Turning the Mind Into an AllyForeward by Pema Ch?dr?n
Preface

One: Why Meditate?
1. The Rock and the Flower
2. Bewilderment and Suffering
3. Peaceful Abiding

Two: The Art of Peacefully Abiding
4. Taking Our Seat
5. Mindfulness and Awareness
6. How to Gather a Scattered Mind
7. The Virtues of Boredom
8. Laziness
9. Forgetting the Instructions
10. Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose
11. Nine Stages of Training the Mind

Three: Turning the Mind Into An Alley
12. Turning the Mind
13. The Joy of Being Human
14. The Unchanging Truth of Change
15. First We Got Old
16. And Then We Die
17. Samsara and Karma
18. Jumping into the Heart of the Buddha

Four: Warrior in the World
19. Rousing Motivation
20. Wisdom and Emptiness
21. Warrior in the World

Appendixes
A. Preparing to Practice
B. The Posture of Meditation
C. Instructions for Contempletive Meditation

Resources

About the Author

Sakyong Mipham Rinpocheis one of the most highly respected young incarnate lamas of Tibet. He is the head of the Shambhala lineage and thedirector of Shambhala International, a worldwide organization of more than two hundred meditation and retreat centers. He teaches around the world to thousands, both Western and Asian audiences.He is a husband, father of three daughters, and an avid runner.

Reviews

"In language totally fresh and jargon-free, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche distills the wisdom of many centuries. Simple as it is profound, his book bears reading many times."—Peter Conradi, author of Iris Murdoch: A Life"With warmhearted clarity and wise simplicity, Sakyong Mipham offers some of the best advice you can find for establishing and sustaining a strong, dedicated, and genuinely transformative meditation experience."—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart"Like Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, this book addresses the complexities, obstacles, and joys of meditation with a simple and extraordinarly generous voice. It's an amazing guidebook for a beginner, in the sense that one is always a beginner and that the journey never ends."—Rudy Wurlitzer, author of Hard Travel to Sacred Places"One of the best of the Buddhism-for-Westerners genre."Publishers Weekly

Is the mind our enemy? It can be, suggests Shambhala International's director Mipham in his first book. The key to peaceful and sane living, says Mipham, is training our minds. Without that training, people live "at the mercy of our moods." Meditation is the tool that can help spiritual seekers master, rather than be mastered by, their own minds. This book blends a philosophically savvy explanation of why meditation is necessary with an artful and accessible introduction to the basics of meditation. Mipham moves elegantly from the prosaic (how to sit with a straight spine) to the profound (why one should bravely contemplate illness, aging and death). Indeed, those practicing spiritual disciplines from any tradition-Christian, Wiccan, and so forth-could benefit from Mipham's commonsense approach to meditation. He acknowledges, for example, that the tyro might get bored, distracted or even hungry for a cookie. New meditators are likely to find a million and one excuses for not meditating. But, says Mipham gently, "at some point you just have to sit down and do it." Mipham's guide is distinguished by its intelligible prose; unlike many fellow travelers, he does not drown his reader in jargon. He defines Buddhist basics, like "samsara" and "karma," clearly. Three useful appendices, outlining meditation postures and giving simple instructions for contemplation, round out the book, and a foreword by Pema Chdrn is an added treat. This easy read is one of the best of the Buddhism-for-Westerners genre. (Jan.) Forecast: Mipham's name may not yet be a household one, but his father's certainly is: Mipham is the son of the late Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chgyam Trungpa, whose books have sold over a million copies. That will help generate interest in this title, which stands on its own considerable merits. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Reviews