Audio book editionDecember 9, 2007 The translator reads this with absolutely no inflection. His mispronounciations and accent are so irritating it's hard to pay attention to the book and the fact that he reads "How to See Yourself As You Really Are" keeps me from buying the audiobook, which is a disappointment.
Very difficult to readNovember 30, 2007 2 out of 7 found this review helpful
The content seems good here but the book is very difficult to read. I found that I had to stop and think about every sentence, every paragraph, to grasp what was being said b/c it is filled with jargon that I am not familiar with. Would be better if written in "plain english".
The Dalai Lama Is On The Right PathOctober 26, 2007 0 out of 2 found this review helpful
In a world of hate and murder and man's misstreatment of their fellow man The Dalai Lama has an important message for mankind: "Be kind, be tolerant, be loving." I hope everyone who reads this "review" will read the book. I need it. You need it! boland7214@aol
PS: I'm reading further into this book. Some of the chapters are getting to be "abstruse". The subject has gone away from "ethics" or how to treat your fellow man and now in later chapters he's discussing "emptiness" and "what exists or does not exist". I'm liking the book less, sorry to say. Maybe he wrote some other book(s) that deal more with ethics? I don't know, do you?
A Brain Full of Buddhism in a Small Package...June 30, 2007 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book's unimposing lightweight appearance belies its thick conceptual content. A little over 200 pages, it delivers a brain full of Buddhism. Those unfamiliar with the Tibetan flavor of the life philosophy initiated by Siddhartha Gautama, or Shakyamuni, or Buddha, will close the back cover with a clear high-level understanding of this ancient practice. Though it contains some difficult sections, particularly the later chapters, nothing remains insurmountable for the average reader. But there's more. "How To Practice," as the title suggests, contains more than mere theory. Throughout, the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, in translation from Tibetan, delineates physical and mental exercises that anyone can apply to their own lives. "It does not matter whether you are Buddhist or Christian, Moslem or Hindu, or whether you practice religion at all," he writes in the introduction. "What matters is your feeling of oneness with humankind." The book attempts just that, to train people towards nurturing this feeling of oneness and compassion with existence, regardless of disposition or background. Avoidance of suffering and increasing of happiness is the intended outcome.
The book's three main sections follow the major steps of practice: Morality, Concentrated Meditation, and Wisdom. Morality involves putting the suffering of others above one's own desires. Also called "Selfish Wisdom," this perspective helps alleviate one's own suffering while alleviating the pains of others. But the focus remains on others. However, what goes around comes around, because if everyone perceives the world this way, then everyone's suffering, including one's own, receives proper attention. Selfish and wise. Adjusting one's life to a moral framework also prepares the practicer for concentrated meditation. This helps focus and sharpen the mind to achieve "calm abiding." In this section, the Dalai Lama discusses his own meditation practices and gives instruction in technique. Lastly, Wisdom comes from comprehending the "emptiness" of all phenomenon. Through this wisdom we come to realize that things do not have inherent existence, thus everything arises out of dependencies. Phenomenon become known as "dependent-arisings." Dependency and "emptiness" go hand in hand. Of all the book's sections, "Practicing Wisdom" remains the most difficult to grasp. It may require multiple readings or brain yoga. The book concludes with a short section on Tantra, including a discussion of its sensual dimension, and an "Overview to the Path of Enlightenment," which summarizes the book's major points. Along the way, The Dalai Lama relates the story of the Buddha, the four noble truths, the ten nonvirtues, karma, rebirth, stories from his own life, and much that defies summary.
Overall, "How to Practice" attempts to rise above theory and demonstrate how people can apply the teachings of The Buddha to their lives. You can live this stuff. Not only that, the Dalai Lama emphasizes that one does not need to take on the full ascetic life of a Buddhist monk to benefit from these ideas. He writes, "Please implement whatever in these pages appears to be helpful. If you follow another religion, please adopt whatever might assist you. If you do not think it would be helpful, just leave it alone." How much suffering could be alleviated in the world if we followed this simple advice: "just leave it alone." Loads, perhaps. Regardless, many readers will doubtless find something useful in the Dalai Lama's crystalline text. Some degree of enlightenment awaits anyone who explores this deceptively small book.
Good info but poorly presentedApril 10, 2007 5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I think the Dalai Lama is a great teacher. However, with this AUDIO BOOK, I think he has made a mistake (or his people have made one) in not hiring a professional reader to read the book. He uses his translator to read it, and this guy could put a room full of speed freaks to sleep! He has no expression, it sounds like he's TRYING to bore us to death!
Other than that, the info is very good for the most part. The first half or so is a kind of introduction to Buddhism, but the last 2 discs or so get very technical, about the meaning of "emptiness" which is a very hard concept to understand, at least to understand its deeper meanings. The Dalai Lama does a pretty good job of presenting this info, but I think any non-Bhuddist will find it too deep and hard to understand. Even I, as an intermediate student, felt it could have been presented better.
That said, you cannot go wrong in listening to this audio book, for it does have a lot of good information.
However there are lots of better things to listen to if you want to learn about Buddhism. I would suggest Thich Nhat Hanh's "Creating True Peace" for example.
This audio book could have been much better had they spent some money and hired a professional reader to read it, someone with some concept of how a book should be read aloud.
