Buddham Sharanam (Paperback or Softback)

First Galileo blasted the belief that the Earth was at the centre of the universe, then Darwin smashed the theory that humans were uniquely positioned at the centre of life, and now the ‘self’ itself is finally to be disabused of its presumption to centrality. What is ‘self’? Does it exist at all? What’s the level of importance it deserves in one’s life? Such an intersection between Buddhism and the modern discipline of psychology has become germane to objectively focus on circumstantial human behaviour, the source of unhappiness, and ways to eliminate suffering.

How shall we design and live our lives to make us happier and felicitous people? Applying the Buddhist prescription requires absolute diligence, discernment, and perseverance as we encounter the resistances and capacitances from our conditioning.

What was it that provoked me to explore the tenets of Buddhism and position them against the psychological mirror when spirituality wasn’t my area of interest, that too in my twenties? Sometimes you meet certain people and your persona changes forever, whether you call it their influence or your nervy response to the interactions that follow. It happened with me as well in a manner I had least expected. My confidence knew no bar at that time, it used to be on cloud nine for I thought I knew myself inside out and was an unrelenting master of my feelings and actions, yet I found myself in a novel terrain whose familiarity was unfamiliar, and it didn’t allow me to showcase my warrior skills. I was sinking day by day while I attempted to lift myself against gravity. But you know, every question paper comes with an answer key. It’s for you to unlock it. The cause whose effect landed me there was as well the cause for me to begin grazing the green pastures of Buddhism and study my behaviour in its shadow. After years of successful and partly unsuccessful trials of solving the puzzle, I started writing this book on the auspicious day of Buddha Purnima and with each passing page, gained a deeper understanding of self as to why I think the way I think or why I feel the way I feel by seeing through the illusions, and regained tighter control over my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

The Buddhist corpus is principally an expression of the Delphic dictum ‘Know Thyself’, essentially about self-knowledge – who you are, how you make decisions, what drives your thoughts and actions, your relationships with others, and with the world in general. Whether you are a worldling or a spiritual elite reading this book, the idea is to encourage us all to view ourselves and subsequently the world with a clean lens, get a clearer picture and elevate to a level of equanimity where we can enjoy the cruise of life to the fullest.