Jonathan Lehmann is a writer, meditation teacher and leader of silent retreats who used to be an unhappy Wall Street lawyer and now devotes himself to the study of happiness. His work lives under the name Les Antisèches du Bonheur (The Happiness Cheatsheets). It is a wide body of material, and the order in which you meet it matters. Note that much of it is in French, so check the language of any item before you commit.
Start with his book Journal Intime d'un Touriste du Bonheur. It is the clearest account of who he is and why he does what he does. The title frames him as a tourist of happiness: someone who wandered into the territory, tried things, and reported back honestly. Because it is a personal journal rather than a manual, you meet the person before the method. That is the right order with a teacher whose credibility comes from having been unhappy himself. You see the lawyer's restlessness, the search, and the practices that actually shifted something.
Read it before you try any meditation. The practices make more sense once you know what problem they were built to solve.
His guided meditations. After the book, move from reading to doing. Guided meditations are the most direct way to test whether his approach works for you. Choose one short session and repeat it several times before sampling others. Familiarity is what makes meditation useful.
His pop culture meditations. These are the most distinctive part of his catalog. They use familiar cultural material as a doorway into stillness, which makes them a good fit if traditional meditation language leaves you cold. Treat them as a second step, once you have a feel for his voice.
***Journal intime d'un voyageur chamanique*.** This second journal is the natural follow-up to the first. It continues the travelogue format and goes into more unconventional territory. Read it after the first book, not before.
Expect a personal, candid voice rather than a doctrine. Lehmann is interested in how the compulsive, negative mind can become a tool for gratitude, creativity and love, rather than something to be defeated. So the tone is not "quiet your thoughts or fail." It is closer to "work with the mind you have." Expect themes of joy, purpose and presence, repeated from different angles. Expect gratitude to come up often. Expect the material to be practical and conversational, with the lawyer-turned-seeker background showing through in a dry, self-aware way.
Treating it as a quick fix. The "cheatsheets" branding suggests shortcuts, and some readers expect instant happiness. The work is better read as concise distillations of practices that still need to be repeated.
Assuming you must silence your mind. His whole angle is the opposite: the noisy, negative mind can be redirected. If you quit after one session because you were distracted, you missed the premise.
Dismissing the pop culture meditations as gimmicks. They are a deliberate bridge for people who would never sit down with incense and a gong. Judge them by whether they get you to practice.
Reading everything and practicing nothing. The books are enjoyable enough that you can consume them as entertainment. The point is the sitting.
It tends to land hardest during a stretch of quiet dissatisfaction: when you are outwardly successful or functional but feel flat, or when a career, a loss or a transition has made you ask what your life is for. His own story starts there, so it speaks most clearly to people in that same gap. It also suits anyone who is skeptical of spirituality but open to practical tools, and anyone considering a first silent retreat who wants to know the teacher's sensibility before committing.
Day 1: Read the first chapters of Journal Intime d'un Touriste du Bonheur. Note what in his unhappiness sounds familiar.
Day 2: Keep reading, and do one short guided meditation. Afterward, write down one thing you are grateful for.
Day 3: Repeat the same guided meditation. Resist the urge to switch.
Day 4: Read another section of the book. Try the meditation again, and notice where your mind goes without judging it.
Day 5: Try a pop culture meditation. Compare how it feels to the standard guided session.
Day 6: Alternate: finish the book if you can, then repeat whichever meditation worked best. Write a few lines on any change in mood or attention.
Day 7: Review. Decide whether to continue with Journal intime d'un voyageur chamanique or to look into his retreats, book club or other offerings. If a week of practice left you curious, the retreats are the deepest next step, since silence is where his teaching is meant to take root.