My Spiritual Journey

by Dalai Lama XIV; Stril-rever, Sofia; Mandell, Charlotte

• ISBN13: 9780062018090
• ISBN10: 0062018094
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-04
• Publisher: Harperone

Summary

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama...shares lessons learned from a remarkable life, in turn showing us how to live our own lives with compassion, non-violence and love." --Fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu, author of Made for Goodness In this elegant self-portrait, the world's most outspoken and influential spiritual leader recounts his epic and engaging life story. The Dalai Lama's most accessible and intimate book, My Spiritual Journey is an excellent introduction to the larger-than-life leader of Tibetan Buddhism--perfect for anyone curious about Eastern religion, invested in the Free Tibet movement, or simply seeking a richer spiritual life. The Dalai Lama's riveting, deeply insightful meditations on life will resonate strongly with readers of Pema Chodron, Ram Das, Thich Nhat Hanh, Deepak Chopra, or the His Holiness's own The Art of Happiness and Ethics for the New Millennium.

Author Biography

Sofia Stril-Rever is a Sanskrit expert and an interpreter for the Dalai Lama She received training from a traditional Indian Pandit and a Tibetan Lama in the monastery of Kirti (Dharamsala). She translated and published a collection titled Kalachakra Buddhist Scriptures and cofounded the Website www.buddhaline.net.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Listening to the Dalai Lama's Appeal to the World by Sofia Stril-Rever	p. xiii
My Three Commitments in Life	p. I
As a Human Being
Our Common Humanity	p. 5
I Am No One Special	p. 7
I am just a human being	p. 7
In our blood, a vital need for affection	p. 8
My mother, a compassionate woman	p. 11
It's time to think in human terms	p. 12
Every person we meet is our brother or sister	p. 13
Loving-kindness, the condition of our survival	p. 14
I pray for a more loving human family	p. 15
We are all alike	p. 16
Until My Last Breath, I Will Practice Compassion	p. 18
What do we mean by "compassion"?	p. 18
True compassion is universal	p. 20
The power of compassion	p. 21
I am a professional laugher	p. 23
I am a devoted servant of compassion	p. 25
Compassion, path of my happiness	p. 26
I love the smile, unique to humans	p. 28
My Lives Without Beginning or End	p. 31
I Rejoice at Being the Son of Simple Farmers	p. 35
My everyday life	p. 35
I was born on the fifth day of the fifth month	p. 37
I can see into the humblest souls	p. 39
My parents never thought I might he the Fourteenth Dalai Lama	p. 41
I recognize my rosary	p. 42
I successfully pass the tests of remembering my previous life	p. 44
My Childhood in Lhasa	p. 46
I climb up onto the Lion Throne	p. 46
I find my teeth	p. 48
Childhood memories	p. 49
I indulge in illegal treats	p. 50
I almost looked like Moshe Dayan!	p. 53
My Reincarnation Lineage	p. 55
I am summoned to become the Dalai Lama to serve others	p. 55
The Tibetans will decide if they want a Fifteenth Dalai Lama	p. 58
My Dalailamaship	p. 60
Why shouldn't a very beautiful woman be my next incarnation?	p. 62
W are without beginning or end	p. 65
I could reincarnate in the form of an insect	p. 66
As a Buddhist Monk
Transforming Oneself	p. 73
My Ideal: The Bodhisattva	p. 75
My identity as a monk	p. 75
My monk's vows	p. 76
The daily meditations of a Buddhist monk	p. 77
Living as a bodhisattva	p. 79
Spiritual practice in order to become better human beings	p. 80
Temples of Kindness in Our Hearts	p. 82
Toward brotherly exchanges between religions	p. 82
Politicians need religion more than hermits	p. 83
My pilgrimages, from Lourdes to Jerusalem	p. 84
A life of contemplation on love	p. 86
Temples inside	p. 87
Transforming Our Minds	p. 88
Analysis of the wind as a preliminary to spiritual practice	p. 88
Impermanence and interdependence, or seeing the world as it is	p. 90
Transforming our mind on the Buddha's path	p. 93
Actualizing our potential	p. 96
Training our emotional life	p. 100
Transforming the World	p. 103
I Call for a Spiritual Revolution	p. 105
We can do without religion, but not without spirituality	p. 105
Spiritual revolution and ethical revolution	p. 106
The sickness of duality	p. 107
The disregard of interdependence by Westerners	p. 108
I Do Not Believe in Ideologies	p. 109
Humanity is one	p. 109
Interdependence is a law of nature	p. 111
A sense of responsibility is born from compassion	p. 112
War is an anachronism	p. 115
Everyone must assume a share of universal responsibility	p. 117
My Dialogue with the Sciences	p. 119
Why is a Buddhist monk interested in science?	p. 119
Humanity is at a crossroads	p. 123
Ethics in the sciences to save life	p. 126
The tragedy of September 11, 2001, taught me that we must not separate ethics from progress	p. 129
Taking Care of the Earth	p. 133
Our Ecological Responsibility	p. 135
As a child, I learned from my teachers to take care of the environment	p. 135
The Tibet of my childhood, paradise of wildlife	p. 139
In Tibet the mountains have become bald as monks' heads	p. 141
Reflections of a Buddhist monk on our ecological responsibility	p. 145
Our Planet Is One World	p. 151
The Buddha in the Green Party!	p. 151
Human rights and the environment	p. 152
Mind, heart, and environment	p. 154
Taking care of the Earth	p. 156
Interdependence as seen from space	p. 158
As the Dalai Lama
In 1959 the Dalai Lama Meets the World	p. 163
I Was the Only One Who Could Win Unanimous Support	p. 165
At sixteen, I become the temporal leader of Tibet	p. 165
We wrongly believed that isolation would guarantee us peace	p. 168
I endorse the Kashag's appeal to the United Nations	p. 172
The motherland, a shameless lie	p. 174
Mao's personality impressed me	p. 176
March 10,1919, a day of insurrection in Lhasa	p. 178
My Children, You Are the Future of Tibet	p. 180
Forced exile	p. 180
My priority is stopping the bloodshed	p. 183
Children of hope	p. 185
I am a proponent of secular democracy	p. 188
Liberty, equality, and fraternity are also Buddhist principles	p. 190
I love the image of swords transformed into plowshares	p. 192
Human beings prefer the way of peace	p. 194
What would Gandhi have done in my place?	p. 197
I Appeal to All the Peoples of the World	p. 199
I Denounce the Sinicization of Tibet	p. 201
I ask the world not to forget that thousands of Tibetans were massacred	p. 201
In the name of humanity, I appeal to all the peoples of the world	p. 206
The Han-ification campaign in Tibet	p. 209
Five hundred Tibetans perished while fleeing their occupied country	p. 212
Tibet, Sanctuary of Peace for the World	p. 218
My peoples contribution to worldpeace	p. 218
I propose that Tibet become a sanctuary of ahimsa for the world	p. 224
In the name of the spiritual heritage of my people	p. 227
My weapons are truth, courage, and determination	p. 233
Tibet is still suffering from flagrant, unimaginable human rights violations	p. 239
In China, I see that change is on the way	p. 246
To all my spiritual brothers and sisters in China	p. 252
Conclusion: I Place My Hope in the Human Heart	p. 257
We Can Only Live in Hope	p. 259
Afterword: Winning Peace with the Dalai Lama by Sofia Stril-Rever	p. 263
Notes	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 272
The Dalai Lama's Annual Speech to Commemorate the March 10,1959, Lhasa Insurrection	p. 275
The Kalachakra Mandala	p. 280
Index	p. 281
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