Customer Reviews

Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mipham, the worldwide leader of Shambhala and the son of the late Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa (who wouldn't love to be a fly on the wall in that house?) argues that people need to examine the me-centered spirituality of their lives:

We think, "Will this food make me happy?" "Will this movie make me happy?" "Will this person make me happy?" . . . . Occasionally when I meet with meditation students, their questions show that they are approaching even spiritual practice as a way of making themselves happy. Is my yoga, my tai chi, my meditation making "me" feel better? They are simply using a new guise to perpetuate the old habit of putting themselves first." (pp 11-12)

He offers practical suggestions on how to change this habit, beginning with the realization that change will occur slowly and that we should begin by simply aiming for a ten percent transformation: to be ten percent more compassionate, ten percent less selfish, ten percent more aware of the karmic consequences of our anger. Subsequent chapters discuss four ways to instill compassion for a lifetime: we must strive to for the discernment of the tiger, the delight of the lion, the equanimity or the garuda, and the playful wisdom of the dragon. (And in case you're wondering, a garuda is a mythical bird that hatches fully developed. Who knew?)

I found this book genuinely helpful, and that's saying something. I'm not very forgiving of pop spirituality and the self-help genre. But Mipham is wise and unafraid to call a spade a spade. He's not out to flatter his readers or tell them how to live longer or feel invincible or win friends or influence people. He's a realist, and he only wants to prepare them for the inevitable: death is coming.

Cheerful, eh? But ultimately, I only want to read books that tell it to me straight. So I leave you with this paragraph from the book, striking for its utter lack of romanticism:

Contemplating worldly gain and loss reveals that we spend part of our life trying to get it together, and the other part watching it fall apart. As soon as we have time-"I have a whole hour free"-we are losing it. As soon as we make a friend, we're losing him. As soon as we have fame, it becomes tinged with notoriety. As soon as we have wealth, we're losing it. Looking for something new to gain helps us forget to look but a few seconds back at the last thing that we lost. Fabricating this chain of desire is how we keep ourselves in samsara [the cycle of desire and suffering]. We are using instability to try to make stability. We're investing in hope and fear, banking on denial of a simple truth: all the pleasure the world can offer eventually turns to pain. Everything we gain is subject to loss. Why do we put all that effort into gain when, in the end, we are going to lose it? (p 124)

A damn good question. Because of such realism and candor, this book will probably sell about a tenth of the copies that it should. --Jana Riess

A longer version of this review was posted on December 14, 2005 to The Review Revolution (janariess.typepad.com).

If his father's books are like a Molotov Cocktail, capable of blowing your mind with extraordinary skillful language and profound insight into the specific character of the Western mind, then Mipham's books provide the in-depth and serious settling into the teachings and practices that were introduced a generation before.

Although his father's approach was effective in causing many to suddenly wake up and change course, Mipham provides the patient, applied, and deep transmission that we need to stay the course and follow the path with skill and precision. Mipham's spiritual tradition also place emphasis on applying these principals in our homes and communities, that the living wisdom be applied to society. Here his discussion of the dignities is far more powerful than a new-age "Have power over your life, Now!" story. It is the basis around which ensure that out lives enrich and support those around us.

This text is perhaps the more profound and detailed discussion of the dignities of the warriorship in the modern world that is available to a general audience. It is beautifully written, extremely personal and direct, patient and disciplined.

One of the finest texts available by a living teacher. Until recently people reviewing his work or attending a public program would refer to him as a "Young Lama" as if people this young couldn't be this wise. Some of the "Young Lama" image may fade now that he has married and turned 40, but the wisdom and percision keep getting deeper.

I'm not really sure what it is because when you look at this man he doesn't have a lot in common with me. In his first book, his analogies for meditation are about horseback riding and golfing, and I don't really know many people who actually do those things. In this book, he talks about living our lives like a king/queen and I don't believe in monarchy. On the surface, this book looks like it's written for a self-help crowd, and I hate books that look like that. So on the surface, this wouldn't be the book for me.

Except that his words connect with my mind. They interface and form new pathways of thinking about things. They leave me to contemplate new depths of meaning for years after the fact. And they help me be a better person. So you could say I'm a fan. It's not so much that this is a really good book to read once, although it is. It's about the way these teachings begin to sink in when you make them your own. Sakyong Mipham has done that and it's clear and inspiring to witness. If you can ever do a meditation program with him, you'd be a lucky one.

I've learned from the Rinpoche, now I'm learning from his son. When I encountered Chogyam Trungpa many years ago, he figuratively slapped me in the face. And the cocky, ignorant me at the time deserved the wake-up slapping (and deeply appreciated it). Just a few days ago, I met his son Sakyong Mipham through his latest book. You could imagine Mipham took my hand, led me to the couch, sat next to me, and gently told this old me some more about the wonderful Buddhist wisdom in ways that are both timely and timeless. His expositions of Dharma are effective, yet very few technical terms are used. His explanations are modern and relevant. His persistent, yet loving, effort in helping us break through the illusion of the self pays off quite nicely. Mipham's previous book, Turning The Mind Into An Ally, is great, too, but I find his current one accessible to a broader audience.

I read a great deal, but it's only one out of a hundred books that I'll read again within a month after the first reading and this is one of them. The concepts explained by Sakyong Mipham have so much relevance in our world today and those concepts are communicated with a breadth and depth that is at once simple and unfathomable. If you're looking for a thousand different steps on the path towards enlightenment, this isn't the book for you. If you are tired of struggling to hold onto power that is both elusive and insubstantial, take a look at this book. You won't be disappointed. Simple Breathing Meditation, Thought Exercises and Compassion will change your life for the better.

Ruling Your World is a great book but it certainly does not go in the direction of typical western thinking. Ruling Your World is not about getting anybody or everybody under your rule or control. Ruling Your World is simply about ruling yourself. If you gain control of yourself, then you rule your world.

For those who are familiar with the teachings of Buddha, there is nothing new in this book. However the book is easy to read and certainly can reinforce information we have already been exposed to.

If you are not familiar with the teachings of Buddha, then this is a great place to start. Sakyong Mipham drives home a very strong point, by concentrating on the little "me" we are engaging in a game we cannot win. The typical western belief is that by acquiring things we will become happy. The simple truth is the ego will never be satisfied. The more we get, the more we want. This becomes a never ending cycle.

There are some very good lessons to be learned. Unfortunately most of them go opposite to western thinking. So it will take much reflection and contemplation to accept these ideas. And as it pointed out, they are no good unless and until we internalize them.

Here is an example of one very important lesson.

We make faulty decisions based on anger, jealousy, desire or pride - signs that we are looking out for "me". If anger is the cause and we want happiness as the result, it's not going to work, because every result has to have a relationship to the cause.

A very good book - worthy of study and contemplation. Once you rule yourself, you rule your world.

I really liked this book. Mipham's instructions on working with the mind are just as practical and encouraging as they were in his first book, Turning the Mind into an Ally. However, this book seems to take the message of the first book a bit further, and he gives great ideas for how to uplift our hearts and minds within the context of our jobs, relationships, families, etc. The chapter on Windhorse is unlike anything I have ever seen written by a Buddhist teacher. The fact that these teachings are available to the public for the first time ever is a testiment to Mipham's ability to make these ideas accessible to everyone.

I am a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism in the Nyingmapa lineage and am at the Vajrayana level. However, I think no matter how far one is into their practice, books like this are invaluable. We must remember to still refresh ourselves with the basics.

This book is for everyone. Those just starting, those more into the practice, advanced practitioners, and even non-Buddhists. It is written so everyone, Buddhist or not, can gather immense help, wisdom, advice, and so on, from it.

I intend to buy copies for several family members.

Just reading this book and meditating on it, digesting it, has helped me re-center and remember to put into practice all the practices Sakyong Mipham writes of.

You can't help but love his down-to-earth style. He writes simply but strongly.

If you want it to, this book will help change your life.

This book is the second book by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche - known as a Tibetan lama with Western upbringing, education and habits (he runs marathon and plays golf, is newly-wed but also represents the ancient Tibetan tradition of Shambhala in Tibet as well as in the West, thus providing a bridge between two worlds in more than one sense.
This book contains practical advice for leading a meaningful and succesful life in East or West, using meditation as a way to overcome the difficulties in daily life - without having to give up our daily activities or go monastic. It clearly states the losing battle against adversity and death we all fight, and are bound to lose - and provides a straight way into a quite different view. To me, it seems he gives the only logical solutions to present predicaments in our personal life and society as a whole. If all people (or even only the well-intentioned) would take this advice really to heart, the world would be a better place.

There are probably two self help books for every literate person in the world. Many are helpful, some are really useful but very few lead one to buy copies for all close relatives! Ruling Your World is the handbook I wish I had been issued when I was born. This book although simple to read spoke to the deepest places in my heart. Phrases still accompany me each day as I either plough through or waltz through the very normal situations of life as an employee in a large company, partner in a close friendship, parent of adult children and general citizen of the world.

The main message for me is that "me" and the "me" plan is the cause of many of my daily difficulties. It is possible and not so difficult to drop the "me" plan and open to this magical world where compassion for others is the key to long lasting joy.

Any person tired of their own suffering and open to a deeper experience will probably treasure this book and the gentle and sometimes awesome ancient wisdom it offers.

Quoting one of his beloved teachers Sakyong Mipham Rimpoche advises "some things can be accomplished with agression.... " Please read the book to get the complete instructions on how "everything can be accomplished".