The Dalai Lama often says, "Kindness is society." His former translator, Jeffrey Hopkins, writes that by learning to live from a more compassionate viewpoint, we can create a better life not only for ourselves but for everyone. In A Truthful Heart, Hopkins uses Buddhist meditations (including the Dalai Lama's favorite), visualizations, and entertaining recollections from his personal journey to guide us in developing an awareness of the capacity for love inside us and learning to project that love into the world around us.
Delivering a potent message with the power to change our relationships and improve the quality of our lives, A Truthful Heart, is the ideal book for an age in which our dealings with each other seem increasingly impersonal--and even violent and aggressive. Anyone seeking release from anger and hurt, or simply wanting to increase the love and caring among us, will welcome this timely vision for humanity.
Truthful Heart: Buddhist Practices for Connecting with Others, Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications, Paperback, 2008, 216 Pages, $14.95
Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., served for a decade as the interpreter for the Dalai Lama. A Buddhist scholar and the author of more than thirty-five books and translations, he is emeritus professor of Tibetan and Buddhist studies at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program of Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West. He is translator and editor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's How to Practice (2002), Kindness Clarity, and Insight, and How to See Yourself as You Really Are (20006).
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Contents: A Truthful Heart |
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Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
11 |
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Introduction |
15 |
1. |
Meditation |
27 |
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STEP ONE: EQUANIMITY |
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2. |
Equality |
45 |
3. |
Motivation |
59 |
4. |
Awareness of Death |
65 |
5. |
Facing Horror |
79 |
6. |
Lifetimes |
89 |
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STEP TWO: RECOGNIZING FRIENDS |
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7. |
Everyone as a Friend |
109 |
8. |
Making Progress |
125 |
9. |
Valuing Others |
135 |
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STEP THREE: REFLECTING ON OTHERS' KINDNESS |
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10. |
Ways Others Are Kind |
147 |
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STEP FOUR: RETURNING KINDNESS |
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11. |
Reciprocating on Your Own Terms |
159 |
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STEP FIVE: LOVE |
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12. |
Meditating Love |
167 |
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STEP SIX: COMPASSION |
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13. |
Overview of Compassion |
183 |
14. |
Compassion Seeing Suffering Beings |
187 |
15. |
Compassion Seeing Evanescent Beings |
193 |
16. |
Compassion Seeing Empty Beings |
205 |
17. |
Compassion and Wisdom Combined |
213 |
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Selected Readings |
217 |
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