Awakening The Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning, and Connection into Every Part of Your Life

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Doubleday December 11, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0767902777
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0767902779
• Book Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 7.5 ounces

Product Review
Surya Das's breezy delivery makes his teachings come off like colorful conversation. In the third installment of his bestselling "Awakening" series, America's most popular lama shows us how to integrate inner and outer practices. Our inner spirituality, he says, can never be separate from our relationships with others. With his trademark clarity, he integrates his teachings with light- hearted anecdotes and down-to-earth practices. Basic meditation, for instance, can help us create a gap between our knee-jerk judgments and our reactions, allowing for calm, wise relations. Likewise, one can try authentic listening ("opening the third ear") or exploiting the power of speech to build deeper connections. And beyond human relations lies our connection to the natural world, for which Surya Das also includes a few lovely meditations. Taking that extra step in our practice from the self to the world requires more than just individual persistence, it takes compassion and teaches more than you'd expect. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
The "Buddhist heart" that Surya Das refers to in his third book turns out to be a good heart. Blending intimate anecdotes with wisdom gleaned from his decades of study with traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachers, the American-born author seeks to help readers to awaken this heart so that their everyday relationships may become a way to experience the meaningful interconnectedness and sacrednessness of life. Surya Das wishes to cut to the essence of Buddhist wisdom, while bolstering a general readership with a dawn-of-a-new-era pep talk: "As we enter a new century and a new millennium it seems increasingly important to awaken our Buddha-like hearts through spiritual connections." Unlike in his first two booksAAwakening the Buddha, an explication of Tibetan Buddhism, and Awakening the Sacred, an attempt to describe spiritual values in nonsectarian termsAhere Surya Das initially seems to be trying to be all things to all people, and the advice he offers can feel flimsy or vague. He counsels readers to cultivate a more authentic presence, for example, by learning to be natural, simple and open. The disarming honesty of the many personal accounts he presents puts a friendly human face on an ancient tradition, yet the work as a whole lacks power and coherence. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning, and Connection into Every Part of Your Life (Hardcover) Since 09-11 I have paid more attention to what I have been reading. Life is short, and knowing this, I am trying hard to read books that can help make a difference, however small it may be. I have been reading a lot of books on Buddhism recently, and I must say that this is THE ONE!!!!! I love LSD's sense of humor, his honesty, and the way he approaches life. This book should be required reading in or out of school and the home...for the PARENTS too! We must learn how to live in today's times, and no one gives better guidance than LSD.