His new book, Joyful Wisdom, addresses the timely and timeless problem of anxiety in our everyday lives. "From the 2,500-year-old perspective of Buddhism," Yongey Mingyur writes, "every chapter in human history could be described as an 'age of anxiety.' The anxiety we feel now has been part of the human condition for centuries."

So what do we do? Escape or succumb? Both routes inevitably lead to more complications and problems in our lives. "Buddhism," he says, "offers a third option. We can look directly at the disturbing emotions and other problems we experience in our lives as stepping-stones to freedom. Instead of rejecting them or surrendering to them, we can befriend them, working through them to reach an enduring authentic experience of our inherent wisdom, confidence, clarity, and joy."

Divided into three parts like a traditional Buddhist text, Joyful Wisdom identifies the sources of our unease, describes methods of meditation that enable us to transform our experience into deeper insight, and applies these methods to common emotional, physical, and personal problems. The result is a work at once wise, anecdotal, funny, informed, and graced with the author's irresistible charm.