Book - A Culture of Happiness by Ha Vinh Tho - Now available
How to Scale Up Happiness from People to Organizations by Tho Ha Vinh
Published by Parallax Press
Practical principles for creating conditions for happiness at scale from the program director of the Gross National Happiness Center of Bhutan, the only country in the world to measure progress by the happiness of its citizens.
Despite countless happiness programs focused on individual well-being, are we any happier, really? Is it in fact possible to be fully happy within a miserably dysfunctional society built to keep structural inequities in place?
Possible, perhaps, but not easy. While the pursuit of happiness is a much-celebrated ideal, how can countries and communities design the right environments for people to lead happy lives? Personal programs for happiness that include mindfulness, empathy, and gratitude are a good start, but without structural changes, they can only go so far. Taking the case of the country of Bhutan as an example, the nation’s former Gross National Happiness program director Tho Ha Vinh explains how the principles of happiness can and must apply to people, families, and communities at scale to produce the conditions for a truly satisfying life.
More and more people feel that we live in a time of transition and that our very survival on this planet depends on renewing the way we live together in society. Gross National Happiness is an innovative development paradigm that puts the happiness of all people and the well-being of all life forms at the center of progress. Based on real-life experiences, this book shows a multitude of practical methods for strategic thinkers and change makers to apply the framework of Gross National Happiness to bring about positive change in schools, businesses, and communities.
Understanding Gross National Happiness and the 3 Fundamental Components of Happiness
Celebrating the release of A Culture of Happiness, author Tho Ha Vinh answers questions about happiness, the framework used in Bhutan to measure happiness, and tools that readers can use today to cultivate more happiness.
Happiness can be difficult to define. How do you define it in the context of your book?
Tho Ha Vinh: The happiness we speak about in the context of Gross National Happiness (GNH) does not focus on fleeting pleasures, but on creating the inner and outer conditions for a meaningful life, one that enables us to live in harmony with our deepest aspirations and highest potential. It has three fundamental components:
To live in harmony with, and care for our Self.
To live in harmony with, and care for others and society.
To live in harmony with, and care for our precious and fragile planet.
“I greatly admired and closely followed the initiatives developed by Tho based on the teachings of Mindfulness that we all learned from Thay Thich Nhat Hanh…This book is a guide to practicing generosity in one’s thoughts, words and deeds and to understanding that the happiness and suffering of others is closely linked to one’s own happiness and suffering. It is based on the conviction that transformation begins within each and every one, but must also contribute to creating a fairer society and a better world.”
Sister Chân Không