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Der Weg des tibetischen Buddhismus
Opening the Eye of New Awareness is a thoroughly but succinct overview of Buddhist doctrines as they have been practiced in Tibet for a thousand years. Among the many topics the Dalai Lama discusses in this work are the need for religious practice, the path to achieving meditative stabilization, reincarnation, and the importance of kindness and compassion. Completed just four years after his escape from Tibet and four years after completing his religious education, it is a work of consummate scholarship.Originally written for Tibetan laypeople, this was the Dalai Lama's first book on Buddhist philosophy to appear in English. Professor Lopez's brilliant translation and new introduction place these remarkable teachings in their proper historical context. Sensitively interpreted by Ken McLeod, a renowned student and teacher of Buddhism and meditation, Opening the Eye of New Awareness provides a compendium of Buddhist doctrine and practice that is both dense and rich -- serving at once as a summation of knowledge and as an invitation to further study. This is an invaluable handbook for personal use and for academic study of the Buddhist path.
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First published June 15, 1984
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About the author
Dalai Lama XIV
1,552 books6,250 followersJetsun 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.
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.
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April 17, 2011"....the differences that exist among the schools of Tibetan Buddhism are merely minor variations in the modes of skillful methods for leading students on the path....
"Aside from these minor differences, these religious systems, in fact, are the same in that their main and final object of achievement is the state of buddahood. They are also the same in terms of the stages of practice that serve as the means for achieving buddahood in that they do not differ with respect to: practicing a union of sutra and mantra, the inseparability of the three special trainings [in ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom]..., and having a view that does not pass beyond the four seals that certify a Buddhist system:
"1. All products are impermanent.
"2. All contaminated things are miserable.
"3. All phenomena are empty and selfless.
"4. Nirvana is peace." pg. 107
"All beings are equal in that they want happiness and do not want suffering. This does not apply merely to us humans of higher intelligence; all, even dumb and obscure creatures, from the tiniest insect on up, only want happiness and do not want even a little suffering. Therefore, everyone, ourselves and others, must find a method to cause happiness to arise and to keep suffering from arising. Without such a method, it is impossible for happiness to arise and for suffering to be eliminated merely by waiting with the great hope, 'How nice it would be if I had happiness and did not have suffering!' Consequently, we must establish the causes from which happiness arises and abandon the bases of the arising of suffering." pp. 31-2
"Aside from these minor differences, these religious systems, in fact, are the same in that their main and final object of achievement is the state of buddahood. They are also the same in terms of the stages of practice that serve as the means for achieving buddahood in that they do not differ with respect to: practicing a union of sutra and mantra, the inseparability of the three special trainings [in ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom]..., and having a view that does not pass beyond the four seals that certify a Buddhist system:
"1. All products are impermanent.
"2. All contaminated things are miserable.
"3. All phenomena are empty and selfless.
"4. Nirvana is peace." pg. 107
"All beings are equal in that they want happiness and do not want suffering. This does not apply merely to us humans of higher intelligence; all, even dumb and obscure creatures, from the tiniest insect on up, only want happiness and do not want even a little suffering. Therefore, everyone, ourselves and others, must find a method to cause happiness to arise and to keep suffering from arising. Without such a method, it is impossible for happiness to arise and for suffering to be eliminated merely by waiting with the great hope, 'How nice it would be if I had happiness and did not have suffering!' Consequently, we must establish the causes from which happiness arises and abandon the bases of the arising of suffering." pp. 31-2
January 7, 2017
This was a very difficult read. HH the Dalai Lama seems to assume a fair amount of background knowledge that I didn't have. It's an extremely dense exposition of Tibetan Buddhism that uses a ton of terminology with very specific (and mostly unexplained) meanings. I'd like to come back to it after I have read some other books on Tibetan Buddhism. Perhaps it will make more sense.
February 15, 2019
O autor dedica o livro àqueles "que não têm o tempo livre de estudar os grandes textos". De fato, diversos aspectos da filosofia budista são sintetizados em um livro bem curto e, talvez por isto, a escrita assume que o leitor já tenha um conhecimento considerável sobre a doutrina e a prática budistas. Isto torna o entendimento de boa parte do livro bem difícil para um leigo. No entanto, os capítulos iniciais sobre as bases da filosofia e a explanação de diversos conceitos - como as não-virtudes, antídotos, nobre caminho óctuplo, dentre outros - são muito bons.
September 8, 2011
This is the thesis of H. H. The Dalai Lama. Giving a strong foundation in the basic principles of Buddhism, this book builds to explain in detail the various states of meditation and connects each point to the other for a grand and wonderful whole picture.
This powerful book is short enough to be read in one day, but profound enough to be studied for years. And as always it retains the warm and straight foreward manner in which this wonderful author is known for teaching. Also for those unfamiliar with the Dalai Lama's other books, most of them are compilations from lectures, etc. This book was actually written by him.
Blessings and peace to all beings!
This powerful book is short enough to be read in one day, but profound enough to be studied for years. And as always it retains the warm and straight foreward manner in which this wonderful author is known for teaching. Also for those unfamiliar with the Dalai Lama's other books, most of them are compilations from lectures, etc. This book was actually written by him.
Blessings and peace to all beings!
September 8, 2011
This is the thesis of H. H. The Dalai Lama. Giving a strong foundation in the basic principles of Buddhism, this book builds to explain in detail the various states of meditation and connects each point to the other for a grand and wonderful whole picture.
This powerful book is short enough to be read in one day, but profound enough to be studied for years. And as always it retains the warm and straight foreward manner in which this wonderful author is known for teaching. Also for those unfamiliar with the Dalai Lama's other books, most of them are compilations from lectures, etc. This book was actually written by him.
Blessings and peace to all beings!
This powerful book is short enough to be read in one day, but profound enough to be studied for years. And as always it retains the warm and straight foreward manner in which this wonderful author is known for teaching. Also for those unfamiliar with the Dalai Lama's other books, most of them are compilations from lectures, etc. This book was actually written by him.
Blessings and peace to all beings!
September 6, 2015
I could not understand this book at all......
Perhaps it is my current lack of understanding of many of the points made.
Although I did take one big thing, during meditation the book mentions to not think about anything in that is in the past and future....
that alone did start to help the depth of my meditation as that guided me to block out many of the thoughts that were popping into my mind.
Perhaps it is my current lack of understanding of many of the points made.
Although I did take one big thing, during meditation the book mentions to not think about anything in that is in the past and future....
that alone did start to help the depth of my meditation as that guided me to block out many of the thoughts that were popping into my mind.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews