To everyone who has ever gone to a therapist, bought a self-help book, consulted an astrological chart, or cracked open a fortune cookie in hopes of feeling happy, The Misleading Mind offers a radical message. We can achieve lasting emotional health, and we can take responsibility for it ourselves, but only if learn to master the nasty tricks our minds naturally play on us. The more we explore, understand, and even come to appreciate our own self-destructive mental attitudes, the more control we�ll gain over our minds, and the more authentic and wonderful our lives will be.As thousands of years of Buddhist psychology teaches us, unhappiness is fundamentally a subjective state. To overcome problems and achieve lasting happiness, we must look inward and understand how we continually thwart our own well-being by giving in to feelings and thoughts that cause us pain. By taking control of our minds and engaging these destructive feelings and thoughts head-on, we can eliminate them from our lives, alleviate suffering, and reach our true potential.The Misleading Mind is one of a new wave of popular psychology books presenting a comprehensive and clinically effective therapeutic process based on traditional Buddhist wisdom. Offering psychological insights from ancient texts and drawing on real-life examples from Karuna Cayton�s therapy and coaching practice, as well as his years living in Buddhist Nepal, the book argues that lasting happiness requires a longer-term approach than Western psychology typically presumes. We can�t permanently prevent or alleviate conditions that cause or lead to depression, anxiety, addictions, or eating disorders solely by taking this pill or changing that superficial behavior. Rather, we need to take time to develop a deeper awareness of human psychology and the way our problems actually arise. There are no shortcuts. No matter what our religious backgrounds, real, lasting happiness means doing the hard work of learning to see ourselves as the problem-creators we really are. It means gradually evolving an awareness of our self-destructive tendencies from the inside out.By exploring a basic Buddhist tenet�that we have an innate capacity to be free of problems, and therefore happy�the book methodically explores the nature of problems and how they take root in our lives. In clear, lively prose, the book then shows readers how they can put themselves on a gradual path toward identifying unhelpful thought patterns that contribute to their own problems. With the aid of anecdotes, exercises, and helpful advice, readers learn to study and understand their problems better, to take firm ownership over them, to transform them, and ultimately, to translate their new awareness into action in the world.
Karuna has been a student of Buddhist psychology and philosophy for over 30 years. A long time student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, he worked for the lamas at Kopan Monastery from 1975-1988. During that time he created and taught the secular studies program for the resident Tibetan and Nepali monks. He also assisted in running the Buddhist programs for foreign visitors and was the co-founder and director of the city center in Kathmandu, Himalayan Yogic Institute. He has been on the FPMT Board of Directors since 1988.
After returning to the US in 1988 he received his MA in Clinical Psychology from JFK University in 1992. He has worked at the Children's Health Council at Stanford University and trained interns in Narrative Therapy at Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto.
Presently, he is the director of The Karuna Group, a coaching and counseling project. The Karuna Group works with individuals, couples and families as well as assists business leaders in transforming their organizations into preeminent enterprises based upon the Buddhist principles of Wisdom, Compassion, and Ethics. Karuna also teaches workshops and classes in the integration of western and Buddhist psychology.
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