and can be accessed by clicking on the following two links:
Happiness and the Art of Being – first e-book edition
Happiness and the Art of Being – second e-book edition
As I did in the third e-book edition, in the
second e-book edition I included
many additional explanations and translations of more passages from the original Tamil writings of Sri Ramana, which were not in the
first e-book edition. For a detailed
list of the major additions and modifications that I incorporated in the second e-book edition, please refer to New enlarged e-book edition of Happiness and the Art of Being.
Spanish Translation
Happiness and the Art of Being has been translated into Spanish by Pedro Rodea, and is available both as a PDF e-book and as a printed book. The e-book can be
accessed by clicking on the following link:
La Felicidad y el Arte de Ser:
Introducción a la filosofía y la práctica de las enseñanzas espirituales de
Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Alternatively, it can be read on the translator’s website, AtivarnAshram,
by clicking here.
Information about the printed book (ISBN: 9788496808645) is available on the Sri
Ramana Maharshi page of the Ignitus section of the
AtivarnAshram website, and it can be purchased on the
Editorial Sanz y Torres website by clicking on the following link:
La Felicidad y el Arte de Ser – printed book
Some selected passages from this Spanish translation can also be accessed through links on the Michael James page of the AtivarnAshram website.
Czech Translation
Happiness and the Art of Being has been translated into Czech by Rudolf Skarnitzl, and a PDF copy of it can be accessed by clicking on the following link:
Štěstí a Umění Být:
Laický úvod do filozofie a praxe spirituálního učení
Bhagavána Šrí Ramany
French Translation
Happiness and the Art of Being is currently being translated into French. So far only the introduction and the first two chapters have been completed,
and a PDF copy of each of these can be accessed by clicking on the following links:
La Félicité et l’Art d’Etre – Introduction
La Félicité et l’Art d’Etre – Chapitre 1:
Qu’est-ce que la Félicité?
La Félicité et l’Art d’Etre – Chapitre 2:
Qui suis-je?
In this French translation, all the Tamil and Sanskrit words in italic type have been transliterated accurately according to the scheme that I describe in the PDF document
on transliteration that can be accessed from the Transliteration, transcription
and pronunciation section of the Books page.
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