Brother David Stiendl-Rast

Brother David Stiendl-Rast is a Catholic monk and scholar who has devoted much of his life to Christian-Buddhist interfaith dialogue. Abrams relies on Brother Stiendl-Rast to describe gratitude in a way that represents both the Christian Archbishop Tutu and the Buddhist Dalai Lama. "Whatever life gives to you," he preaches, "you can respond with joy. Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens. It is the grateful response to the opportunity that life offers you at this moment" (245). Abrams uses another quote from Brother Stiendl-Rast to identify the relationship between happiness and gratitude: "It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy" (242).