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From Amazon
As a primer on living the good life, few books compete with How to Practice, another profound offering from the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Westerners may be confused by the book's title, assuming that it focuses solely on Buddhist meditation and prayer techniques. Though it does address meditation and prayer, at its core this is a book that demonstrates how day-to-day living can be a spiritual practice. There are two ways to create happiness:
The first is external. By obtaining better clothes, better shelter, and better friends we can find a certain measure of happiness and satisfaction. The second is through mental development, which yields inner happiness. However, these two approaches are not equally viable. External happiness cannot last long without its counterpart.... However, if you have peace of mind you can find happiness even under the most difficult circumstances.As he has in previous books (An Open Heart, The Art of Happiness), the Dalai Lama reminds us that developing peace of mind means paying attention to our daily attitudes and choices as well as taking the time to meditate and be prayerful. The six-part book covers Buddhist meditation techniques and visualization exercises as well as daily thoughts and actions that foster morality and wisdom. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
The Dalai Lama, a formidable teacher, presents a way that is the middle way, but not necessarily the easy way. Because the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism has a natural gift as well as the translating and publishing resources that makes his teachings accessible, it is easy to forget the rigor and depth of those teachings. Too, Buddhism so often appears in the West as a system of daily behavior and practice that it is also easy to overlook the compelling intellectual challenge it presents to the Western understanding of reality. His Holiness starts on familiar Buddhist ground (morality of action, suffering, compassion) and chapter by chapter adds doctrine and complexity until teachings from the heights of imaginative Tantra and Tibetan deity yoga are being explicated. For the uninitiated the climb is steep, and those seeking general ethical guidance would do better with an easier text (His Holiness has written those, too). For the serious, however, the Dalai Lama offers elegant clarity about the paradoxes at the heart of Buddhism including the central Heart Sutra itself, the teaching of form-is-emptiness and about the intellectual intricacy of Buddhist teachings. Tibetan Buddhism is considered the esoteric wing of Buddhism; this slice shows some layers of its complexity while whetting the spiritual appetite for more understanding, or what Buddhists would call the intention for enlightenment.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
According to some Buddhist schools, Shakyamuni Buddha first became enlightened in India in the sixth century B.C., through practice of the path.] Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
According to some Buddhist schools, Shakyamuni Buddha first became enlightened in India in the sixth century B.C., through practice of the path.] Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Owner's Manual for a Happy Life,
By louienapoli "louieb" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life (Hardcover)
I'm a newcomer to Buddhism, particularly the Tibetan kind, and this book is a terrific point of entry. In prose that is wonderfully clear, the Dalai Lama explains the fundamentals in theory and practice. Everything is concise, logical, and practical. Not everything is easy--particularly the part about having compassion for one's enemies--but it all makes complete sense. You also get a sense of the Dalai Lama's enormous warmth and wisdom, which inform every sentence. It's brief, clear, persuasive, user-friendly and useful.
5.0 out of 5 stars
You don't have to be a Buddhist to read this book!,
By
This review is from: How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life (Hardcover)
Don't think that you should be interested in Buddism to read this book. This book is for people from all cultures, all religions, and ideologies. His Holiness The Dalai Lama is one of the more enlightened spiritual leaders we have in this world today. In his tireless work toward world peace, he has risen above the boundaries of religion, culture, race, and ideologies. In this book, the Dalai Lama has provided an instruction manual to live a meaningful and happy life. It is not quite a self-help book for people who are lost. It is more a direction for people who wants to explore deeper into this live that we are living. To me, it is more a philosophy than a religion. Read it, and come back to it a few years later. With your life experience expanding, you will find different things in this book to inspire you.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great wisdom but more religious and less pragmatic,
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life (Hardcover)
The Dalai Lama undeniably is a learned scholar with gifts of human compassion and critical thinking. This book is a good introduction to Buddhist thinking and the Dalai Lama's philosophies.I purchased this book looking for ways to improve my own happiness, better understand the person I wanted to be, and provide a frame of reference for some of the more difficult life decisions. In this respect, I found the book less pragmatic and more educational about the foundations and beliefs of Buddhism. Despite great discussion of the value of meditation and of subjects to meditate on, the section on the mechanics of meditation was very short. There were also many sections that I needed to reread because of the broad use of words found in spiritual practice but rarely in daily life (inherent existence, enlightenment, impermanence, obstructions to omniscience, afflictive emotions, etc.). It's definately a book that you get more out of by re-reading and slowly contemplating its elements. As I read it, there were lots of 'what if' situational questions that came out seemingly contrary to some of the jewels of wisdom. This book does not provide those kinds of practical answers. It does, however, provide more insights into Buddhist beliefs of reincarnation and philosophies regarding how life is defined by suffering. Of the Dalai Lama's titles, I think "The Art of Happiness" is a more pragmatic read, while "How to Practice" spoon feeds you less and challenges your spiritual beliefs more.
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