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Live in a Better Way: 2 Reflections on Truth, Love and Happinessby Dalai LamaAmazon.comOccasionally a book comes along that you want to take outside, shove into the hand of every passerby, and say, “Read this and be enlightened.” The Dalai Lama’s latest collection of lectures is like that. As you read, you begin to think what a wonderful world it would be if everybody thought like the Dalai Lama. Though the highest ranked leader of a world religion, the Dalai Lama insists that some of the most important aspects of Buddhist practice are nonreligious, particularly the training of the mind. This he sees as essential to cultivating basic decency in the day-to-day life of all people. To understand the motivations of others, to rein in negative emotions, to examine one’s own motivations–these are the steps to living peacefully and responsibly in the world. On a deeper theoretical level, the Dalai Lama also introduces the importance of seeing through reality to the two levels of truth as well as exploring karma and the nature of existence. Impromptu question-and-answer sessions round out some of the lectures, giving the listeners a chance to pose their own questions. Read this and be enlightened. –Brian Bruya From Publishers WeeklyThe packaging of talks given by the Dalai Lama has become a publishing staple in the last decade. Here the Dalai Lama’s student Singh, a university professor in India, has pulled together six talks delivered in New Delhi from 1988-1997. “In order to practice Buddhism, you have to first know about the mind,” begins this labyrinthine journey that is ostensibly aimed at all people, not just Buddhist practitioners. The lectures are good examples of how the Dalai Lama must be supremely accessible in thought and speech, and yet must also articulate the more abstract philosophical underpinnings of Buddhism as a “science of the mind.” Within each chapter both aspects are in evidence. For example, in “A Journey to Happiness” we read the clear directive, “Some people feel that compassion, love and forgiveness are religious matters. This is wrong. Love and compassion are imperative. There is no way we can ignore these things, whether one is a believer or not.” Near the end of the same chapter the thinking takes one of its abstruse turns: “In Maha-Anuttara Yoga Tantrayana, one unique practice is making a distinction among the gross, subtle, and innermost subtle levels of mind.” The book’s ultimate message of happiness through compassion is a vital one, but this collection is geared for the adept with a philosophical appetite and a considerable intellect, not for the general reader.