From ‘A Field Guide to Happiness. What I Learned in Bhutan about Living, Loving, and Waking Up’ by Linda Leaming

……..the people are charming and funny, and it is truly the most beautiful, unspoiled place I’ve even been.

Being kind is practically a law here because there are fewer obstacles to happiness. Life is still simpler. The country has never been colonized, and that gives the people an independent streak, a clear identify, and an optimism. They take care of each other. They laugh and enjoy life – and its contagious.

In the West, we have everything we could possibly need or want – except for peace of mind.

We Americans are brilliant at many things……we are also the most impatient and easily addled people on the planet. We cant handle too much randomness. We pack our days with appointments and events……

Most houses aren’t insulated, so keeping warm and dry is an issue.

Taktsang, a 17^th-century temple complex built on the side of a sheer cliff that is honeycombed with caves. The place was discovered by the legendary 8^th- century Buddhist saint Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche…. Its iconic and a must-see ………its so high and the trail is narrow, and parts of it take you inches from the side of an abyss.

……….they [Bhutanese] have an inner calmness that is admirable and marked.

In Bhutan it always seems like anytime, anywhere, when I least expect it, some random person comes up and says or does something profound.

After living in Bhutan with the Buddhists, where every life, no matter how small or insignificant, is sacred, it feels weird to kill even the smallest bug.

Kindness is the glue that holds Bhutanese society together. ……everybody makes an effort to be civil and help everybody………

It is considered the ultimate bad manners to raise your voice, show anger or call attention to yourself in a negative way, complain, or make a spectacle. Strong displays of emotion are not shown in public. Anger, especially, brings loss of face to the angry person as well as the recipient.

In Bhutan, everyone always brings a gift when going to someone’s house. Its part of the social construct, and an expression of goodwill. The gift is often food such as eggs, butter, biscuits, vegetables, or alcohol. Most of the time its just a token……..

Its funny how life is slower here in Bhutan, but in some important respects, its speeded up. Realizations, comprehension, awareness, recognition – whatever you want to call what happens when you acquire skills – are faster when you’re part of life’s natural rhythms, with slower, more purposeful work, time on your hands. It’s a great way to become comfortable in your own skin, and you have time to understand who you are in relation to the world around you……..Its the way to learn to love yourself.

In India, they feed cows a steady diet of mangoes and mango leaves so their urine is bright yellow. They collect it…….dry it, and make paint out of it…..

The Bhutanese make good use of humor. They use it for teaching and self-correction, and even discipline can be thinly disguised as humor in Bhutan. Its easy to laugh here, because things seem more relaxed and everybody is inclined in that direction. There’s a lot of self-awareness as a result. Its tied to humility and subjugation of ego, and these are Buddhist attributes as well as part of the national character.

The Bhutanese share food, clothing, shelter, cars, time, ideas, laughter, money, jokes – just about anything ……….they have a natural propensity to give, and its not tied to how much they have….

When people are generous, there always seems to be enough. People who visit Bhutan remark that although it’s a poor country, nobody looks destitute.

Most who are munificent in Bhutan are hardly wealthy. The lowliest sustenance farmer will treat you like a king or queen if you visit his house.

As a whole the Bhutanese are the most generous people I’ve ever met. This was a few years ago and Bhutan is changing, but even now Bhutanese people are hardwired to be generous, and they still help each other in both small and big ways.

They understand that generosity and kindness make a society. Nothing more. Its so simple.

In Bhutan its not unusual for relatives or friends without children of their own and in good circumstances to raise other peoples children if its needed. It’s a good system, and its about doing whats best for the kids.

Preparing any meal in Bhutan starts with cooking rice, and Bhutanese red rice is preferred. Its hearty, nutty tasking, and is only grown on Himalayan slopes. When its cooked, it turns a beautiful pink color.

You cant have a meal without chillies. In summer, they’re grown in everyone’s kitchen gardens. In winter-time, we eat dried chillies, which are festive and red and dried on tin roofs all over the country.

The national dish of Bhutan is ema datse – chillies and cheese.

The Bhutanese system is matrilineal, so the women generally inherit property, and men, when they marry, move to their wives’ houses.

The Bhutanese are practical and they have equanimity in spades. They might lose their tempers – and after all, they’re human. But something in their upbringing or their society or their DNA brings them around. It makes them calm and levelheaded and able to see clearly and they instinctively gravitate towards the middle path….I know several happily married Bhutanese who started off married to other people, specifically brothers or sisters of their spouses. When it was clear that the brother or sister wasn’t a good match, the husband or wife married other members of the same family. And everyone gets along.

Although it is one of the least developed in the world, it’s the only country (besides Cuba) with free health care and education.

The Bhutanese seem to be able to embrace the concept of living, not only with less, but with less anticipation. Not expecting that everything will work out turns out to be a more optimistic way to live. Its stoic, yes, but in the end, it makes me happier. Being as opposed to aspiring, living in the present, focusing on intent as opposed to outcome, is a good way to a more balanced life.

All over Bhutan we see images of death. There are statues, paintings, carvings, words, symbols, and photographs. You can see them in the temples, in homes, and in shops……….Also it seems that there are so many ingenious, cinematic ways to die in Bhutan. There’s dengue fever, which is mysterious and rather hard to diagnose and will take a person quietly with not much fuss in a day or two. I’ve known people who have been eaten by wild boars because they stepped off a trail to answer the call of nature; who have fallen off of, driven over, or been crushed by part of a falling mountain; or who have been compressed by a random, falling boulder while languishing in a hot spring. Exposure is always common, as are bear maulings. And every year, a family or two succumbs to poisoned mushrooms during August or September, which is high season for the fungus.

The Bhutanese say we should think about death at least five times a day. If you remember that we are all impermanent, it will certainly clarify things for you.

There’s so much to love in Bhutan and there’s always a celebration……..It’s like living in a musical.

He [the Bhutanese husband] hated the way American families rarely gathered together and said things like, “So how is your life?” and were always on the go.

………….the Buddha said, “In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”

I like that feeling, the solitude and sense of peace and tranquility. Its hard to find in the world.

This is the magic of Bhutan. Its not a polluted place in any sense of the word. It is a refuge and a place to be restored. There is a healing quality to hiding out here and a feeling of being sequestered, protected. The mind quits racing. Its centering. Less “noise” going on around me allows more ideas to come in. Its not            just me. Others have said so.