Compassion -- sympathy for the suffering of others and the desire to free them from it -- is wrestled within all spiritual traditions. Yet how does one actually become a compassioante person? What are the mechanisms by which a selfish heart is transformed into a generous heart?
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to new York City in 1999, he spoke simply and powerfully on the everyday Buddhist practice of compassion. Weaving together the contents of three sacred texts -- one by the eighth-century Indian master Kamalashila, another by the fourteenth-century Tibetan Togmay Sangpo, and a third by the eleventh-century sage Langri Tangpa -- His Holiness showed that the path to compassion is a series of meditations. An Open Heart lays out this course of meditation, from the simplest to the most challenging, describing the mental training techniques that will enable anyone of any faith to change their minds and open their hearts. In this book the path begins with simple and clear ruminations on the advantages of a virtuous life and moves on to practices that can temper destructive and impulsive emotions. Such practices can be undertaken at odd moments of the day, at once transforming the aimless or anxious mind into a disciplined and open mind. Gradually, the book introduces the more challenging and sustained meditation practices. In these meditations the deepest and most profound insights of Buddhist practice become part of one's way to knowing and experiencing the world.
An Open Heart is a clear and simple introduction to the Buddhist path to enlightenment, by its greatest teacher, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life; Dalai Lama; edited by Nicholas Vreeland; Little, Brown and Company; Paperback; 191 pages; $12.95
Tenzin Gyamtso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born on July 6, 1935 in a small village called Takster in northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, His Holiness was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. He was enthroned at the age of five and assumed full political power in 1950. In 1959, His Holiness was forced into exile and has striven ever since for a peaceful solution to the the Sino-Tibetan crisis. He continually promotes his compassionate approach to life struggles, whether personal or global, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
Nicholas Vreeland (editor) has been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist monk since 1985, when he was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama and entered Rato monastery in India. Since 1998, he has been the director of the Tibet Center in New York City.
| Foreword |
VII |
| Introduction: Central Park, New York City, August 15, 1999 |
3 |
| The Desire for Happiness |
27 |
| Meditation, a Beginning |
43 |
| The Material and Immaterial World |
55 |
| Karma |
63 |
| The Afflictions |
73 |
| The Vast and the Profound: Two Aspects of the Path |
81 |
| Compassion |
89 |
| Meditating on Compassion |
99 |
| Cultivating Equanimity |
107 |
| Bodhicitta |
117 |
| Calm Abiding |
127 |
| The Nine Stages of Calm Abiding Meditation |
139 |
| Wisdom |
147 |
| Buddhahood |
161 |
| Generating Bodhicitta |
169 |
| Afterword |
181 |
| Photo Credits |
191 |
|
