The concept of the book as taught by the Dalai Lama is that human beings each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to attaining that goal is self-knowledge. He teaches how to avoid the common negative notions of self and perspective on life and how to see the world from a more loving, human viewpoint. [1] Using personal experiences and anecdotes, the Dalai Lama explains the idea that combining meditative concentration and love, true enlightenment is attained and is the key to happiness.

Full of insights and very practical, this important book by the Dalai Lama shows that self-knowledge is the key to personal development and creating positive relationships Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub), the 14th Dalai Lama, is a practicing member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the world's most famous Buddhist monk, and the leader of the exiled Tibetan government in India. I can't say the book is bad. It's possible to draw something out of it and it could've been worse. So I gave it an average score of 2.5 . Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2014-07-22 21:12:39.410427 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA1138923 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Containerid S0022 Donor To overcome the misconception that things and people exist as self-sufficient entities, independent of consciousness, it is essential to observe your own mind to discover how this mistake is being conceived, and how other destructive emotions arise with such ignorance as their support. Given that lust, hatred, pride, jealously, and anger stem from exaggerating the importance of qualities such as beauty and ugliness, it is crucial to understand how persons and things actually exist, without exaggeration.You could do the same with people and their behaviors (How did the behavior come into being? Which of your thoughts/mindsets make you dis/like it?)] Buddhist psychology is known for its detailed descriptions of the mind's workings, and His Holiness uses these insights in a practical way by helping readers catch hold of these processes through their own experience. His central theme is that our skewed perceptions of body and mind lead to disastrous mistakes, ranging from lust at the one extreme to raging hatred at the other, so that we are consistently being led into trouble as if pulled by a ring in our nose. By developing insight into this process, we can free ourselves, and those around us, from these endless scenarios of pain. Tenzin Gyatso is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony. The book will not be understood at first read, or in one sit. It contains many esoteric Buddhist teachings and therefore will be hard to grasp initially, for both those who are and are not really familiar with Buddhism I believe. Having said so, the book can be read by the chapters it has already been divided into. I think the author does this on purpose so as to guide the readers through the book more logically without interfering their reading mid-way while being able to get what the book seeks to convey better.

If you understand that, no matter what appears, whether to your senses or to your thinking mind, those objects are established in dependence upon thought, you will get over the idea that phenomena exist in their own right. You will understand that there is no truth in their being set up from their own side. You will realize emptiness, the absence of inherent existence, which exists beyond the proliferation of problems born from seeing phenomena as existing in themselves and provides the medicine for removing delusion."

When you advance toward understanding that people and things cannot be found under analysis but take to mind that they do indeed exist, you may begin to feel the impact of the statement that they exist through the power of thought. This, in turn, will challenge you to consider further how people and things appear to your mind and will undermine your confidence in the goodness or badness of these appearances, which you previously automatically accepted as intrinsic to the objects. You will will begin noticing how you assent to the appearance of objects and how you latch on to them.

Like the two wings of a bird, love and insight work cooperatively to bring about enlightenment, says a fundamental Buddhist teaching. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to realizing that goal is self-knowledge. In "How to See Yourself As You Really Are," the world's foremost Buddhist leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shows readers how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective. The theme of the book was mostly based around perspective. It is explained in this book how all feelings and thoughts come from your perspective. He shows you how if you go into any situation with a compassionate, and understanding state of mind, it helps to fully understand why people act the way they do. He goes into depth of what perspectives are best to have in life, and why. He then goes on to talk about certain processes and ways to help accomplish these states of mind. But perhaps this is to be expected from a reader who feels that without passion (something the Dalai Lama puts forward as a 'sin' and undesirable), while causing many of the world's problems, has also created some of the world's finest moments in art, science, literature, social reform and more. Without passion there would be no impetus to create, to achieve a state closer to the divine. On 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, he was enthroned as Tibet's ruler. Thus he became Tibet's most important political ruler just one month after the People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet on 7 October 1950. In 1954, he went to Beijing to attempt peace talks with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the PRC. These talks ultimately failed. b big H big IS big H big OLINESS THE big D big ALAI big L big AMA REVEALS THE KEY TO ACHIEVING HAPPINESS AND A MEANINGFUL LIFE. b In How to See Yourself as You Really Are, the world's foremost Buddhist leader teaches listeners how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective. Step-by-step exercises help listeners shatter their false assumptions and ideas and see the world as it actually exists. His Holiness sets the stage for discovering the reality behind appearances. But getting past one's misconceptions is only a prelude to right action, and the final section describes how to harness the power of meditative concentration to the service of love, and vice versa, so that true altruistic enlightenment is attained. Enlivened by personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's own life experiences, How to See Yourself as

Like the two wings of a bird, love and insight work cooperatively to bring about enlightenment, says a fundamental Buddhist teaching. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to realizing that goal is self-knowledge. In "How to See Yourself As You Really Are, " the world's foremost Buddhist leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shows readers how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective.Step-by-step exercises help readers shatter their false assumptions and ideas and see the world as it actually exists. By directing our attention to the false veneer that so bedazzles our senses and our thoughts, His Holiness sets the stage for discovering the reality behind appearances. But getting past one's misconceptions is only a prelude to right action, and the book's final section describes how to harness the power of meditative concentration to the service of love, and vice versa, so that true altruistic enlightenment is attained. Step-by-step exercises help readers shatter their false assumptions and ideas and see the world as it actually exists. By directing our attention to the false veneer that so bedazzles our senses and our thoughts, His Holiness sets the stage for discovering the reality behind appearances. But getting past one's misconceptions is only a prelude to right action, and the book's final section describes how to harness the power of meditative concentration to the service of love, and vice versa, so that true altruistic enlightenment is attained. If you notice carefully, Part IV obviously contains more chapters i.e. 9 chapters compared with only 2 or 3 chapters as in other Parts. I think this is done on purpose (again) because this Part contains the very essence teachings of the entire book which need to be broken down into smaller chunks of information for easier absorption. You will find some ideas are repeated throughout these chapters of this particular Part because the point is if you cannot get it the first time you read it, you'll get it later as your understanding progresses along the reading. I myself re-read each chapter for 3 to 6 times and my advice is when you read a chapter, if you don't get at all what Dalai Lama means in the first place, that's fine. Close the book. Do something else. Then return to read it again. You can stop and return to it as many times as you want as I think it depends on different cases. Usually as I re-read a chapter in Part IV for the 3rd time, I started to get what he really means. Reading it a couple of times more indeed deepens my understanding in his teachings a lot more. And this makes me think perhaps because the teachings are so deep and unfamiliar with general readers, they would find it difficult to enjoy it the way they typically do with other books. However, I can make sure with you Dalai Lama knows this, that's why he keeps saying in the book "please bear with me as I am going into more details here" or something like that.

In all areas of thought, you need to be able to analyze, and then, when you have come to a decision, you need to be able to set your mind to it without wavering. These two capacities - to analyze and to remain focused - are essential to seeing yourself as you really are.... All these improvements are made in the mind by changing how you think, transforming your outlook through analysis and focus. All types of meditation fall into the general categories of analytical meditation and focusing meditation, also called insight meditation and calm abiding meditation." Like the two wings of a bird, love and insight work cooperatively to bring about enlightenment, says a fundamental Buddhist teaching. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to realizing that goal is self-knowledge. In How to See Yourself As You Really Are, the world's foremost Buddhist leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shows readers how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective. From there some nice points are made about meditation: even if many of us analytically/intellectually know the above realization about reality, to what degree have we thoroughly integrated it into our being such that the insight influences every thought and reaction we have? Does your arm feel intrinsically there? Do you take offense if someone falsely accuses you? Well, meditation can help you weave insight into the fabric of your being! ;-) Drawing on wisdom and techniques refined in Tibetan monasteries for more than a thousand years, and adopting as its structure traditional Buddhist steps of meditative reflection, How to See Yourself As You Really Are includes practical exercises and gives readers a clear path to assess their growth and personal development. After a failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, the Dalai Lama left for India, where he was active in establishing the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan Government in Exile) and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.Lccn 2006047865 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL17931270M Openlibrary_edition This book itself is an illustration of Tibet's contribution to world culture, reminding us of the importance of maintaining a homeland for its preservation. The light shining through the Dalai Lama's teachings has its source in that culture, offering insights and practices that so many of us need in ours.