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Summary: Attaining Stability, Clarity, and Strength of Mind
Review: As a student of Sakyong Mipham, I am delighted to see the publication of his first book on meditation. The writing has the very qualities of stability, clarity, and strength that it helps one to cultivate. The Sakyong completely avoids the technical jargon of meditation without sacrificing any of the depth of knowledge and experience he brings to the subject. I was able to read it quickly and easily, but I am sure I will return to it again and again, to enrich my own meditation practice and to help me in my work as a meditation instructor. Thanks are due to this wonderful teacher for his kindness and generosity in producing this volume.
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Summary: if you want to know about meditation this is it!!
Review: For all of you folks out there that have any interest in figuring out what meditation is all about this is the book for you, so easy to understand. the ideas are so lucidly explained that you can just read and read and it all just makes sense. Its like all those things that you have felt deep down but could not put your finger on placed out on the table for you in plain and simple language.
also for all of you like myself who have been meditating for a few years its a great book to reinvigourate your practice, i have found that his examples just jump into my mind through out the day and remind me of what this path is all about and why i am on it
i really recomend this book for all
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Summary: excellent meditation book
Review: for the beginning meditator, it would be difficult to find a better book. clear, deep, concise -- it covers a wide range of issues and will become a reference manual you will read more than once.
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Summary: Good book for beginners
Review: I found this book to be very useful to me as a beginner when it comes to meditation. It is written in language that I can understand. The references to horseback riding where helpful even though I don't personally ride horses (my wife does). I have read all but the last two chapters so far.
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Summary: Good book for beginners
Review: I found this book to be very useful to me as a beginner when it comes to meditation. It is written in language that I can understand. The references to horseback riding where helpful even though I don't personally ride horses (my wife does). I have read all but the last two chapters so far.
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Summary: A Mature Vision
Review: I like the voice that comes across in this book. There is a nicety of tone, a coolness that makes me think of the writings of Wallace Stegner. The author delivers the traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings on meditation in a matter-of-fact tone. There is no dramatic language here to pull you in. No, what compels me to keep reading is the precision of the imagery. Using the fine detail of building a relationship with a horse, the author conveys the fine detail of building a relationship with one's mind. I like the uncluttered elegance of the writing. Words that come to my mind are maturity and "no-big-deal." I've been meditating for 21 years - ho-hum, still not enlightened yet... But, reading this book refreshed my interest. After reading it, when I sat down to meditate, it was like meditating for the first time. I was fresh. I paid attention to the technique. (What a concept!) I was present. Later the same day, I took my car out on the highway. I drove 50 miles in the slow lane. I realized it was natural to just be present with my driving. My habitual tendency is: I don't like to drive. I play music to distract myself. I pass other drivers. I just want to think about getting home. This time, while I felt the pull to get ahead, I was aware of having the choice not to act on it. I just phut-phutted along behind the car in front. This time driving was just a pleasant thing to do - no-big-deal. Anyhow, enough of that. This is a nice book. I recommend it. It's a treat. Enjoy.
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Summary: U need a good foundation before the deep stuff
Review: I read the Sakyong's book and also attended his program based on this book. I have to say the book was very easy to read. What came across even more strongly in the program was how you must discipline your mind before you can even move on to ANYTHING else. Hearing the Sakyong speak and working with an MI, this point was really driven home. I love CTR's books too as he was so very incredibly clear and insightful and an outstanding teacher, but it never motivated me to learn to meditate. The Sakyong made me want to. Now I have a meditation practice...every day. He is right. You have to do it. He recommends going back to the book when you need help in maintaining motivation for practice. I'm so glad he is teaching at the beginning level!!! If you ever have an opportunity to hear him teach, jump on it!! In between, there's this great book.
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Summary: Marooned on a desert island? This is the book.
Review: I've only read half of Turning the Mind into an Ally so far, but have nothing but great great great to report thus far. If you've read Pema Chodron or Sharon Salzberg, Chogyam Trungpa or the Dalai Lama, pick it up. It's an easy read, accessible--and best of all connects with my experience of how to live a good life, and how not to. Mipham, the author, is the head of the Shambhala Buddhist school of Buddhism. He's the son of Trungpa, who was one of the pioneers of Buddhism and meditation in America. If you send one book to that nutty grandma of yours, this is the one. It's understandable, but profound. Of course, the second half could be wildly different. I'll let you know in two hours, when I've finished it..!
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Summary: Meditation's Joy of Cooking
Review: In Turning the Mind Into an Ally, Sakyong Mipham has provided a clear path to working with one's mind and life with sanity and compassion. Mipham's style is both folksy and profound. It is completely contemporary, and oriented toward a Western audience, yet it remains true to the integrity of the ancient tradition of meditation. As The Joy of Cooking is the standard for cooks everywhere, Turning the Mind Into an Ally should be for human beings.
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Summary: Turning the Mind into an Ally
Review: Karen Armstrong's The Buddha is a beautiful exposition of the life of the Buddha, but has little to say about how to bring his wisdom and compassion into our lives. Turning the Mind into an Ally is a practical guide based on profound understanding of how to stabilize, clarify and strengthen the mind so that we can bring this wisdom and compassion into our lives. The author, Sakyong Mipham, writes with clarity, directness, and authority about how to live a life of true joy and deep compassion in our modern world. The book is a deceptively simple exposition of mind transformation through the meditation technique of calm abiding. The author is a direct intellectual and heart descendant of the wisdom teachings that go back more than 2500 years.
Sakyong Mipham follows the Buddha's tradition of piercing honesty about our predicament as sentient beings. He does not shy from telling the truth of suffering, impermanence, and selflessness of our existence. In these troubled times, it is wonderful to know that there is a practical and doable path of personal transformation by which we can live without deception and with loving kindness to benefit ourselves and all beings.
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