76 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, practical summary of all Buddha's teachings., December 15, 1999
This review is from: Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (Paperback)
There are a handful of lamrim texts in English to choose from these days, and this is the best. A serious practitioner of Mahayana Buddhism can hardly speak enough praise for the lamrim approach, for it contains the essence all Buddha's 84,000 teachings in a condensed and logical order that lends itself wonderfully to easy study and practice. The tradition of lamrim began with Atisha, who was invited to Tibet from India in the 11th century. Padmasambhava had first brought Buddhism to Tibet a few generations earlier, but it had quickly begun to degenerate and decline. Atisha rejuvenated it and started the Gelug or Kadam tradition. One of the hallmarks of this tradition is lamrim, a synthesis of the Vast Path (method) teachings and the Profound Path (wisdom) teachings, which Atisha first laid out in his "Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment". Other great teachers within this tradition, such as Je Tsongkhapa and Je Pabonkhapa, have written subsequent lamrim texts, and so this treasure by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is a part of that tradition. Geshe Kelsang has always sought to bring the Mahayana (sutra) and Vajrayana (tantra) teachings and practices of Tibet to Westerners in a form that is entirely suitable to them, just as Atisha brought these teachings to the Tibetans long ago. He succeeds wonderfully with Joyful Path of Good Fortune. All lamrim texts contain the same essential points, but here these common points are rendered in clear and concise English that is a pleasure to read, and which makes even some of the most difficult points readily understandable to Westerners. The progression flows through the introductory and preliminary teachings, then on to the teachings for a person of Initial Scope, a person working to secure a good rebirth in their next life by practicing pure moral discipline and going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Next are the teachings for the Intermediate Scope, for people working to gain for themselves permanent liberation from all the sufferings of this world. Then the book proceeds on to the Great Scope teachings of the Mahayana, for those who are motivated to become a completely enlightened Buddha in order to save all beings from their suffering.
Although the Tibetan Vajrayana (tantra) teachings are only mentioned in passing in this book, all the Mahayana (sutra) teachings are so beautifully and helpfully laid out that I cannot think of a better text to guide one's daily study and practice of the basic sutra teachings. In fact, a companion text by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Meditation Handbook, is specifically designed to help one put these teachings into a daily meditation practice. You can't go wrong here. Highly recommended.
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44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfect Gem among all his Gems, April 19, 2003
This review is from: Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (Paperback)
All of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's books that I have read are beautiful, pure Dharma, and this book is my favorite among them. As the subtitle of the book proclaims, this is "The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment."
Geshe writes so carefully and precisely in his books, as if each word is precious and none to be wasted. This helped me to slow down and read and study the text with care -- the perfect way to study Lam Rim (the gradual, step-by-step path to enlightenment.) Don't rush through this book; your care will be rewarded!
Before getting to the first step of the path, the author gives us some introductory material. This includes a brief outline of lam rim, the qualities of the author (the original author of the lam rim was Atisha who brought these teachings to Tibet where they were preserved), how to listen properly to dharma teachings, and some introduction to meditation. Then Geshe begins to lead us down the path.
The path begins with reliance on a good spiritual guide. Just as we would rely upon a guide while trying to pass through dangerous mountains, and we would choose a qualified guide that knew the path well, so too should we find a guide along this path to enlightenment, and check out his qualifications before choosing him (or her.) Geshe spells out the proper qualifications we should look for, and then shows us what we should do after finding a proper guide (how we should approach that guide and what respectful behavior we should have.)
Geshe continues through the next steps of the path, giving us meditations on: appreciation for our good fortune in having this human life where we can pursue a spiritual path, how death is certain and may come unexpectedly so we should practice diligently, and why and how to go for refuge in the Buddha, his teachings (the Dharma) and the community of fellow spiritual seekers (the Sangha). After further helpful meditations on karma, the Four Noble Truths, delusions, the path to liberation, Geshe concludes with the heart of the Mahayana Dharma: bodhicitta (the wish to attain enlightenment to benefit all beings, not just ourself.) As Geshe-la says, "[Bodhicitta] is born from great compassion -- a mind that cannot bear others to experience pain and that wants to release all beings from every kind of suffering. ...Seeing how many and how great their sufferings are, we have a spontaneous and continuous wish, 'How wonderful it would be if all living beings were entirely free from every kind of suffering.' Having generated great compassion, when we become determined to attain enlightenment for the sake of others and this determination is spontaneous and continuous all day and all night, we have realized bodhicitta." (p. 382-383)
Geshe-la guides us through each step in generating this most important quality in ourselves, not just in our minds as a wish, but in our actions and activities every day. One of his chapters' titles is "Engaging in a Bodhisattva's Actions" and has subsections such as 'Giving Material Things', 'The Perfection of Moral Discipline' and 'The Moral Discipline of Benefiting Living Beings'. He goes through in detail the six perfections in this chapter, which are: generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom.
His concluding chapter describes what the mind and activities of an enlightened Buddha are like, but also acknowledges that this is difficult for us to comprehend: "If a bird flies high in the sky it must eventually come down somewhere, no matter how far it soars. This is not because the bird has arrived at the end of space, but because it has run out of energy to fly. Space is vast and endless and the bird's power is exhausted before it has travelled throughout space. The good qualities of a Buddha are like space and our understanding is like this bird. If we were to try to describe all the good qualities of a Buddha, our wisdom and skill would run out before we could finish describing them. They are beyond our imagination." (p. 552) However, if we study and put into practice this marvelous teaching from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, eventually we will experience these qualities first hand.
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35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Path of Good Fortune, June 13, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (Paperback)
Path of Good Fortune is a book you need to own. It outlines Buddhist psychology and philosophy in a clear and concise manner. What is most important about this book to me is that the advice found within its pages has helped me to bridge the gap between the meditation bench and the real world. I read it as part of a regular practice of meditation and yoga. I am on my third 'read', but each day it seems as if I find something fresh, new, and meaningful in this book. It is one of those books that seems to know what you need to hear, it seems to answer your questions as if it could hear your heart speak.
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