The contents of this book began as a series of booklets prepared in 2000-2001. This then became a single volume which was produced in a limited edition. It is now appearing in this form with certain changes.
It is not an academic work but one produced for a range of interested individuals from a variety of different backgrounds and all walks of life who sought to improve the quality of their lives. It contains some ideas that sought to provoke thought as well as indications of how to engage in practices such as meditation. Although they are rooted in traditional Buddhist practice they were made available for all, hopefully in a form they could work with, to stimulate and provoke thought and questioning.
Included in the contents is a consideration of the following topics: a guide to meditation: meditations on calm abiding, concentration, insight, love and compassion; the practices of visualisation and using sound in meditation, an introduction to tantric meditation. There is also discussion of the nature of health and well-being, the search for meaning, what it is to be human, avoiding extremes, right or wholesome action, mental poisons and their antidotes, modes of consciousness, modernism and tradition, the traditional view of the universe, realms of being and psychological conditions, rebirth and karma, linear and cyclical time, dependent origination, how to be happy. The author trained in the Theravadin, as well as the Gelug and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddihsm over many years.