Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies for Modern Life

by Sakyong Mipham

Book Overview

You're stuck in the airport security line, late for a flight. The line isn't moving. You're angry at the security personnel for taking so long, you're irritated at the other passengers for having so... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767920651
• ISBN13: 9780767920650
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Solid Information to Rule Your World

Ruling Your World is a great book but it certainly does not go in the direction of typical western thinking. Ruling Your World is not about getting anybody or everybody under your rule or control. Ruling Your World is simply about ruling yourself. If you gain control of yourself, then you rule your world. For those who are familiar with the teachings of Buddha, there is nothing new in this book. However the book is easy to read and certainly can reinforce information we have already been exposed to. If you are not familiar with the teachings of Buddha, then this is a great place to start. Sakyong Mipham drives home a very strong point, by concentrating on the little "me" we are engaging in a game we cannot win. The typical western belief is that by acquiring things we will become happy. The simple truth is the ego will never be satisfied. The more we get, the more we want. This becomes a never ending cycle. There are some very good lessons to be learned. Unfortunately most of them go opposite to western thinking. So it will take much reflection and contemplation to accept these ideas. And as it pointed out, they are no good unless and until we internalize them. Here is an example of one very important lesson. We make faulty decisions based on anger, jealousy, desire or pride - signs that we are looking out for "me". If anger is the cause and we want happiness as the result, it's not going to work, because every result has to have a relationship to the cause. A very good book - worthy of study and contemplation. Once you rule yourself, you rule your world.

Simple, Profound...I'm Reading it Again!

I read a great deal, but it's only one out of a hundred books that I'll read again within a month after the first reading and this is one of them. The concepts explained by Sakyong Mipham have so much relevance in our world today and those concepts are communicated with a breadth and depth that is at once simple and unfathomable. If you're looking for a thousand different steps on the path towards enlightenment, this isn't the book for you. If you are tired of struggling to hold onto power that is both elusive and insubstantial, take a look at this book. You won't be disappointed. Simple Breathing Meditation, Thought Exercises and Compassion will change your life for the better.

Depth and Precision

If his father's books are like a Molotov Cocktail, capable of blowing your mind with extraordinary skillful language and profound insight into the specific character of the Western mind, then Mipham's books provide the in-depth and serious settling into the teachings and practices that were introduced a generation before. Although his father's approach was effective in causing many to suddenly wake up and change course, Mipham provides the patient, applied, and deep transmission that we need to stay the course and follow the path with skill and precision. Mipham's spiritual tradition also place emphasis on applying these principals in our homes and communities, that the living wisdom be applied to society. Here his discussion of the dignities is far more powerful than a new-age "Have power over your life, Now!" story. It is the basis around which ensure that out lives enrich and support those around us. This text is perhaps the more profound and detailed discussion of the dignities of the warriorship in the modern world that is available to a general audience. It is beautifully written, extremely personal and direct, patient and disciplined. One of the finest texts available by a living teacher. Until recently people reviewing his work or attending a public program would refer to him as a "Young Lama" as if people this young couldn't be this wise. Some of the "Young Lama" image may fade now that he has married and turned 40, but the wisdom and percision keep getting deeper.

Awesome! Terrific Advice. Great Writing

I've learned from the Rinpoche, now I'm learning from his son. When I encountered Chogyam Trungpa many years ago, he figuratively slapped me in the face. And the cocky, ignorant me at the time deserved the wake-up slapping (and deeply appreciated it). Just a few days ago, I met his son Sakyong Mipham through his latest book. You could imagine Mipham took my hand, led me to the couch, sat next to me, and gently told this old me some more about the wonderful Buddhist wisdom in ways that are both timely and timeless. His expositions of Dharma are effective, yet very few technical terms are used. His explanations are modern and relevant. His persistent, yet loving, effort in helping us break through the illusion of the self pays off quite nicely. Mipham's previous book, Turning The Mind Into An Ally, is great, too, but I find his current one accessible to a broader audience.

Mipham is the Man

I'm not really sure what it is because when you look at this man he doesn't have a lot in common with me. In his first book, his analogies for meditation are about horseback riding and golfing, and I don't really know many people who actually do those things. In this book, he talks about living our lives like a king/queen and I don't believe in monarchy. On the surface, this book looks like it's written for a self-help crowd, and I hate books that look like that. So on the surface, this wouldn't be the book for me. Except that his words connect with my mind. They interface and form new pathways of thinking about things. They leave me to contemplate new depths of meaning for years after the fact. And they help me be a better person. So you could say I'm a fan. It's not so much that this is a really good book to read once, although it is. It's about the way these teachings begin to sink in when you make them your own. Sakyong Mipham has done that and it's clear and inspiring to witness. If you can ever do a meditation program with him, you'd be a lucky one.