The Art Of Living: A Guide To Contentment, Joy And Fulfillment - Hardcover

Dalai Lama XIV; Cumming, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517226308 ISBN 13: 9780517226308

Publisher: Gramercy Books, 2005

Synopsis

"If any individual is compassionate and altruistic, wherever that person moves, he or she will immediately make friends."

This gorgeous book by the Dalai Lama brings together profound, accessible teachings by His Holiness on living a joyful life with extraordinary images that offer insight into the rich cultural heritage of Tibetan Buddhism.

Learn how to live peacefully with all people and with our planet. Master the skills to deal with anger and negative emotions. Cultivate techniques to nurture open-heartedness and compassion.

Photographer Ian Cumming's images of landscapes, monasteries, and Tibetan people, both the monastic community and lay practitioners, take the reader on a spectacular photographic journey into the heart of Buddhist practice. These photographs help us to deepen our appreciation of the context in which Tibetan Buddhism developed and to see how it is now practiced by those in Tibet as well as those in exile.

Ian Cumming is a travel photographer specializing in Tibet and the Caribbean and is the leading photographer with the London-based agency Tibet Images. His photographs appear in A Simple Path, another book by His Holiness.

About this title

Review

The Dalai Lama is one of the world's most loved and respected religious leaders. Exiled from his native Tibet since the 1950s, he has probably done more to introduce the West to Buddhism than any other figure, not just through his teaching, but through the example of his life, his quiet dignity, humility, calmness and obvious love for mankind.

These are the qualities which shine through in The Art of Living. Subtitled "A guide to contentment, joy and fulfilment", this book is the text of a series of lectures the Dalai Lama gave at Wembley, London, in 1993. The talks deal with the problems of suffering, of living, of dying, with straightforward language, common sense, and compassion. You don't have to be a Buddhist to find the teachings here valuable. For example, the Dalai Lama quotes the Indian scholar Shantideva: "If there is a way to overcome the suffering, then there is no need to worry; if there is no way to overcome the suffering, then there is no use in worrying."

The talks in this book cover such areas as "Dealing with anger and emotion", and "Giving and receiving: a practical way of directing love and compassion". In the final short chapter, "The challenge for humanity: an interfaith address", the wisdom of the Dalai Lama is clear in his plea for mutual understanding between the plurality of the world's religions.

The text of this book has been published before, both in The Power of Compassion and in The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. What makes this edition different, as with the Dalai Lama's A Simple Path, is the accompaniment to the text of Ian Cumming's breathtakingly beautiful colour photographs of mountains, monasteries and monks in Tibet and India. --David V Barrett

From the Publisher

The Dalai Lama is one of the most beloved spiritual leaders of our age.

In this book, he brings his wisdom and practical advice on how anyone

(Buddhists as well as people from all faiths or none) can live a

meaningful, joyful life.

Illustrated with 150 sumptuous full colour photographs by Ian

Cumming. Publishers Weekly called his pictures for A Simple Path

(their previous callaboration) “stunning”.

Few gift books by the Dalai Lama exist despite his ever-increasing

audience. This book will build on that success, with magical

photographs of monks, the Himalayas and the Dalai Lama himself.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gramercy Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517226308
• ISBN 13: 9780517226308
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176