For over 20 years Karuna Cayton has worked as a psychotherapist, business psychologist, and coach to help people achieve a more balanced life. He lived in Nepal for 12 years studying Tibetan Buddhism. In this succinct survey of Buddhist psychology, he lays out the essentials of this path which has been tested by people all over the world for 2500 years. Cayton believes that these understandings of suffering, loss, mind training and happiness can be appropriated by us all as we become "our own therapists and spiritual guides."

At the core of this paperback is the Tibetan Buddhist practice of taming the mind. We embrace and befriend our troubles rather than running away from them in fear. "Then our problems change shape, or to use an analogy expressed by some ancient Buddhist masters, 'They become ornaments we can wear.' " Cayton explains the four steps of mind training and ends with praise for the spiritual practice of enthusiasm.

"Enthusiasm is infectious; others are encouraged by it. With enthusiasm, we view our problems as opportunities to build our character and our inner potential. It is that simple. Events can be seen either as threatening, out to destroy us, or as prospects to awaken our deepest and most wholesome qualities. Either we can continue to allow events to give rise to our defensive reactions or we can open our hearts and minds to a deeper appreciation of the world, the people around us, and ourselves."

Cayton does a good job explaining the three destructive emotions of attachment, aversion, and ignorance . And he delivers a thought-provoking exercise called "Four Trivial Pursuits." The Misleading Mind by Karuna Cayton carefully and creatively probes the spiritual practice of transformation.