Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment

by B. Alan Wallace, Dalai Lama XIV (Foreword)

In today's overstimulated world, many are realizing that happiness gained through material wealth and frivolous conquests is short-lived. To achieve long-term happiness, you must access your own bountiful resources—housed in your heart and mind. In Genuine Happiness , longtime Buddhist practitioner Alan Wallace shows you the path to bliss. Drawing on more than three decades of study under His Holiness the Dalai Lama and sixty other teachers, as well as 2,500 years of Buddhist tradition, Alan Wallace guides you step by step through five simple yet powerful meditations to help you focus your mind and open your heart to true happiness. Featuring a Foreword by the Dalai Lama, this book will help you discover that it is possible to experience genuine happiness every day. As you incorporate the meditations from Genuine Happiness into your life, you will discover that the joy you've sought has always been only a few meditative minutes away.

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality, Religion, Nonfiction, Meditation, Philosophy, Health

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Yolanda Blanch Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to read it again. Some parts are inspiring, others seems science fiction. But i love sf, so I enjoyed them too. Lets see where all of this contemplative - science working together goes...

[Fernanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sequência prática/contemplação/prática.... dos capítulos deixa meio maçante a leitura. Também achei a edição mal traduzida.
Passando por cima disso, os ensinamentos pescados no decorrer do livro são valiosos pra quem quer transformar a meditação em um hábito. Se você for leigo no budismo também pode ser interessante.

[Mackenzie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent mindfulness advice. Not super long.

[Peter Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has good instructions for a meditation practice. There is a lot of supernatural beliefs presented here that only are believable for Vajyriana Buddhists.

[Cicero Marra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bom, legal.

[Ramakrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

"Meditation is an instrument or technique to shape or tranform the mind. According to my own meagr experience of meditation as a simple Buddhist monk, as I get older, even though many of the problems I hace become more serious and my responsibilities become more challneging, my mind is becoming calmer. The result of a calmer mind is largey undisturbed. This is certainly the result of meditation.

With meditation we learn to withdraw our mind inward; we don't let it chase after sensory objects. ....... This is a state of mind in which awareness is not afflicted by memories and thoughts of the past, nor is it afflicted by thoughts of the future, anticipations, fears, and hopes. Rather, our mind remains in a natural and neutral state.

We need a balanced approach, combining studying and learning with the practices of contemplation and meditation."

In this book, Alan Wallace describes a range of meditation techniques from the simplest mindfulnes of breathing up to the exalted methods of Dzogchen.

[Elizabeth]

from the library

TOC from the library computer:
Acknowledgments.

Forward by H. H. the Dalai Lama.

Introduction.

PART I. REFINING THE ATTENTION.
Chapter One. Mindfulness of Breathing.

Chapter Two. Settling the Mind in Its Natural State.

Chapter Three. The Awareness of Being Aware.

PART II. INSIGHT THROUGH MINDFULNESS.
Chapter Four. Mindfulness of the Body.

Chapter Five. Mindfulness of the Feelings.

Chapter Six. Mindfulness of the Mind.

Chapter Seven. Mindfulness of Mental Objects.

PART III. CULTIVATING A GOOD HEART.
Chapter Eight. Loving-kindness.

Chapter Nine. Compassion.

Chapter Ten. Empathetic Joy and Equanimity.

PART IV. EXPLORING THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
Chapter Eleven. Bodhichitta-The Spirit of Awakening.

Chapter Twelve. Daytime Dream Yoga.

Chapter Thirteen. Nighttime Dream Yoga.

Chapter Fourteen. The Great Perfection.

Appendix. Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

[Francesca Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Wallace is perhaps the most extraordinary interpreter of Buddhism in modern times. He does not stray from Mahayana Buddhist traditions but knows them thoroughly and is able to express their values and core practices with amazing clarity. This is an outstanding book to help connect or reconnect with Buddhist practices, invaluable to both novices and knowledgeable older students.

[tj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty rad book. Really goes more deeply into some things to consider while "meditating". Talks about different aspects of your being that you can observe from an outside'ish perspective.
Im still treading through it and will have a little more to say soon enough.

[Elizabeth]

c 2005 from the library