What do you think?
Rate this book
The Journey and the Guide: A Practical Course in Enlightenment
Building on the success of Life with Full Attention , Maitreyabandhu offers a profoundly useful work on how to practice Buddhism in everyday life. Using examples from the life of the Buddha, Maitreyabandhu provides an easily understood outline of the spiritual life of Buddhists in the Triratna Community. The journey starts with our mind, particularly when we begin to look into the truth of things—the truth of the friend in hospital, the coffin we carry to the graveside. What we find in our guide, the Buddha, is a man with a "fit," healthy mind. To get fit, we need to work on becoming a happy healthy human being. Maitreyabandhu takes us on this journey with practical week-by-week exercises, focusing on cultivating mindful awareness and being happy. Maitreyabandhu is an experienced teacher and a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order. Ordained in 1990, he has published articles on Buddhism and meditation in the United Kingdom and abroad. He is the director of Breathing Space, the London Buddhist Centre's health and well-being program. He is also a published poet, winning the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition in 2011. Maitreyabandhu often presents Buddhism in the media. His previous books are Thicker Than Friendship on the Buddhist Path (2003) and Life With Full A Practical Course in Mindfulness (2009), published by Windhorse Publications.
248 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2015
35 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 6, 2015
Funny, engaging, inspiring. I really enjoyed this book and learned much from it. And I was the editor.
November 24, 2022
Maitreyabandhu writes very passionately and clearly, somehow turning a ungraspable concept such as enlightenment into a practical guide with steps to follow. I enjoyed this approach, as some books are quite heady and conceptual, and don't recommend enough ways to apply the teachings, whereas this author gives you lots of applicable instruction in this area. I only gave it four stars rather than five because a couple of the teachings conflicted with my views a little bit, and I also found the addition of the poems to be unnecessary and not entirely useful.
October 29, 2023
The writing isn’t great: very repetitive, preachy and assumes the worst of the readers: it went on about how watching pornography and taking class A drugs is bad so much, that it made me want to do both just to spite the writer.
Other ‘unskillful’ things he did was assume that everyone is capable of change and if we’re not changing according to the exact trajectory he laid out, we’re lazy; as well as assume that everyone in the world needs to be less self-centred (just like him, presumably, even thought that quality of character did not transpire through his writing), whilst there are plenty of people in the world (women mainly) who are already completely lost in other people - their partners/children/relatives - that telling them to de-prioritise themselves even more would completely erase whatever remaining sense of the self they have left.
The book often portrays the writer’s opinion as fact, based on anecdotal evidence from his own, as it sounds, very privileged life.
The one thing that definitely did not produce ‘positive emotion’ in me, is that he mocked therapy as a way of getting to know yourself or dealing with your childhood traumas, which brings me back to my last point above.
Read it at your peril, but short of a handful of times when the book provided some genuine depth, only to go back to the repetitive: meditate, go to Sanga, etc etc - it felt like a bit of a waste of time, if I’m being completely honest.
By all means meditate and join a Buddhist community if that feels right for you, but that’s not what makes you a decent human being.
Other ‘unskillful’ things he did was assume that everyone is capable of change and if we’re not changing according to the exact trajectory he laid out, we’re lazy; as well as assume that everyone in the world needs to be less self-centred (just like him, presumably, even thought that quality of character did not transpire through his writing), whilst there are plenty of people in the world (women mainly) who are already completely lost in other people - their partners/children/relatives - that telling them to de-prioritise themselves even more would completely erase whatever remaining sense of the self they have left.
The book often portrays the writer’s opinion as fact, based on anecdotal evidence from his own, as it sounds, very privileged life.
The one thing that definitely did not produce ‘positive emotion’ in me, is that he mocked therapy as a way of getting to know yourself or dealing with your childhood traumas, which brings me back to my last point above.
Read it at your peril, but short of a handful of times when the book provided some genuine depth, only to go back to the repetitive: meditate, go to Sanga, etc etc - it felt like a bit of a waste of time, if I’m being completely honest.
By all means meditate and join a Buddhist community if that feels right for you, but that’s not what makes you a decent human being.
September 23, 2023
Some great material, but... I have three major concerns about it.
1. This is presented as an eight week program, which seems bonkers. There is a lifetime of practice in it.
2. The author seems quite anti-family.
3. He makes many suggestions for cultural things to open us to spiritual receptivity. Poems, novels, music, film. I appreciated that, but was disappointed to note that almost all of the creators were white men, like the author. More diversity of input would surely be even more helpful in opening our minds?
1. This is presented as an eight week program, which seems bonkers. There is a lifetime of practice in it.
2. The author seems quite anti-family.
3. He makes many suggestions for cultural things to open us to spiritual receptivity. Poems, novels, music, film. I appreciated that, but was disappointed to note that almost all of the creators were white men, like the author. More diversity of input would surely be even more helpful in opening our minds?
December 3, 2023
Very insightful guidebook for beginners to Buddhism.
I particularly enjoyed the poems associated to each part. It enhances the topic’s depth and leaves a strong feeling.
Well put together and thought wisely especially with the summaries at the end of each part. This might look like a repetition but it actually is good to remember. Otherwise cab be quite dense at some points as it covers quite a bit of a topic although tried to be focused for five main aspects as a guide.
Highly recommended.
I particularly enjoyed the poems associated to each part. It enhances the topic’s depth and leaves a strong feeling.
Well put together and thought wisely especially with the summaries at the end of each part. This might look like a repetition but it actually is good to remember. Otherwise cab be quite dense at some points as it covers quite a bit of a topic although tried to be focused for five main aspects as a guide.
Highly recommended.
June 11, 2021
A wonderful book that explains The Dharma and the Buddha in an easy to understand manner. The excercises are great. My personal favourite being the 15 minute alone time with no distractions. A great read.
October 25, 2020
Interesting, insightful and practical. A little anecdotal so better suited to those with a knowledge of Buddhism in the Triratna community.
December 4, 2020
I have been practising Buddhism for 25 years and this is the best practice manual I know of.
September 27, 2020
DNF: it's a good read, but I found it would go on a bit so my interest waned.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews