The Heart of Meditation

By: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jeffrey Hopkins (Editor and Translator)

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

His Holiness the Dalai Lama provides intimate details on an advanced meditation practice called Dzogchen using a visionary poem by the 19th-century saint Patrul Rinpoche, author of the Buddhist classic Words of My Perfect Teacher. The Dalai Lama deftly connects how training the mind in compassion for other beings is directly related to - and in fact a prerequisite for - the very pinnacle of Buddhist meditation. He presents his understanding, confirmed again and again over millennia, that the cultivation of both compassion and wisdom is absolutely critical to progress in meditation and goes into great depth on how this can be accomplished. While accessible to a beginner, he leads the listener in very fine detail on how to identify innermost awareness - who we really are - how to maintain contact with this awareness, and how to release oneself from the endless stream of our thoughts to let this awareness, always present, become consistently apparent.

©2016 Dalai Lama Trust (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Vital Study: Heart of Meditation

This is a fairly short yet PROFOUNLY VALUABLE OPUS, yet it is incredibly profound; I dare say, without the slightest hyperbole, this is quite worthy of the most serious, highly rigorous, and absolutely intensive study (plus the Great Works of Wisdom related to it) over an entire lifespan.

It is my humble opinion, this Magnum Opus absolutely should come with a PDF (like Great Courses, which it often includes with its excellent college-level courses, also on Audio.com) which might well contain an extensive Glossary of Terms, several conceptual Flowcharts which would well illustrate the various Paths to achieve the Ultimate Goal, well outlined herein; a Glossary of key words & phrases; explanations of crucial Tibetan words & related concepts. Then lastly, please include in the PDF, a brief English-language Biblography too.

This is a wonderfully wise, detailed and confoundingly complex work to some, which may only be well understood and followed, with at least a fair background in the highly advanced concepts of Tibetan Buddism, herein.

This is not for the deeply uncurious, cowardly, nor the faint of heart! However, that being said, it seems supremely manafest, this Great Work quite obviously requires one's extreme determination and brave focus, inorder to achive the promise of His Holyness' invaluble map, to achieve something which is truly both personally meaningful and what well may be for the serious-minded, a means to have a major impact for the better on the whole of Humanity. Thus, I feel stronly a need for the PDF proposed, to come with this incredibly high -- but profoundly worthwhile spiritual mountain to climb -- over one's lifetime.

I thank H.H. The Dali Lama, for this 🎁 gift! And as a truly great admirer of his, please keep 'em coming!!! (LOL) -- I'm also a huge fan of his wonderfully Wise & most insightful lectures too, which one hopes will always be made available on YouTube; I am unfortunately Bed-bound, so I cannot ever go to see his live, priceless lectures. Nonetheless, it is a dream of mine...

Thank you. May all of you know Love and Happiness, Peace & Joy, wherever you are.

-- MIchæl Hart,
Volant, PA ∙ USA

1 person found this helpful

What a deep book....

If you could sum up The Heart of Meditation in three words, what would they be?

Clear Light Mind

What did you like best about this story?

The insights here are probably hard to understand if you're not already far along the path. If you've come to know if a huge commonality between all the practices, shamata, vipassana, zen, prayer, etc, then this may be the book you're looking for. He talks about the substratum of conciousness, clear light awareness. And a mediation called Dzogchen which discards the various mediation objects in favor of pure awareness. No more pushing thoughts away, just let them be and see them as all other manifestations, waves on the surface of awareness.

1 person found this helpful

For beginners and seasoned students

Very good guide book for everyone that want to go deeper in the practice is meditation. It also bring the Buddhist philosophy, but just to help with the practice and not in a doctrinal manner.

This can’t be the Dalai Lama

The words used in this book are confusing; I do not believe the Dalai Lama write books to make people Stressed out while trying to configure the concise and accurate definitions of every single word. The reader needs to slow down and let people understand exactly what he stating and how he means it. Very stressful!

Too complex to be useful

In my opinion, this is why Buddhism would fail to bring peace and tranquility to the world. The teachings are too complex to be understood by most people who need them the most. This book is a perfect example. I stopped listing a little over half way through. I just leaned back and thought "wow. What a complex maze one must go though. In short, poor explanation, and I got nothing useful from this.

3 people found this helpful

the book is a duplicated version of another book

the narrative is horrible, inauthentic, pretentious as comparing the original audible book. Do buy this one!!!

2 people found this helpful

More suitable for advanced Buddhist practitioners and scholars

I found this book very difficult to follow. It was too academic and the style of writing was not suited to someone looking for a more accessible introduction to the principles of meditation. This needs to be made clear in the description of the book. I got to the end through sheer perseverance but probably got 1% of the content. The narration did not help either- it sounded too pompous and sermon-like. I wanted to like this book and was hoping to find some meaning but it just went above my head.

1 person found this helpful

Praise & blessings to His Holiness​ Dalai Lama

This is written with compassion and wisdom which comes from a life of dedicated practice