Fetch A Monks Guide To Happiness: Meditation In The 21st Century Chronicled By Gelong Thubten Visible In Copy

book with great snippets and quotes of helpful wisdom, However I did get a little bored half way through and struggled to want to pick it up, A great read if your a meditation begginer, I liked the concept but, there is nothing new here other than "micro moments' of meditation during the day, I have read many meditation books and they all offer the same advice, I did enjoy reading his story, but there was nothing revolutionary or originalrepeat, repeat, repeat, The question should have been, "how is your story different and what New information do you have to offer

Regards to NetGalley amp Macmillan Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read amp review this book.


janne boswell
sitelink blogspot. com/ Some very good advice and information, it just didnt really work for me, I didnt feel inspired to carry out the practice, but this is likely a personal thing.
There is some guidance and having both the audio book and the hard copy were handy as there are guided meditations at the end so having someone read them to you rather than you having to read them whilst practising was very good, but also having the hard copy to reference was very handy too.
Not sure I will listen to / read the whole book again but I will possibly dip in if / when I ever feel inspired to do so, glad Ive read the book though.
In this profound and inspiring book, Gelong Thubten presents a practical and sustainable approach to happiness, and how meditation and mindfulness can help us get there.


This book is written in a style that is very easy to read and the guide to meditation is perfect for beginners.
Gelong Thubten is a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author from the UK, He ordained as a monkyears ago at Samye Ling Tibetan Monastery in Scotland, He is regarded as one of the UK's most influential meditation teachers, with pioneering work in providing nonreligious mindfulness programmes to businesses, hospitals, schools, universities, prisons and addiction counselling centres.


Thubten is able to explain meditation using clear language and an approach which really speaks to our modern techinfused lives, With openness, humility and humour he delivers a deep message that will resonate in our modern culture, Compelling to read and full of profound wisdom, this book rationally describes how our mind functions and how we can cultivate the habit of happiness.


While some may find the instructions for meditation practice repetitive, the writing is calm and encouraging, Overall a great book for beginners although there's valuable information here and if you read the whole thing I would think almost anyone could benefit from the information.
Pri pojme meditácia som si vždy predstavoval polohu v tureckom sede a snahu vytesniť z mysle všetky myšlienky, Aspoň tak bola verejnosti dosť dlho prezentovaná, a aj keď som mal občas nutkanie vyskúšať ju, zakaždým ma odradila moja neschopnosť vyprázdniť si hlavu.
Keď vydavateľstvo Lindeni prinieslo na náš trh nenápadný, ale zaujímavý titul Škola šťastného života, rozhodol som sa dať lepšiemu spoznaniu seba samého ďalšiu šancu.
Čo ma pobavilo aj zarazilo zároveň, boli autorove úvodné slová, Na rovinu totiž hovorí, že vžitá predstava o meditácii nemá nič spoločné so skutočným pohrúžením sa do svojho vnútra.
Práve naopak, naše myšlienky by sme nemali potláčať, ale naučiť sa ich vedome usmerniť, aby sme dosiahli želaný efekt.


"Mnohí pravidelne meditujú, no zabúdajú integrovať svoju meditačnú prax do bežného života, Nechajú ju na meditačnom vankúši a odídu do práce, Výsledok potom nie je bohvieaký, keďže desať až pätnásť minút meditácie oproti mnohým hodinám rozptýlenej pozornosti nemá veľkú šancu navodiť zmenu.
Sú ako dvaja ľudia, ktorí sa nikdy nestretnú: ten, kto medituje, a ten, kto nemedituje, Potrebujeme však oboje. Každodenná meditácia nám poskytne intenzívny tréning pre myseľ a teda mnoho zručností, aby sme mohli efektívne narábať so svojimi myšlienkami.
" str.

Gelong Thubten je mních, ktorého priviedla na novú životnú cestu vlastná vyčerpanosť a mladícka honba za dočasnými, predovšetkým materiálnymi radosťami.
Podobne ako mnohí z nás sa nazdával, že šťastie je čosi, čo musí prísť zvonku, akýsi stimul, ktorý nás podnieti k ďalšiemu napredovaniu, pričom prakticky nikdy nedosiahneme celkové uspokojenie.
Keď u Gelonga došlo k hraničnej situácii a vyhoreniu, hľadal spôsob, ako napraviť svoje chyby a spamätať sa, kým má čas.
Niekoľko rokov strávil v škótskom kláštore, kde spoznal mnohých iných pôvodných obchodníkov, lekárov, právnikov a intelektuálov, potýkajúcich sa s nástrahami moderného sveta.
Tu sa naučil vnímať svoje telo i myseľ, v tichosti a rozjímaní odhalil netušené zákutia a silu vlastného vedomia.
Výsledkom jeho dlhoročnej meditačnej praxe, kurzov a seminárov je kniha Škola šťastného života, ktorá vás prevedie teóriou aj praktickými cvičeniami s cieľom vniesť do bežnej každodennosti pokoj a rozvahu.
Niektoré podobne ladené diela neraz zlyhajú na prílišnom obkecávaní a poúčaní, V tomto prípade ide autor v podstate priamo na vec, Isteže, ani on sa nevyhne nevyhnutnej genéze a dôvodom vedúcim k vzniku knihy, no dobre si uvedomuje, prečo po nej čitatelia siahajú.
Jednotlivé cvičenia sú na pohľad jednoduché, a práve to z nich robí ideálne aktivity pre akékoľvek prostredie.
Stačí len tichý kútik a niekoľko minút času, Ba dokonca nemusí byť ani tichý, niektoré cvičenia sú totiž zamerané na sústredné počúvanie a rozlišovanie zvukov okolia, Dôležité je vnímať svoje myšlienky, ktoré sa dokážu veľmi rýchlo rozutekať rôznymi smermi, a preto je nutné naučiť sa ich "vrátiť" späť.
Meditácia teda nie je o stereotypnom vypustení všetkého z našej hlavy, ale skôr o spracúvaní myšlienok či istom zmierení sa s nimi.
Zároveň si treba uvedomiť aj prítomnosť tela v priestore a všetkého, čo sa ho v danej chvíli dotýka a pôsobí naň.
Gelong pracuje aj s dobre známou teóriou, že najlepšie budú jeho rady fungovať, ak si človek vytvorí návyk a bude sa usilovať využiť dobrý pocit z meditácie aj v priebehu dňa.


"Vybavte si v mysli tri skutočnosti, za ktoré ste vo svojom živote vďační, Môžu to byť predmety, ľudia, situácie čokoľvek, Dôkladne o nich premýšľajte prechádzajte jednu po druhej a skúmajte, prečo ste, alebo by ste mohli byť, za ne vďační.
Precíťte ocenenie a vďačnosť, Usilujte sa pochopiť, že všetko závisí od všetkého ostatného, Naše prežitie závisí od mnohých faktorov, ľudí a vecí okolo nás, Ak si uvedomíte, akou láskavosťou vás zahŕňa svet, pocítite hlbokú vďačnosť, Ďalší krok je cítiť radosť zo šťastia iných, " str.

Autor zvolil vhodnú kompozíciu textu, ponúka kratšie úseky, kniha sa číta rýchlo a umne vás privedie k podstate.
Ukazuje, že meditácia nie je iba výsadou dospelých, hovorí, že šťastie závisí iba od nášho prístupu a nastavenia a že rovnako významnými faktormi sú empatia a súcit.
Škola šťastného života je však "iba" kniha a stále záleží len na nás, či využijeme dané riadky, alebo zas po čase skĺzneme k svojim zaužívaným zvykom.
Vzhľadom na žáner a zameranie, prirodzene, nemusí sadnúť každému, no odhliadnuc od meditačných cvičení obsahuje aj mnoho podnetných myšlienok o živote a tomu, do akej miery sami ovplyvňujeme jeho chod.
Takže hoci ste si ju doteraz nemuseli všimnúť, určite stojí minimálne za prelistovanie, Gelong Thubten tells how he came to become a monk and shares what he has learned about meditation, The book is filled with short guided meditation practices to ease a learner into becoming a daily meditator, Unhappiness involves a sense of incompleteness, which arises from desire and seeking happiness outside of ourselves,

This book provides readers with a philosophically insightful and practically useful manual on how to break free of suffering and achieve inner peace.

While happiness is characterized by a sense of fullness, presentness and freedom, unhappiness is marked by the opposite feelings, These include a sense of emptiness arising from desire and a tendency to look for happiness outside of ourselves, Our desires are stoked by advertising, social media and other aspects of our modern consumer culture, while the tendency to seek pleasure externally eventually becomes a mental habit.
These habits lead us to grasp for what we want and push away what we dont want, The resulting strain is our ultimate source of suffering, To escape it, we can learn to observe things neutrally, This is called "mindfulness". Meditation exercises can help us develop this skill, but to fully tap into its power, we need to integrate it into our everyday lives.


. Happiness is a feeling of fullness and freedom in the present moment,
. Unhappiness involves a sense of incompleteness, which arises from desire and seeking happiness outside of ourselves,
. Unhappiness ultimately arises from trying to grasp and push away our experiences,
. Modern culture exacerbates the problem of insatiable desire and our sense of incompleteness,
. To avoid the pitfalls of grasping and pushing things away, we need to develop the skill of neutrally observing them,
. If we look for happiness outside ourselves, were headed for unhappiness,
. By practicing mindfulness in everyday situations, we can turn it into a habit,


By practicing mindfulness in everyday situations, we can turn it into a habit,

As a form of mental exercise, meditation is basically practicing the skill of neutrally observing our thoughts, emotions, sensations and experiences.
The word “practicing” bears emphasizing here, because theres no reason to develop a skill we dont use in our everyday lives! 

How do we do that That involves applying what we do when were meditating to everyday situations.
But that raises another question what exactly do we do when were meditating 

Generally speaking, meditation exercises consist of three steps.
In step one, we focus our minds on an anchor in the present moment, For beginners, this is usually the breath, the body, a visual object or the sounds around us, The objective here is to be fully and nonjudgmentally focused on whatever were experiencing in the present moment, In this state of mindfulness, were neither pushing nor grabbing at anything in our field of awareness, Were simply accepting it and experiencing it as it is,  

At some point, however, our minds inevitably wander into other sensations, thoughts or emotions, This leads to step two, which is simply

noticing that weve drifted, The third step consists of gently bringing our attention back to our anchor, Then we repeat the cycle all over again and again, and again,  

Now, the reason that beginnerlevel meditation exercises start with anchors like the body and breath is that these are very immediate, noticeable things to focus on.
But in theory, your anchor could be anything, With that in mind, you can start broadening your meditation practice by implementing mindful moments,

To do this, pick two or three ordinary actions that you usually do mindlessly, like brushing your teeth, eating lunch or climbing the stairs.
Then, practice the three phases of meditation while you perform them each day, For example, if youre brushing your teeth, focus on the physical sensations of the task, like the taste of the toothpaste suds that fill your mouth and the sound of the brush scrubbing against your teeth.
Whenever your mind wanders, simply observe where its gone and gently bring it back to the experience,

The more you practice mindfulness, the more it will become your default state of mind not just during mindful moments and meditation sessions, but also when youre experiencing difficulties.
Youll then be able to tap into this internal source of inner peace whenever, and wherever you are,  

Blinkist summary Gelong Thubten bible of meditation,
With overyears of experiences he narrates how simple it is to bring meditation in our lives,
He explains about how our lives are causing us to be more distracted maybe anxious, sad, threatened, How we chase the next moment of pleasure without enjoying the moment we are actually in,
There are easy to follow steps which structure the meditation practice, Wrote in a gentle way that encourages you to follow his guidance without the stress of am I doing it right,
.