Don't Believe Everything You Think: Living with Wisdom and Compassion

"It can be hard for those of us living in the twenty-first century to see how fourteenth-century Buddhist teachings still apply."

It can be hard for those of us living in the twenty-first century to see how fourteenth-century Buddhist teachings still apply. When youre trying to figure out which cell phone plan to buy or brooding about something someone wrote about you on Facebook, lines like While the enemy of your own anger is unsubdued, though you conquer external foes, they will only increase can seem a little obscure.

Thubten Chodrons illuminating explication of Togmay Zangpos revered text, The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, doesnt just explain its profound meaning; in dozens of passages she lets her students and colleagues share first-person stories of the ways that its teachings have changed their lives. Some bear witness to dramatic transformationsmaking friends with an enemy prisoner-of-war, finding peace after the murder of a loved onewhile others tell of smaller lessons, like waiting for something to happen or coping with a minor injury.