In My Own Words

An Introduction to My Teachings and Philospophy
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Edited by Rajiv Mehrotra
Subject: Buddhism
My rating: 3.5*

About the book:
The book contains His Holiness The Dalai Lama's thoughts organized into these chapters: On Happiness, What Is Buddhism?, Essential Buddhist Teachings, The Law of Karma, How to Meditate, The Awakening Mind, Eight Verses for Training the Mind, Meaningful Living and Dying, Understanding Emptiness, Universal Responsibility, and Science at the Crossroads. The reason I only gave 3.5* in my rating is that I found some passages quite hard to follow, and perhaps a bit too complex for my mind. The book has some great insights and all in all is an inspiring read.

From the book:
'Giving and taking is a practice that should be undertaken with great mental courage and determination. [...] to train your mind you should not be halfhearted, hesitant, or apprehensive, but totally dedicated and decisive. Unlike physical progress, which is subject to natural restrictions, the qualities of mind can be developed limitlessly. The mind is like a fire, which, if you continually feed it, will grow further. There is nothing that does not get easier with familiarity.'

The Four Noble Truths: the truth of suffering, understand the cause of suffering, cessation of suffering (nirvana), the path to cessation of suffering.

The meaning of enlightenment is stated in 2 lines:
Compassion focusing of sentient beings.
And wisdom focusing on enlightenment.

Any mental state that destroys the calmness of mind and brings about mental misery- which upsets, afflicts and torments the mind- is said to be a delusion. Delusion is the enemy within.