As human beings, we all share the desire for happiness and meaning in our lives. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the ability to find true fulfillment lies within each of us. In this very special book, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Nobel Prize winner, and bestselling author helps readers embark upon the path to enlightenment with a stunning illumination of the timeless wisdom and an easyaccess reference for daily practice. Divided into a series of distinct steps that will lead spiritual seekers toward enlightenment, How to Practice is a constant companion in the quest to practice morality, meditation, and wisdom. This accessible book will guide you toward opening your heart, refraining from doing harm, and maintiaining mentaltranquility as the Dalai Lama shows you how to overcome everyday obstacles, from feelings of anger and mistrust to jealousy, insecurity, and counterproductive thinking. Imbued with His Holiness vivacious spirit and sense of playfulness, How to Practice offers sage and practical insight into the human psyche and into the deepest aspirations that bind us all together.
[...]... on the way back to Lhasa, we spent several days at the Regent’s monastery, Talungdra One day he asked during a casual chat whether because of his attitude I ever had become upset I mentioned what had happened, somewhat vaguely, without much detail What a relief this was! We went on to have a pleasant stay at the monastery It is better to talk about such things that occur onlyonce, whereas the other... was already acting as an ordinary student listening to him even though I was the Dalai Lama, ranking above him I was irritated and remained uncomfortable for the next few months Then the Chinese Communists invaded eastern Tibet in 1950, and I had to escape from Lhasa to Tromo in southwestern Tibet near the Indian border In time officials in Lhasa advised me that the situation looked workable and that... called a “path of action” because that action (virtuous or not) serves as a path, or a means, to a complete lifetime in either a happy transmigration or a bad transmigration To be a “path of action,” a karma must have four characteristics: motivating intention; correct identification of the person or object; proper preparation; and successful completion Sometimes all of these factors occur, as in the. .. circumstances a fetus in the mother’s womb undergoes suffering due to being in the womb, but the mother does not accumulate any bad karma Similarly, when the child is born, it suffers again, but the mother does not accumulate any badkarma (If she did, a mother who gave birth to many children would have accumulated a great deal of bad karma, which is absurd!) Therefore, a person’s motivation is the key to. .. centuryB.C.incarnation the Buddha was merely demonstrating the path In Tibet, we take the latter view, and followers learn from his example how to practice in order to achieve enlightenment themselves In either case, we need to notice that: • Shakyamuni Buddha was born into a life of pleasure as a prince in an Indian royal family At age twenty-nine, upon seeing the suffering of the world, he gaveup his royal... Even animals want to overcome it The physical and mental pains of daily life, like headaches and the anguish of separation, fall into this category 2 What we usually experience as pleasure is mostly a diminishment of pain If good food or drink, for example, really were just pleasurable—if they had an inner nature of pleasure —then no matter how much we ate or drank, we would feel greater and greater happiness... them, and the spiritual community—are factors outside yourself that have greater capacity to end suffering than you presently do However, a Buddhist is not asking them to granthappinessRather, happiness comes from putting the doctrine into practice Buddha teaches the actual refuge how to practice the doctrine—but the main responsibility lies in your own implementation To create the foundation for an eventual... preliminary practice of making a hundred thousand prostrations to the Buddha, the doctrine, and the spiritual community Early in the morning andlate in the evening he had to make prostrations on a low platform the length of his body His lama was meditating in the dark in the next room; so to trick him into thinking he was making prostrations he would tap with his knuckles on the prostration platform Years later,... of moral practice Within the morality of individual liberation, there are: • those who live a householder’s life, in a home rather than a monastery • those who have left a householder’s life to become nuns or monks If you are capable of maintaining chastity for a lifetime, you can leave the household and take monastic vows If you cannot maintain chastity but can keep vows, you can take certain layperson’s... order to understand the types of karma and the special features of the highest levels of practice, we need to understand the dynamics of three stages: the process of death; the intermediate state between this life and the next; and the process of rebirth out of the intermediate state The transmission of karmas from one lifetime to another occurs at death through a very subtle mind of clear light Although . years that I have known him and during the ten that I served as his chief translatoron lecture tours in the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Great Britain, and. experience to offer suggestions on how to practice a spiritual path that will lead to mental clarity and emotional transformation. In this way, he shows how life can be made meaningful. Throughout the. essential to mental peace. As you will see in the pages ahead, the central method for achieving a happier life is to train your mind in a daily practice that weakens negative attitudes and strengthens