By Surya Das

HarperSanFrancisco
Hardcover; $23.95
On-sale April 2007
ISBN: 0060747293

Lama Surya Das, national bestselling author and the most highly trained American Lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the Buddha's ten core practices that we can all use to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. This book offers a thorough, tried and true map to the richest treasure a human being can find. If we follow its guidelines, we will enter into a life of greater joy, clarity, peace, and wisdom than we ever thought possible. At the same time, we will be doing the best we can to change the world into a saner and more harmonious place to live. This claim can be said with authority because the core teachings in this book belong to the Buddha. In the process of awakening, the Buddha realized that each of us, deep within, is inherently perfect, whole and complete, with the capacity to overcome suffering, transform ourselves into forces for the good, and, in so doing, revolutionize and liberate the world.

One of the most accessible books on Buddhist wisdom for the modern reader, these ten essential practices are accompanied by lively and detailed anecdotes and practical exercises that guide the reader on this extraordinary path to a better life. From Generosity to Effort, Ethics to Meditation, Patience to Wisdom, these ten practices will help awaken the Buddha within all of us. You don't have to be a Buddhist to want to live to your potential and this book is for everyone who seeks to become a better person and share in the bounty of their true nature.

LAMA SURYA DAS has spent more than 30 years studying with the great spiritual masters of Asia, including 15 in India and the Himalayas and eight years in a cloistered Tibetan retreat. He has brought many Tibetan lamas to North America to teach and reside. He is a leading spokesman for Buddhism and contemporary spirituality, as well as a poet, translator, spiritual teacher, and a lama in the Tibetan Buddhist order. Surya leads meditation retreats, workshops, and lectures worldwide. Lama Surya Das is the founder and spiritual director of the Dzogchen Foundation in Massachusetts and California, and organized the Western Buddhist Teachers Network weeklong conferences with the Dalai Lama. Surya is the author of several books, including the national best-seller Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Modern World, and is active in interfaith dialogue. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Table of contents:

• Foreword
• Preface: Buddha's Gift—the Bodhisattva's Active Way of Awakening
• Introduction: Living the Good Life
• One: The Transcendental Gift of Generosity
• Two: The Impeccable Virtue of Ethical Self-Discipline
• Three: The Transformative Practice of Patient Forbearance
• Four: The Power of Heroic Effort
• Five: The Liberating Power of Mindfulness and Meditation
• Six: The Panacea of Wisdom
• Seven: The Universal Tool of Skillful Means
• Eight: The Profundity and Vastness of Spiritual Aspirations
• None: The Magic of Higher Accomplishments
• Ten: The Perfection of Awakened Awareness
• Prayer of Accomplishing the Paramita Virtues
• Acknowledgments