Writing Worth Reading
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Writing Worth Reading
I could have chosen many different books by him but I went for this one because it is the record of lectures he gave in both Tibetan and English in Wembley in 1993. It is a very accessible book and is the Dalai Lama speaking to the West about what he feels is important to everyone, not only Buddhists.
The author of your next book needs no introduction. This is The Art of Living: A Guide to Contentment, Joy and Fulfillment by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Yes he is the 14th Dalai Lama and, like Thich Nhat Hanh, he has become rather an icon in the West. Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of one of the bodhisattvas in Buddhism – Avalokitesvara, who is the epitome of compassion. I could have chosen many different books by him but I went for this one because it is the record of lectures he gave in both Tibetan and English in Wembley in 1993. It is a very accessible book and shows the Dalai Lama speaking to the West about what he feels is important to everyone, not only Buddhists.
Speaking from his Buddhist perspective, he affirms, for instance, that everyone likes happiness and not pain. He then stresses that this happiness must not infringe on the rights of others. And then gradually he tells people what happiness really means – a happiness which is free from the craving for material things that Buddhism sees as the root of our suffering. Happiness, he says, can be about developing one’s own potential but it must have no conceit and pride about it. So, in a very accessible way he speaks about what some Buddhists would call the four noble truths.
He also mentions contemporary topics like birth control, how we should approach death and how we should deal with suffering and anger. It is a very useful book for me and for anyone who wants to touch what Buddhism can offer through the words of a teacher.
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After teaching English at secondary level in Jamaica and London, and working for a Christian organisation that encouraged inter-cultural and inter-faith encounter, Elizabeth Harris changed career in 1986 through travelling to Sri Lanka to study Buddhism. She stayed eight years and completed a doctorate in Buddhist Studies. She then worked as a research fellow at Westminster College, Oxford, specialising in Buddhist Studies, and then as executive secretary for inter-faith relations for the Methodist Church of Britain. She is now a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University, specialising in Buddhism. She is a member of the management board of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies and President of the European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies. She uses a form of Buddhist meditation in her own spiritual life and is interested in what Buddhism can offer not only to Buddhists but to the world.
