Question: In your book you say that even though Buddhism came from ancient India and is 2,500 years old, it could have been developed especially with busy Westerners in mind. Why do you say this?

Answer: The Buddhist approach appeals to reason and analysis rather than demanding a leap of faith. Buddha looked at the human condition in much the same way that a doctor might conduct a diagnosis. He noted the degree of dissatisfaction most of us experience, identified the causes, and provided a wide range of practices to help us achieve greater levels of happiness, fulfilment and inner peace.

Q: A lot of people already know something about Buddhism, but how would you summarize the main message of the Buddha?

A: The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, answered this question in a simple sound bite: avoid harmfulness, cultivate goodness and subdue your mind. Most people have some idea about what the first two, ethics-based suggestions mean. "Subduing your mind" refers to the cultivation of more peaceful and aware states of mind in which we deliberately set about replacing habitual negative emotional patterns with more positive alternatives.

Q: In your book you draw a distinction between lasting happiness and temporary pleasure. It seems we have a tendency to confuse the two. Would you like to explain more about this?

A: My own view is that pleasure and happiness differ in three important ways. First, we get pleasure from an external object, like a new car or new clothes. Happiness, on the other hand, is the profound sense of well being that comes from cultivating inner, mental attitudes like being fully aware of the present moment or feeling love for others.

Second, pleasure depends on circumstances - sometimes we will enjoy our new car or clothes, but other times, for example if we're having a row with our partner, we probably won't. By contrast, happiness is a more abiding presence. Even if, on the surface, things aren't all that great, we still experience a sense of well being and inner peace at a deeper level, which helps us weather life's inevitable emotional storms.

Third, objects of pleasure need to be constantly upgraded to deliver the same levels of satisfaction. The more we drive our new car, the more we get used to it and the joy of ownership starts to wear thin. By contrast, the more we cultivate happiness-producing attitudes, the more we increase our capacity for profound and intense feelings of well being. Of course, pleasure and happiness are not mutually exclusive objectives: there's every reason we should set out both to enjoy pleasure, as well as cultivate happiness.

Q: As well as being an author, you work as a communications consultant in the financial sector. How has Buddhism helped in your career?

A: There are so many ways, but let me mention just two. First, meditation helps one see situations with greater clarity and objectivity. It's a bit like leaving a glass of murky storm water to settle. Come back after half an hour and you can see right through it. Meditation has helped me identify commercial opportunities which I think I may not have otherwise seen because of an agitated mind.

Non-attachment is also very helpful commercially. I think most sales trainers teach that if you're desperate to close a deal, that desperation is often communicated to a potential buyer and puts you at a disadvantage. Cultivating non-attachment to particular outcomes has helped me develop a more robust attitude so that I'm less emotionally buffeted by the failures and setbacks of working life.

Q: In your book you talk about Buddhism being like a toolbox of psychological techniques. What are some of these techniques and how can they help people?

A: Living in the moment is one of the tools at the top of the box, to be used as much as possible. So much of the dissatisfaction we experience arises because instead of consciously experiencing each moment, now, we're too busy thinking about negative things that happened in the past or may happen in the future.

Being wisely selfish, as the Dalai Lama puts it, is a higher level tool. Scientific studies have recently confirmed the paradox that focusing on the happiness of others makes us happier than focusing on our own happiness. If we want to increase our personal happiness levels, we should experiment by helping others achieve happiness - for purely selfish reasons - and see what difference it makes to the emotional quality of our life.

Q: I understand that you studied psychology in college, and you mention how Buddhism shares some of the concepts of contemporary psychology. Would you like to explain these links?

A: There are many ways in which this convergence occurs. Perhaps the most obvious is the striking similarity between Buddhist wisdom and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). CBT is based on the premise that events themselves have no meaning besides what an individual attributes to them. This is exactly what Buddhism says. And just as CBT challenges an individual to review the meanings he or she gives to an event - like a relationship break-down - in order to avoid thoughts that create unhappiness, so does Buddhism.

Following on from this is the principle behind the popularity of secular mindfulness meditation: "you can't manage what you don't monitor." This monitoring process requires the development of some level of awareness about what is going through our mind, at any moment, in order to weed out unhelpful thoughts and cultivate more useful thoughts. This too is a technique which has been cultivated by Buddhists for more than two millennia.

Q: In light of the current Tibet situation, as an Australian involved in Tibetan Buddhism, how would you say your country is responding to the Beijing Olympics?

A: So far as I know, our Prime Minister is the only Western world leader who can speak Mandarin, and also the only one who has held a press conference with the Chinese Premier at which he has directly criticised China for its actions in Tibet. I think it's important that the world engages with China in a meaningful way that it can't just dismiss as Western propaganda.

Q: In your book you quote Buddha as saying that people shouldn't believe a word that he says unless it accords with their own experience. This seems an extraordinary suggestion from the founder of a major world religion. Can you tell us more about it?

A: This is because the emphasis of Buddhism is on practice-based psychology rather than belief-based religion. The idea is that if we do certain things, we will achieve certain results. For example, if we live mindfully in the present moment and focus on the well-being of others as well as ourselves, we increase our chances of happiness. Buddha challenges us to try this out for ourselves and see if it is true. Just saying we believe it to be true without putting it into practise is pretty pointless.

Q: One of the reasons many non-Buddhists like the Dalai Lama is that he doesn't seem to want to convert them. Is this a correct impression?

A: The Dalai Lama often makes the point that converting to a different tradition brings its own set of challenges. He sees the major traditions as providing different entry points to a similar ethical framework. Ultimately, the Dalai Lama just wants you to be happy - whether that's a happier atheist, Jew, Muslim, Christian or Buddhist.