Stages of Meditation

Stages of Meditation: Training the Mind for Wisdom is a book compiled by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual and political leader of Tibet who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He currently lives in exile in Northern India and works tirelessly to bring enlightenment to the world. He has travelled throughout the world offering spiritual teaching in the hope to make it a better place for everyone to live.

In this book, his holiness offers practical advice on meditation. He shows how to meditate, and the various procedures and approaches that are involved. He explains the importance of building wisdom and training the mind for compassion and peace.

This book brings the Dalai Lama, one of the most respected and popular spiritual leaders in the world, into your home to show you how to live. Nearly all the problems in the West come from attachment to material items such as expensive designer clothes, unhealthy foods, large fast cars... This cycle is never ending. The more money a person has, the more attachments and addictions they have. This book demonstrates how you can achieve inner happiness without being addicted to materialism.

This book contains sound practical advice such as making an environment for your growth. It shows how living a simpler life with healthy foods and minimal material attachments is the best way forward. It shows how to practice contentment, and good will to others. Most importantly, it shows how you can take back control of your life.

When I think of all the millionaire celebrities and their children, who have died from drug overdoses, living a life of excess and out of control, His Holiness certainly makes a good case and provides the groundwork to live a better life.

Meditations

I enjoyed Chapter 4, Developing Equanimity. It is a lovely simple thing to learn, and when you see people as neither your friend nor your enemy, treating all the same with compassion, that is when you become enlightened.

The meditations are from a 9th Century scholar Kamalashila designed to help people transform their lives. Geshe Lobsang Jordhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell have carried out the translations.

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