The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out

Description

"Advice and encouragement from a leading young spiritual teacher on how to live with compassion, ethical principles, and bravery in the face of the global challenges facing humanity." Advice and encouragement from a leading young spiritual teacher on how to live with compassion, ethical principles, and bravery in the face of the global challenges facing humanity. In his first major book, the Karmapa, a charismatic 28-year-old emerging leader of Tibetan Buddhism, offers heartfelt advice on how to live with integrity in the modern world. These teachings arose from the questions of sixteen college seniors who spent a month meeting and talking with the Karmapa about their concerns about the world and their own futures. "This is not a book about Buddhism. I don't want to talk about Buddhist theory or practice, but about our experience of life. The shared ground we all meet on is our shared concern about our lives and our world, rather than philosophical views. On that ground, we can meet as friends."--from the Introduction Sixteen American college students spent a month in India with His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. Together, they discussed topics ranging from food justice to gender identities to sustainable compassion. The Karmapa's teachings in this book are the product of those meetings. For those who wish to take up its challenge, this book can serve as a guide to being a friend to this planet and to all of us who share it. The Karmapa describes how to see the world as a global community, in which people are linked by their shared concerns for humanity--and their wish to bring about real change. While acknowledging the magnitude of this undertaking, the Karmapa shows us how to go about it, using the inner resources we have already.

THE SEVENTEENTH GYALWANG KARMAPA, OGYEN TRINLEY DORJE, is the spiritual head of one of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 900-year-old lineage of Karmapas has included some of Tibet's greatest spiritual masters. Born to nomadic parents in rural Tibet, he was identified while still a young child as the heir to this leadership position. In 2000, his dramatic escape to India from Chinese-ruled Tibet at the age of fourteen propelled him onto the world stage. Since then, he has emerged as an international Buddhist leader and environmental activist.

"The teachings in this book are tools for clearing away everything that keeps us from recognizing and connecting with our own noble heart, and for opening that heart to others in the most radical way. I am most grateful to His Holiness the Karmapa for offering these transformative teachings, and I recommend this book to everyone who wants to change the world, beginning with themselves."-Pema Choedroen, author of Living Beautifully "In The Heart Is Noble the Seventeenth Karmapa shares his deep wisdom and compassion as a lens on topics ranging from global hunger to healthy relationships and to the meaning of life. His message shows how we can each be heroes in daily life in ways large and small, and that bringing a noble heart to whatever we encounter enriches everyone."-Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence