Kindness, Clarity, and Insight

By Dalai Lama

1984

First Published

4.06

Average Rating

256

Number of Pages

7H49M

Audio Length

Kindness, Clarity, and Insight is widely considered the most readable yet substantial and wide-ranging of the Dalai Lama's works. This celebratory new edition of the very first book of teachings by the Dalai Lama in the English-speaking world coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of that historic first teaching series in North America. Translated into twelve languages, it is a testament to the kindness, clarity, and insight of its author. The teachings in this book comprehend and encapsulate in a crisp and concise manner all of the topics to which the Dalai Lama returns repeatedly—the core subject matter of Tibetan Buddhism. Readers of this single volume, manageable in size, will be well prepared for understanding all of the Dalai Lama's subsequent books. Broad in scope and revealing the depth of his knowledge, these teachings display the range of the Dalai Lama and his message, covering a plethora of topics, including the need for compassion, the common goals of the world's religions, karma, the four noble truths, the luminous nature of the mind, meditative concentration, selflessness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at manifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, the Dalai Lama is the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book. The book's twenty chapters are deftly arranged in a developmental sequence so that readers easily understand the background needed to appreciate the more complex later topics. Taken as a whole, the teachings in this book provide an accessible map of Tibetan spiritual culture. Despite the numerous titles that have come out bearing the Dalai Lama's name since its first publication, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight is considered his heart message to the West—a foundational key to understanding his other work.

Avg Rating

4.06

Number of Ratings

293

5 STARS

39%

4 STARS

35%

3 STARS

20%

2 STARS

1 STARS

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Author

Dalai Lama

Author · 148 books

Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub), the 14th Dalai Lama, is a practicing member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the world's most famous Buddhist monk, and the leader of the exiled Tibetan government in India. Tenzin Gyatso was the fifth of sixteen children born to a farming family. He was proclaimed the tulku (an Enlightened lama who has consciously decided to take rebirth) of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two. On 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, he was enthroned as Tibet's ruler. Thus he became Tibet's most important political ruler just one month after the People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet on 7 October 1950. In 1954, he went to Beijing to attempt peace talks with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the PRC. These talks ultimately failed. After a failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, the Dalai Lama left for India, where he was active in establishing the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan Government in Exile) and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him. Tenzin Gyatso is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.