How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life - Hardcover

Dalai Lama, His Holiness The

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743427084 ISBN 13: 9780743427081

Publisher: Pocket Books, 2002

Synopsis

At once a straightforward instructional resource and inspirational guide to daily life, this ecumenical spiritual handbook describes each step on the path to spiritual enlightenment and explains how to practice everyday morality, meditation, wisdom, and compassion and how to achieve total body-mind harmony.

About this title

Review:

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

About the Author:

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in 1935 to a peasant family in northeastern Tibet and was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The world's foremost Buddhist leader, he travels extensively, speaking eloquently in favor of ecumenical understanding, kindness and compassion, respect for the environment, and, above all, world peace.

Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., served for a decade as the interpreter for the Dalai Lama. A Buddhist scholar and the author of more than thirty-five books and translations, he is emeritus professor of Tibetan and Buddhist studies at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program of Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743427084
• ISBN 13: 9780743427081
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Hopkins Jeffrey Ph.D.