This substantive book presents the teachings of His Holiness the Karmapa, one of the highest-ranking lamas in Tibetan Buddhism and the leader of the tradition's oldest reincarnation lineage. The present incarnation, named Ogyen Trinley Dorge, is the 17th in this line. Since escaping Chinese-occupied Tibet at age 14, he has lived near his mentor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Dharmsala, India. This book is based on a series of teachings he gave to American college students for several weeks in 2011.
Carrying a 900-year-old reincarnation lineage, this 25-year-monk begins with a challenge to see that we are all interacting with the planet in a ceaseless rhythm of giving and receiving. Under the rubric of interdependence, we are called to move beyond the grasping reality of "me" and "mine" to the practice of love in all our dealings with others. We are able to square off with the troubling moral and ethical issues of the day because "inside each of us there is a noble heart. This heart is the source of our finest aspirations for ourselves and for the world. It fills us with the courage to act on our aspirations."
The Karmapa wants us to train ourselves in patience, to drop our projections, to be at ease with change, and to forgive others. These form the foundation for engaged Tibetan Buddhism. The Karmapa also gives his thoughts on gender identities, consumerism and greed, environmental protection, food justice and the cycles of hunger and harm, and conflict resolution. These global problems demand our attention and energy. What is needed is a concerted effort of spreading compassion and a sustained attitude of caring. He concludes with this thought:
"Now it is up to you to maintain your enthusiasm in acting for the good of the world. If you do so, anything is possible. Anything is possible, because everything arises based on the coming together of the right causes and conditions. Remember: there is no fixed starting point for you to begin from to accomplish whatever you aspire to achieve. Changing the world for the good can start from right where you are, right now."
