So the decor of this comment now planted. For it is not by chance that you show curiosity about Buddhist philosophy, it is not by any more than this book has challenged you chance, and this is not by chance then that you read this review. ..
As its title indicates, the book Das Lama Surya is a powerful moment of discovery and revelation of the Buddha in you. If I had to extract one sentence of his 343 exciting pages to crystallize the essential substance, I choose without hesitation that which seems to me the most introspective and expressive of the message delivered by the Dalai SD. A seemingly innocuous sentence, perched in the middle of p. 22, which powerfully summarizes, in a few words, all that this book has depth and meaning: "It is not by accident that you have this book in your hands." That probably sounds like a banality to your ears at that moment, and yet the inner journey is promised at the end of this book has probably already begun in you. Why? Because you are reading this review, and because Buddha - or any other name you want to give to this "ultimate vacuum" within you and maintains your sense of quest - is already there in you. You may not be're still perceived, or rather, you may not have actually viewed the place where your inner strength shines this intimate, but it's there and just waiting to illuminate the way. The help to awaken, it is all the promise we made SD Lama in his book, with ease, without will convince any price, preacher speeches without doctrinal arrogance, just gently asking for your ultimate aspiration ... because it is not by accident that the Lama comes to you.
You understand that this book is the book of a search for meaning of life, that of SD Lama that he wants to share with us to help us in our personal quest. It has no other purpose than, altruistic, to transmit what he learned from his teachers, and his personal experience in the path he followed to himself. It will remain to everyone, after reading it, to build its own way, to follow his own path of life, according to his ultimate aspiration, consistent with its true self, reaching Nirvana ITS, where we be recognized as one wished to be the place where one feels in perfect harmony with what we hold dear, what we believe, fueling our little inner strength, which gives us sense ... All this is expressed in a simple and didactic way in the first chapter of the book entitled "We are all Buddhas." 15 pages only. 15 pages delicious, a mixture of personal anecdotes and Buddhist messages, which immediately aroused my admiration and my membership. If these 15 pages do not speak out, you will not have to go further ...
If the enthusiasm to tell you a little was not as strong, I will stop my comments there, adding however that: Made trust this inner voice that motivates you, and made trust the benevolence of Lama Surya Das guide. You have nothing to lose, everything is already in you and will stay there no matter what. The only "bad" that could happen would be to have you confused your usual leisure for a few minutes (15 pages!), But the great good you might get to see is a personal awakening blossom and new life perspectives. Not necessarily a big bang, but a small minimum bend for a new vision.
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For those brave who wish to continue reading this review too long, know that the biggest feat of SD Lama's book is to demystify Buddhism and inject in understanding these enigmatic statements to which Buddhism is associated. Yes, you know ... 'these little phrases seemingly trivial, mysterious or contradictory that we all know as "If knowing oneself to discover the other", "I am because we are", "You should know lost power to meet ", etc ... SD Lama shows us easily and perfectly clear the depth contained in these few words when they are broken down into 1) why these words, 2) how it is arrived at this, and 3) is what they imply. It is already much, but the book offers us much more than that ...
SD Lama has not always been Buddhist. Jeffrey Miller, whose real name was first an American student, Jewish, educated and full of everything that makes liberal Western society, the good and the less good. He made the journey from the beginning, and what he tells us in his book is an exciting mix of biographical anecdotes, historical facts, thoughts and analysis post on lived experience, intertwined with descriptions, teaching and messages of Dharma (read basis) as Buddhist integrated them and endorsed. This book spoke to me because it contemplates and SD Lama says Buddhism with consciousness and the eyes of a Western educated. Buddhism is full of truths that sometimes sound like religious precepts. SD Lama explains each of them, concretely, with simple words and pragmatic talking. It leads us wisely and logic to understand what the content of this philosophy of life.
Buddhism is not a religion or belief, it is not an ideology or a doctrine, let alone a series of rules of life. The definition "Cartesian" that I extract from my reading - avoiding any mystical-sounding word - could be the following: A lucid and rational vision of life which proposes to develop a concrete intellectual and relational attitude, oriented to the objective of become more conscious human, and gives non-proprietary tools for achieving our own ideals. If this definition seems you too indigestible or too abstract, so remember that this is a "lucid nonexclusive reasoned teaching." Yes, most of the Buddhism, perfectly conveyed in the book is primarily a teaching, a transfer of experience, lived capitalization. You can take whatever you want, what speaks to you, please you or plot, and you can leave aside all that you do not want, do not understand or do not like your design at this precise moment of your life. You can come back later ... or not. Buddhism is primarily the freedom to live the way we want.
Besides, if the words of Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhahood and other Tibetan vocables do not suit you, then invent your own terminology. You are free. Call it "ultimate aspiration", "inner strength" or, why not, "Matuta" (dawn in Latin), whatever ... and learn to awaken the "Matuta" in you. For we are all "Matuta". Better yet, we are all our own "Matuta" specific and unique. There are no two the same, because this land has as many "Matutas" Buddhas as there are beings.
At the risk of being too long, I would add that the text proposed by the Dalai SD reads like a beautiful tale. He talks about himself, his experience but also his masters, the masters of their masters and old masters who entered the Buddhist legend. It gives us all the practical key to understand, analyze and possibly adopt all or part of the Buddhist foundation. It comes in great detail, with passion, all the ancestral knowledge and all the practical techniques that lead to the ultimate wisdom, browsing one by one the steps of the "Eightfold Path" that personal life path on which we walk all . It finally ends with an epilogue placing Buddhist truths in contemporary modernity, while charting future prospects.
If you are at a time of life when you think you ran a lot and not much advanced, then read this book. I tell you in all humility and sincerity. You do not necessarily go find the purifying lighting sometimes promised by Buddhism, but you will certainly find some valuable spark to fuel your thoughts and start a new path, a new vision. A vision that will be yours and that will take you where you want to go, in perfect awareness and harmony with yourself. There are no unrealistic promises in this book, nor irrational certainty. It's up to you to 'retrieve the message you need, when you need it, and I express here the hope that you can collect all benevolent spark returning you ...
The daily maxim Lama Surya Das that we have adopted is said: "Good day, unless you have other projects". I paraphrase to end by saying: "Good reading, unless you have other projects".
