How to Transform Your Life: A Blissful Journey

I was introduced by my girlfriend to the New Kadampa Tradition by attending a meditation session in Williamsburg, NYC. I had a great experience as the meditation leader had interesting, thoughtful, reasonable things to say. Not knowing much about Bhuddism and my curiosity piqued, I decided to read this book as the Kadampa people say this is the first book of Gyatso's you should read.This book was disappointing. I am interested in the rational, thoughtful side of Bhuddism, not the religious, dogmatic side that is based on beliefs and faith without evidence or reason. While there is some wisdom in this book, most of it is repetitive, vague, and full of superstition. Also, the book develops an extensive jargon of vaguely defined words and then will make profound sounding statements such as this that I"m not sure actually mean anything:"The only difference between emptiness and unproduced space is their object of negation. The object of negation of unproduced space is obstructive contact whereas the object of negation of emptiness is inherent existence. Because unproduced space is the best analogy for understanding emptiness, it is used in the Sutras and in many scriptures. Unproduced space is a non-affirming negative phenomenon—a phenomenon that is realized by a mind that merely eliminates its negated object without realizing another positive phenomenon. Produced space is an affirmative, or positive, phenomenon—a phenomenon that is realized without the mind explicitly eliminating a negated object."Below are the important points I gleaned from the book followed by the most questionable parts of the book. I would skip this book, save yourself the time and just read the valuable parts I've already listed below. I have 5 or 6 more books in my Bhuddism reading list from other authors, so I'll report back here I hope with something more worthwhile.Helpful thoughts from the book:-Our problems and unhappiness are created by our uncontrolled desire. To become happy we must learn to control our mind, principally our desire.-"We usually believe that external conditions such as food, friends, cars and money are the real causes of happiness, and as a result we devote nearly all our time and energy to acquiring them."-The real source of happiness is inner peace. If our mind is peaceful, we will be happy regardless of external conditions. "The only way to do this is to train our mind through spiritual practice—gradually reducing and eliminating our negative, disturbed states of mind and replacing them with positive, peaceful states."-"...in itself chocolate is neither desirable nor repulsive. It is the deluded mind of attachment that projects all kinds of pleasurable qualities onto its objects of desire and then relates to them as if they really did possess those qualities."-"We need inner peace, but we also need good physical health, and for this we need certain external conditions such as food and a comfortable environment in which to live. There are many people who concentrate exclusively on developing the material side of their life, while completely ignoring spiritual practice. This is one extreme. However, there are other people who concentrate exclusively on spiritual practice, while ignoring the material conditions that are necessary for supporting a healthy human life. This is another extreme. We need to maintain a middle way that avoids both extremes of materialism and spirituality. Some people believe that those who strive to attain nirvana are being selfish because they seem to be concentrating only on their own inner peace, but this belief is incorrect. Our real purpose in attaining the supreme permanent inner peace of nirvana is to help others do the same."-"...if our mind remains peaceful all the time, then even if we are insulted, criticized or blamed or if we lose our job or our friends, we will not become unhappy."-"We generally believe that the things we perceive in dreams are unreal whereas the things we perceive when we are awake are true; but in reality everything we perceive is like a dream in that it is mere appearance to mind."-"The great scholar Nagarjuna said: We maintain our life in the midst of thousands of conditions that threaten death. Our life force is like a candle flame in a breeze, which is easily extinguished by the winds of death that blow from all directions."-"We grasp at an inherently existent I and mine all the time, day and night. This mind is the delusion of self-grasping ignorance. Whenever we are embarrassed, afraid, angry, indignant or puffed up with pride, we have a very strong sense of self or I. The I that we are grasping on these occasions is the inherently existent I. Even when we are relaxed and relatively peaceful we still grasp our I as inherently existent, though in a less pronounced way. This mind of self-grasping is the basis of all our delusions and the source of all our problems. To free ourself from delusions and the problems they cause, we need to understand that the inherently existent I we grasp so firmly and continuously does not exist at all. It never has existed and never will."-"We cannot avoid the suffering of dissatisfaction by frequently changing our situation. We may think that if we keep getting a new partner or a new job, or keep traveling around, we will eventually find what we want; but even if we were to travel to every place on the globe, and have a new lover in every town, we would still be seeking another place and another lover."-"Our spiritual attainments therefore depend upon our own effort. An intellectual understanding of spiritual teachings is not sufficient to carry us to the supreme happiness of liberation—we must overcome our laziness and put our knowledge into practice. Buddha said: If you have only effort you have all attainments, But if you have only laziness you have nothing."-"All our problems—our unpleasant feelings—come from our delusions of attachment and self-grasping ignorance; therefore these delusions are the main causes of our problems. We have strong attachment to the fulfillment of our own wishes and for this aim we work very hard throughout our life, experiencing many difficulties and problems. When our wishes are not fulfilled we experience unhappiness and depression, which often causes us to become angry, creating more problems for both ourself and others. We can understand this clearly through our own experience. When we lose our friends, job, status, or reputation and so forth, we experience pain and many difficulties. This is because of our strong attachment to these things. If we had no such attachment, there would be no basis for experiencing suffering and problems at their loss. Due to strong attachment to our own views, we immediately experience the inner problem of unpleasant feelings when someone opposes them. This causes us to become angry, which leads to arguments and conflicts with others, and this in turn gives rise to further problems such as those arising from fighting and even war."-"Jealousy, for example, is a state of mind that cannot bear another’s good fortune; but if we cherish someone how can his or her good fortune disturb our mind? How can we wish to harm others if we regard everyone’s happiness to be of paramount importance? By genuinely cherishing all living beings we will always act with loving kindness, in a friendly and considerate way, and they will return our kindness."-"Cherishing all living beings solves all our problems because all our problems come from our mind of self-cherishing. For example, at the moment if our partner left us for someone else we would probably feel very upset, but if we truly cherished them we would want them to be happy, and we would rejoice in their happiness."-"Cherishing our neighbors and the people in our local area will naturally lead to harmony in the community and society at large, and this will make everyone happier. We may not be a well-known or powerful figure, but if we sincerely cherish everyone we meet we can make a profound contribution to our community."-"It is because we have such an exaggerated sense of our own importance that we frustrate other people’s wishes in order to fulfill our own. Driven by our selfish desires, we think nothing of destroying others’ peace of mind and causing them distress."-"For example, when anger arises in our mind, instead of making excuses we need to say to ourself, “This anger is the inner poison of delusion. It has no value or justification; its only function is to harm. I will not tolerate its presence in my mind.”"-"Since we regard our self or I as so very precious and important, we exaggerate our own good qualities and develop an inflated view of ourself. Almost anything can serve as a basis for this arrogant mind, such as our looks, possessions, knowledge, experiences or status. If we make a witty remark we think, “I’m so clever!” or if we have traveled around the world we feel that this automatically makes us a fascinating person."-"It is often so painful to admit that we have faults that we make all manner of excuses rather than alter our exalted view of ourself. One of the most common ways of not facing up to our faults is to blame others. For instance, if we have a difficult relationship with someone, we naturally conclude that it is entirely their fault—we are unable to accept that it is at least partly ours."-"Another reason why we do not regard others as precious is that we pay attention to their faults while ignoring their good qualities. Unfortunately we have become very skilled in recognizing the faults of others, and we devote a great deal of mental energy to listing them, analyzing them and even meditating on them! With this critical attitude, if we disagree with our partner or colleagues about something, instead of trying to understand their point of view we repeatedly think of many reasons why we are right and they are wrong."-"If someone is angry we think, “He is a bad and angry person,” whereas Buddhas think, “He is a suffering being afflicted with the inner disease of anger.” If a friend of ours were suffering from cancer we would not blame him for his physical disease, and, in the same way, if someone is suffering from anger or attachment we should not blame him for the diseases of his mind."-"Focusing on other people’s faults is the source of much of our negativity and one of the main obstacles to viewing others as supremely precious. If we are genuinely interested in developing cherishing love, we need to learn to discriminate between a person and his or her delusions, and realize that it is the delusions that are to blame for all the faults we perceive."-"If we look at the situation carefully, however, we will find that it is always our own mental attitude that is responsible for our unhappiness. Another person’s actions make us unhappy only if we allow them to stimulate a negative response in us. Criticism, for example, has no power from its own side to hurt us; we are hurt only because of our self-cherishing. With self-cherishing we are so dependent upon the opinions and approval of others that we lose our freedom to respond and act in the most constructive way."-"Most relationships between people are based on a mixture of love and attachment. This is not pure love for it is based on a desire for our own happiness—we value the other person because they make us feel good. Pure love is unmixed with attachment and stems entirely from a concern for others’ happiness."-"Our mind is not an independent entity, but an ever-changing continuum that depends upon many factors, such as its previous moments, its objects and the inner energy winds upon which our minds are mounted. Like everything else, our mind is imputed upon a collection of many factors and therefore lacks inherent existence."-"All functioning things—our environments, enjoyments, body, mind and our self—change from moment to moment. They are impermanent in the sense that they do not last for a second moment."HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE PARTS OF THE BOOK (These are just the most outlandish parts. There's more I left out):-"...most of our experiences in this life are caused by actions we committed in past lives."-"Human beings have to experience various kinds of human suffering because they have taken a contaminated human rebirth; animals have to experience animal suffering because they have taken a contaminated animal rebirth; and hungry ghosts and hell beings have to experience their own sufferings because they have taken contaminated rebirth as hungry ghosts and hell beings. Even gods are not free from suffering because they too have taken a contaminated rebirth."-Gyatso tells of a woman in India who during a famine was able to turn stones into food by reciting a prayer and having faith-"For example, as the result of actions of giving they accumulated in previous lives, some pet dogs have far better conditions than many humans—pampered by their owners, given special food and soft cushions and treated like a favorite child."-"Mental actions that are non-virtuous lead us to any of the three lower rebirths: rebirth as an animal, hungry ghost or hell being. Mental actions that are contaminated virtue lead us to any of the three higher rebirths: rebirth as a human being, demigod or god. Mental actions motivated by renunciation lead us to the state of pure and everlasting happiness of liberation, nirvana. Renunciation is the gateway through which we enter the path to liberation. The actual path to liberation has five levels: the path of accumulation, the path of preparation, the path of seeing, the path of meditation and the Path of No More Learning. The practice of these five paths are contained within the practice of three higher trainings: training in moral discipline, training in concentration or meditation, and training in the wisdom realizing emptiness..."-"Of all worldly possessions the most precious is said to be the legendary wish-granting jewel. It is impossible to find such a jewel in these degenerate times, but in the past, when human beings had abundant merit, there used to be magical jewels that had the power to grant wishes."-"How are all living beings our mothers? Since it is impossible to find a beginning to our mental continuum it follows that we have taken countless rebirths in the past; and if we have had countless rebirths we must have had countless mothers. Where are all these mothers now? They are all the living beings alive today."-"Moreover, Buddhas are able to manifest in any form to help living beings, and unless we are a Buddha ourself we have no means of knowing who is an emanation of a Buddha and who is not. We cannot say for sure that our closest friend or worst enemy, our mother or even our dog, is not an emanation."-"There is a story of a great scholar and meditator called Maitriyogi who took on the pain of a dog that was being beaten, so that the wounds appeared on his body instead of the dog’s."-"On one occasion he took on a man’s suffering, but the man refused to believe that it was due to Milarepa that he was free from pain. To prove it, Milarepa returned the pain to him, and when the pain became too much Milarepa then transferred the pain to a door, which started to shake!"-The idea that meditation can cure "any sickness that we have."

This book presents a wide panarama to introduce Buddha’s teaching. Very readable. Contains clear explanations and pointed meditations that go along with the text. Read and contemplate slowly.

This book was recommended to me as a good beginning to study Buddhism. Information on meditation, clearing one's mind of clutter, treating others with kindness and working on being a peaceful person who has complete control of their mind, willing to help others is scattered throughout the book. Unfortunately, it seems to be buried in a rambling, never ending dialogue that includes references to magical jewels, ghosts, gods & demi-gods, stories of reincarnation and invisible beings that, to quote another review, "never seems to get to the point." I am glad it has helped others, but in spite of my best efforts, it did very little for me. I got more out of Buddhism for Beginners on YouTube.

Wonderful book and written in a way that is more accessible than many books on Buddhism. It is really helpful to have a teacher who can help bring clarity to some of the pithier topics but there is also a huge wealth of information on the internet to explain things like "self-grasping ignorance," etc.

I have to read it a little bit at a time but I am really enjoying the book and the way of thinking about our lives.

It is an amazing book. Changed my life. Highly recommended! It is helpful to be able to talk about the material with a friend or teacher who is familiar with Kadampa Buddhism. There are many Kadampa meditation centers and branch classes throughout the world.

One of the most comprehensive accessible books on the Buddhist path that I have ever read. As a long-time student and practitioner of Buddhism I felt like this book was for me, but that anyone with an open mind would understand and be moved by it. I would recommend it to anyone.

With careful reading of this book we can transform our ordinary minds into happy and beneficial minds-thus transforming our minds.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is a leading person in the Buddhist world and he has written a great number of in depth books over the years, bringing these teachings over to the west and benefitting millions of people all over the world. He has spent his entire life dedicated to helping others with creating teaching centres and temples and training monks. This book is beautifully clear and one that you'll probably reread many times because each time it will feel inspirational.

Didn't resenate well with me at all , I feel it was too heavy and couldn't get past the first few chapters , i appreciate it may work for some people, I am a beleiver in Buddhism and the way of life,this book just wasn't for me.

This book tells you everything you need to know about transforming your life and learning how to deal with life's problems in a positive way. It shows how to transform our mind and eliminate negative ways of thinking which destroy our happiness while developing positive states of mind to develop over peace, in a very simple clear practical way.

In a world where there is so much greed and negativity it is almost unbelievable for a book with so much goodness to give to be given freely. If more people took these words of wisdom to heart the world would be a better place for everyone.

Great idea to be happy permanently.This book teaches how to change your thinking from others to change and change yourself.You can’t change anything else but reflect and change your mind to be happy.