How to Practice

The Way to a Meaningful Life

By: His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Narrated by: Jeffrey Hopkins PhD

Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, PhD

As human beings, we possess one common desire: the need for happiness and a meaningful life. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the ability to find true fulfillment lies within each of us. Now, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Nobel Prize winner, and best selling author helps listeners begin the path to enlightenment in a very special audiobook - an easy-access reference for daily practice as well as a stunning new illumination of the timeless wisdom of His Holiness.

How to Practice will guide you toward nurturing compassion, refraining from doing harm, maintaining mental tranquility, and how to develop wisdom. Divided into a series of distinct steps that will lead spiritual seekers of all faiths toward enlightenment, this accessible audiobook is a constant and daily companion in the quest to practice morality, meditation, and wisdom. The Dalai Lama shows us how to overcome our everyday obstacles, from feelings of anger and mistrust to jealousy, insecurity, and counterproductive thinking. Imbued with His Holiness' vivacious spirit and sense of playfulness, How to Practice offers the Dalai Lama's own sage and practical insight into the human psyche and what binds us all together.

©2002 His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins, All Rights Reserved (P)2002 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The Dalai Lama offers elegant clarity about the paradoxes at the heart of Buddhism." (Publishers Weekly)
"As a primer on living the good life, few books compete with How to Practice." (Amazon.com)

Incredible Listen

Great listen. His Holliness does a great job in presenting Buddhist methods of practice from the basics, to more advanced practioners.

Totaly Amazing

This book is amazing full of wisdom and spiritually. A true gem written by The Dalai Lama, narrated by Jeff Hopkins. Jeff is very good at carrying the spiritual word. His insight is great as is his translation. This is a jewel , it is very good!

Listen to it and life could be easier

The voice is just like the writer. Many useful thoughts be told. Try to practice it in daily life, and you will find yourself happier than before.

Interesting but detailed

It gets a bit esoteric towards the end. Narrator was a bit subpar. Still worth a listen.

Concise Explanation of Buddhism and It's Practice

As I am new to Buddhism, I have floundered in finding a personal, daily practice. I'm one that cannot truly commit myself to anything without having a personal understanding and conviction of that understanding. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has beautifully presented here a concise and easily understood teaching of the basic principles of Buddhism, and offered suggestion as to how to incorporate those principles into your daily life. I am most grateful for this book and the friend that suggested it to me.

Truly excellent

His holiness does well to teach us how we as laypeople can adapt the monastic way of life to our daily lives. It was advanced, perhaps not for beginners. However, I loved it. He tells you don't give up! It's going to be difficult but don't ever give up.

recommend

I've listened to this twice and working on a third time. I really recommend it.

Inner Knowledge of self and others.

This book has opened my eyes, soul, heart, and overall being, to a new way of living. Intention is everything, and the importance of intention is defined plainly and clearly, in this volume. It is good to acknowledge others when acknowledgement needs to be made.

Having something to believe in, and live by, is the cornerstone to our existence. Acceptance and tolerance of other's rights to have their own religion is part of actual peace, as defined at the end, when the Dali llama writes everyone has a right to their religion, and is not too preachy about it. He just offers a suggestion on how to practice Buddhism.

His wisdom, wit, and overall being comes out in his writings and teachings. The Dali llama will always be on of my favorite go to teachers and mood uplifter whenever I am in doubt. I thank you Dali llama, and promise to practice everyday.

Great overview of the Tibetan Buddhist path

This was a great read. Informative and illuminating. I will be reading it several more times.

The Dharma Flows Through Me Like A River

Maximum gain reading--the teachings about the nature of reality, clarity of explications on emptiness, the true nature of generosity and compassion, and practical to-do's--all rewards to the reader; but, the greatest reward from this book is the opening that correspondingly happens in the reader's heart as HH the 14th Dalai Lama carries you like a beloved child into the river of the Dharma. I'd say, D.T. Suzuki gave me a kick-start, Kaplau gave me a practice, and now the Dalai Lama has blessed me, initiated me, into a generosity of spirit, and helped my practice mature.
I find that I no longer notice the difference between "practice" and "non-practice" for HH has shown, or instilled, a new understanding of the integrated wholeness of each moment of life. All moments are practice. I no longer wait to "sit" to practice, no longer expect my mind to be a certain way before I am "practicing." It is like finding oneself swimming somehow when before one was only able to float clinging to a log.
Why do I try to put it into words? I believe the lessons of compassion are vital for our world, for our survival as a species, and for the survival of all sentient beings. This small easy to read book allows compassion to emerge.
The greatest gift to me from reading this book? I am quick to forgive, quicker to give, faster to recognize my delusions and entrapment in afflictive emotions, and without a doubt I now see those around me being more compassionate to one another.
Wisdom is a noble goal. Compassion a noble goal. This book sets out the way, like a child's chalk marks on a sidewalk--clear, simple, familiar already, and the periodic summaries at the end of chapters allow one to return to the lessons of the teacher over and over. You'll want to not only listen to this book over and over, but you will seek out the print version so you can have the three jewels handy beside your night table, beside your chair, your zafu!