Introduction

      Everyone, whether religious or non-religious, is looking for happiness all the time and wants to be free from problems and suffering permanently. We can fulfill these wishes through understanding and practicing the instructions given in this book.

      This book is based on the widely renowned Eight Verses of Training the Mind (Lojong Tsig Gyema in Tibetan), which was composed by Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa, an eleventh-century Buddhist Master from Tibet. Though comprising only eight four-line verses, this remarkable text reveals the essence of the Buddhist path to enlightenment, showing how we can transform our mind from its present confused and self-centered state into the perfect wisdom and compassion of an enlightened Buddha.

      Every living being has the potential to become a Buddha, someone who has completely purified his or her mind of all faults and limitations and has brought all good qualities to perfection. Our mind is like a cloudy sky, in essence clear and pure but overcast by the clouds of delusions. Just as the thickest clouds eventually disperse, so too even the heaviest delusions can be removed from our mind. Delusions such as hatred, greed and ignorance are not an intrinsic part of the mind. If we apply the appropriate methods they can be completely eliminated, and we will experience the supreme happiness of full enlightenment.

      Everyone wants to be happy and no one wants to suffer, but very few people understand what is the real cause of happiness and what is the real cause of suffering. We tend to look for happiness outside ourself, thinking that if we had the right house, the right car, the right job and the right friends that we like, we would be truly happy. We spend almost all our time adjusting the external world, trying to make it conform to our wishes. All our life we have tried to surround ourself with people and things that make us feel comfortable, secure or stimulated, yet still we have not found pure and lasting happiness. Even when we succeed in fulfilling our desires, it is not long before our desires change and we want something else. We may find the house of our dreams, but a few months later we feel that we need a bigger kitchen, an extra bedroom or a larger yard, and we begin to think of moving. Or perhaps we meet the “perfect” partner, fall in love and move in together. At the beginning our partner seems to be the most wonderful person in the world, but before long we begin to see faults in him or her. We discover that we are no longer in love, and soon we are looking for someone else to fulfill our desires.

      Throughout history human beings have sought to improve their external situation, yet despite all our efforts we are no happier. It is true that from the point of view of material development many countries are making progress. Technology is becoming more and more sophisticated, and worldly knowledge has increased dramatically. We know so many things we did not know before and can do things we never even dreamed of. Superficially it looks as if our world is improving, but if we look a little more deeply we will see that there are now many problems that never existed before. Terrifying weapons have been invented, our environment is being poisoned and new diseases are appearing. Even simple pleasures like eating or lying in the sun are becoming more dangerous.

      The result of an unbridled pursuit of happiness from external sources is that our planet is being destroyed and our lives are becoming more complicated and dissatisfying. It is time we sought happiness from a different source. Happiness is a part of the mind that experiences inner peace, or peace of mind, so the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions. If our mind is pure and peaceful we will be happy, regardless of our external circumstances, but if it is impure and unpeaceful we will never be happy, no matter how hard we try to change our external conditions. We could change our home or our partner countless times, but until we change our restless, discontented