The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out
Author(s): The Seventeenth Karmapa (Author), H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Foreword)
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 216 pages
ISBN-10: 1611800803
ISBN-13: 9781611800807
Book 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.
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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“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 Chödrön, 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
About the Author
THE KARMAPA is one of the highest ranking lamas in Tibetan Buddhism and is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism’s oldest reincarnation lineage. The present incarnation, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is the seventeenth in this line. Since his escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet at the age of fourteen, he has emerged as an international Buddhist leader and environmental activist. He lives in Dharamsala, India, just a short distance from his mentor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out
Author(s): The Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (Author)
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication Date: February 19, 2013
Language: English
Print length: 216 pages
ISBN-10: 1611800013
ISBN-13: 9781611800012
Book Description
If you are inspired to take up his challenge, the Karmapa offers a path for participating in a global community that is based on compassion. In these chapters, he shares his vision for bringing social action into daily life, on a scale we can realistically manage through the choices we make every day—what to buy, what to eat, and how to relate honestly and bravely with our friends and family and coworkers. His fresh and encouraging perspective shows us that we have the strength to live with kindness in the midst of the many challenges we face as socially and environmentally conscious beings. Because he sees the world through the lens of the interdependence of all beings, he sees that humans can change social and environmental problems by changing their attitudes and actions. And so, he shows ways that we can change our world by changing ourselves—by examining our own habits of consumption and by being willing to look into how our food reaches our table and how the products we buy are made. In his chapter on gender, he points out that we don’t have to label others according to a social construct.
If his viewpoint seems optimistic, it is—and it’s also demanding. The Karmapa calls on us to open our mind and heart to the innumerable connections we share with others—in our families, communities, social systems, and on our planet. Thanks to the depth of his spiritual training, and the breadth of his curiosity about the world and his love for it, he presents a relevant framework for understanding what it means to be human now—and why it’s imperative that we concern ourselves with the well-being of all others. He points to a world we can create through our own effort, using a resource we already have in abundance—the basic nobility of our human heart.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“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 Chödrön, 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
About the Author
The 17th 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, the Karmapa’s 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, founding Khoryug, a region-wide environmental protection program. The Karmapa has been dubbed the “new face of Tibetan Buddhism,” and many Tibetans look to the Karmapa for inspiration in their struggle to preserve their embattled culture. In 2008, he made his historic first visit to America. He currently resides at Gyuto Monastery, near Dharamsala, India.
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