Observations
I am now two thirds of the way through Becoming Enlightened by the Dalai Lama.
In short, he has taken 2,600 years of documents, read most of them, meditated more than most people, is the Buddha incarnate and has condensed all of these teachings and experience into 250 pages.
My short interpretation is this:
The first step is making the choice that you want to improve yourself and your life. That is the most important step of all. Once you do this, changes flow in as quickly as you are willing to let them assuming your dedication is sincere.
Next:
All happiness comes from doing good and compassionate acts. All misery comes from acting against yourself or others. This is the foundation of Karma. The more good things you do the happier you will be. The more you neglect yourself or others or do harm to anyone, the more elusive happiness will be. This is not instant but generally cumulative. Good can often counteract bad so it is not like you are doomed forever if you took something from a church bake sale when you were a kid.
Acting good is fine and dandy and all but how do you do it consistently? Interesting you should ask. He addresses that next. Thoughts are what cause words. Words are the intermediary to actions. If you think good things you will speak and act accordingly. If you sit around and plot the murders of your coworkers or dwell on how much you hate someone or something, it affects your outlook and thus your actions.
There are chapters on that but this is the short version.
Another concept he addresses is that everything is connected. Everything is part of a chain of cause and effect. There are no exceptions. Everything you do has consequences (good, bad, or indifferent). Once you see that every word, good, profane, complimentary, or insulting, has effect and returns to you it makes you want to take the responsibility of your words and actions seriously.
If you work on these things in your mind it is a great start.
He says a whole lot more on many related things and I am still enjoying it. If anyone reads this and is interested let me know. If anyone reads this and is interested and has a hard time with the calm mind thing please go see an article we wrote www.thelotusseedprocess.com/articles/meditation.pdf
In short, he has taken 2,600 years of documents, read most of them, meditated more than most people, is the Buddha incarnate and has condensed all of these teachings and experience into 250 pages.
My short interpretation is this:
The first step is making the choice that you want to improve yourself and your life. That is the most important step of all. Once you do this, changes flow in as quickly as you are willing to let them assuming your dedication is sincere.
Next:
All happiness comes from doing good and compassionate acts. All misery comes from acting against yourself or others. This is the foundation of Karma. The more good things you do the happier you will be. The more you neglect yourself or others or do harm to anyone, the more elusive happiness will be. This is not instant but generally cumulative. Good can often counteract bad so it is not like you are doomed forever if you took something from a church bake sale when you were a kid.
Acting good is fine and dandy and all but how do you do it consistently? Interesting you should ask. He addresses that next. Thoughts are what cause words. Words are the intermediary to actions. If you think good things you will speak and act accordingly. If you sit around and plot the murders of your coworkers or dwell on how much you hate someone or something, it affects your outlook and thus your actions.
There are chapters on that but this is the short version.
Another concept he addresses is that everything is connected. Everything is part of a chain of cause and effect. There are no exceptions. Everything you do has consequences (good, bad, or indifferent). Once you see that every word, good, profane, complimentary, or insulting, has effect and returns to you it makes you want to take the responsibility of your words and actions seriously.
If you work on these things in your mind it is a great start.
He says a whole lot more on many related things and I am still enjoying it. If anyone reads this and is interested let me know. If anyone reads this and is interested and has a hard time with the calm mind thing please go see an article we wrote www.thelotusseedprocess.com/articles/meditation.pdf