«Nunca sabemos o que chegará primeiro, se o amanhã, se a próxima vida.» _____
«Na vida de todos os dias... se queremos ir a um lugar onde nunca estivemos, levamos um mapa. Porém, quando se trata de seguir para aquele lugar desconhecido a que chamamos "vida seguinte", as experiências que acumulámos nesta vida têm muito pouca utilidade. O nosso único guia é a prática espiritual... As nossas mentes devem estar completamente preparadas e transformadas.»
Esta eloquente mensagem, que nos é deixada pelo venerável líder político e espiritual do Tibete, a viver no exílio, é um tesouro de sabedoria simples: é uma cartilha para uma vida com propósito e para uma morte em paz. Sua Santidade o Dalai-Lama expõe-nos os seus pensamentos luminosos, deixa-nos conselhos reconfortantes e serve-se da sabedoria das tradições budistas para expandir a nossa compreensão sobre o fim da vida e sobre o que significa «estar preparado». Ensina-nos que, para termos uma boa morte, é necessário que vivamos uma boa vida. Oferece-nos bons concelhos capazes de nos iluminarem um pouco mais o caminho, deixando-nos lições directas e ensinamentos budistas tradicionais que podem ajudar-nos a aproveitar a dádiva do nosso potencial humano, bem como a aceitar a impermanência e a morte, e a alcançar, ainda neste vida, a alegria, a paz e a realização espiritual.
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.
Tenzin Gyatso was the fifth of sixteen children born to a farming family. He was proclaimed the tulku (an Enlightened lama who has consciously decided to take rebirth) of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two.
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.
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.
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.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.
A book to come back to. I liked the different chapters and the meditation instructions especially about meditating on death. Patience is sometimes difficult for anyone. Wisdom is something we all strive for in life.
The mind can be a beautiful and also dangerous if we let our emotions overwhelm it.
Bought a book in a thrift shop. Was not particularly interested in a topic before, but, the book made me interested in Buddhism phylosophies. I will reread it in a few years.
This book improved my understanding on why it is so important to love and help one another. It educates u on the ways of Buddhism. Although I am not Buddhist, I acknowledge and respect, and also have learnt many beneficial characteristics from stories and wisdom of the Dalai Lama, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. Thanks guys :)
I purchased this book for ₹195 (~2.75USD) while visiting the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala. Although I wasn’t necessarily looking to learn a great deal about Buddhism, I do admire the Dalai Lama and was hoping to take something from it that would make me a more peaceful and compassionate person, and help me not fear death.
For starters, it didn’t help soothe my anxiety concerning death at all, namely because whereas I view it as an ending, Buddhists view it merely as part of the cycle of rebirth—“like changing clothes,” in the words of the Dalai Lama. There were numerous passages that definitely rung true and can help you be more intentional in your efforts to be kind to others, but nothing here really helped me come to terms with my mortality. As I was reading this book I tried to really meditate on what the Dalai Lama was saying and how I could apply these lessons in my own life, even if only secularly. For example, ”You can praise people to their faces, but it can seem like flattery; it is better to praise them to others,” (p. 72). His perspective of enemies as opportunities to be patient and beggars as opportunities to be generous, (p. 87) is also a really positive view I hope I can emulate.
Chapter 5 —Patience— started out especially insightful, as patience is something that I often struggle with, but then it got weird with the victim-blaming… and only worse with the story of Vishvantara’s generosity. Giving away your children into servitude is not commendable, and what’s worse is that it’s not even the only story that involves abandoning your children and wife (in the introduction, he tells of Buddha Shakyamuni’s sacrificing “all the comforts of the palace, including the companionship of his wife and son,” as if this is an admirable act).
From here, despite still offering a lot of lessons that are beneficial to meditate on, the book never really recovered for me. In fact, and I hate to say this but, Buddhism’s fixation on freeing yourself of worldly possessions in order to obtain enlightenment seems less convincing to me now than it did before I’d read any Buddhist literature. Look, I originally wrote three lengthy paragraphs about how I disagree with the position that in order to eliminate negativity and suffering you can’t have offspring, spouses, parents, friends or contribute to society, citing specific passages from the book, but I’ve removed them because this is a book review, not a platform for philosophical/spiritual debate. Besides, the Dalai Lama does eventually admit towards the end that “if you sincerely practice, even if you stay and lead the life of a householder, nirvana will be yours,” (p. 121).
I will still keep the Dalai Lama’s teachings in mind because I do believe they can help me be more generous and patient and less angry and jealous, but the religious aspect of the book wasn’t convincing.
Not one of my favorite books. Have read one from the Dalai Lama before (ethics for the new millennium) and found it much better. Projected too much of a utopian mindset. Made attachment seem as if it were a sin, because it doesnt matter in the end you will die and that attachment was worthless. Much prefer the readings from Thich Nhat Hanh, who brings up how we should view the impermanence of things so that attachment isnt so bad, because nothing vanishes. I interpreted what Dalai Lama said to mean that life is silly. We all die alone and with nothing. Valuing anything is silly, because in the end it doesnt matter.
It is in the title so maybe it is tailored for people who are looking to become monks, but book is not overly practical for normal people. Was a fine book, but would recommend others before this one.
Encontrei este livro cá por casa e como gosto de teologia e sempre quis saber mais sobre o budismo não hesitei em começar a ler. É de facto uma leitura interessante embora por vezes um pouco aborrecida e repetitiva. Mas sem dúvida que o Dalai Lama XIV consegue transmitir as ideias base do budismo tibetano, sendo que este livro por vezes parece um manual de iniciação a quem quer seguir os passos necessários a ser monge.
Read this many years ago and found it very enlightening. Now reread it and less bowled over Good philosophical points but quite dogmatic at times. Too dogmatic for me!