Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment [Paperback]

Geshe writes so carefully and precisely in his books, as if each word is precious and none to be wasted. This helped me to slow down and read and study the text with care -- the perfect way to study Lam Rim (the gradual, step-by-step path to enlightenment.) Don't rush through this book; your care will be rewarded!

Before getting to the first step of the path, the author gives us some introductory material. This includes a brief outline of lam rim, the qualities of the author (the original author of the lam rim was Atisha who brought these teachings to Tibet where they were preserved), how to listen properly to dharma teachings, and some introduction to meditation. Then Geshe begins to lead us down the path.

The path begins with reliance on a good spiritual guide. Just as we would rely upon a guide while trying to pass through dangerous mountains, and we would choose a qualified guide that knew the path well, so too should we find a guide along this path to enlightenment, and check out his qualifications before choosing him (or her.) Geshe spells out the proper qualifications we should look for, and then shows us what we should do after finding a proper guide (how we should approach that guide and what respectful behavior we should have.)

Geshe continues through the next steps of the path, giving us meditations on: appreciation for our good fortune in having this human life where we can pursue a spiritual path, how death is certain and may come unexpectedly so we should practice diligently, and why and how to go for refuge in the Buddha, his teachings (the Dharma) and the community of fellow spiritual seekers (the Sangha). After further helpful meditations on karma, the Four Noble Truths, delusions, the path to liberation, Geshe concludes with the heart of the Mahayana Dharma: bodhicitta (the wish to attain enlightenment to benefit all beings, not just ourself.) As Geshe-la says, "[Bodhicitta] is born from great compassion -- a mind that cannot bear others to experience pain and that wants to release all beings from every kind of suffering. ...Seeing how many and how great their sufferings are, we have a spontaneous and continuous wish, 'How wonderful it would be if all living beings were entirely free from every kind of suffering.' Having generated great compassion, when we become determined to attain enlightenment for the sake of others and this determination is spontaneous and continuous all day and all night, we have realized bodhicitta." (p. 382-383)

Geshe-la guides us through each step in generating this most important quality in ourselves, not just in our minds as a wish, but in our actions and activities every day. One of his chapters' titles is "Engaging in a Bodhisattva's Actions" and has subsections such as 'Giving Material Things', 'The Perfection of Moral Discipline' and 'The Moral Discipline of Benefiting Living Beings'. He goes through in detail the six perfections in this chapter, which are: generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom.

His concluding chapter describes what the mind and activities of an enlightened Buddha are like, but also acknowledges that this is difficult for us to comprehend: "If a bird flies high in the sky it must eventually come down somewhere, no matter how far it soars. This is not because the bird has arrived at the end of space, but because it has run out of energy to fly. Space is vast and endless and the bird's power is exhausted before it has travelled throughout space. The good qualities of a Buddha are like space and our understanding is like this bird. If we were to try to describe all the good qualities of a Buddha, our wisdom and skill would run out before we could finish describing them. They are beyond our imagination." (p. 552) However, if we study and put into practice this marvelous teaching from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, eventually we will experience these qualities first hand.