As an atheist with science background, I picked up this book because I thought it would be interesting to see how the commentary of a psychiatrist would complement thoughts of a religious leader. I was surprised in two ways - not only did I find Dr Cutler's comments to be the weaker part of the book (including the lack of proper citations; numerous studies are mentioned but usually in such a way that it is impossible to trace it to original papers - I do understand that the book is geared towards general public but I would have appreciated a chance to judge the relevance of the mentioned studies by myself), he also seemed the more religious one to me. It looked particularly ridiculous in moments where Dalai Lama, while stressing the importance of spirituality, was also stressing the importance of finding one's own way based on what all humans share in common and how there is no one religion that would suit everybody. From what he was saying this is very much in line with the Buddhist approach. Enter Dr Cutler and his need to Westernise that statement - he basically started saying that it's the same as letting people decide whether they want to be Christian or Muslim or Jewish or whatnot. Except it's not. I happen to have been raised Catholic and year after year it the thought was being forced upon me that according to the Church's doctrine you can't simply decide to be, say, Muslim just because you feel this works better for you - if you do decide to go outside of the Catholic Church you are condemned to an eternity of Hell. Western religions in general are not as tolerant and loving as Dr Cutler tries to make them seem and there is hardly any room in them for the kind of reflection and reasoning that the Dalai Lama tries to promote. A recent piece of news comes to mind where pope Francis said something along the lines of "atheists who are good still have a chance for salvation" but soon after this statement was corrected by the Church officials to something closer to "no, they will actually burn in Hell, only our religion is the true one and everybody else is wrong". Since I'm bombarded everyday in media by news of similar nature, Dr Cutler's remarks on how Western religions are just like Buddhism with only a few wee differences, sounded in my ears like bizarre and inappropriate jokes.

I still decided to give the book four stars, instead of the at most three it deserves overall, because the parts where it is actually the Dalai Lama, not Dr Cutler, speaking do shine. I do not agree with everything he says, but it certainly gave me a lot of food for thought and was very enriching to read.