I read this book over one of my summer reprieves. I must say in all honesty, this was a much better investment of my time than The Da Vinci Code.

This book penetrates and exposes the subtle processes in your mind that lead you to suffering over and over. Geshe Kelsang brings Buddhist teachings into our lives for their very intended purpose: easing our suffering and pointing us to the path of liberation. If you believe Buddhist teachings are simply of an intellectual or mystical nature, this book will show you that they are intended to be applied to your everyday life. This is the only way in which they are of any benefit, and Geshe Kelsang expresses this point perfectly.

Awesome.

The book is really divided into two sections, one which illustrates the central points of Buddha's teachings, highlighting that the source of all human suffering is really all in our minds. That it is our perspective on a person or event or thing, the 'broken car', the 'enemy' at work, that often stops us from being happy.

The second part of the book contains advice on anger, and how to cultivate patience. The central argument he puts forward is that anger is a destructive mind, which causes pain to ourselves and to others. And that in the grip of anger, people behave in the most unskillful and even dangerous ways. In the West we feel anger is a good thing, active, 'getting things out in the open' as it were, instead of 'repressing.' what it most often does, however, is makes the whole situation worse, because we are letting our often deluded mind, clouded by anger and disappointment, call the shots. Think of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers-his constant anger drove people away, and only made his daily life more and more complicated! I kept thinking of the scene where he gets so angry at his car he says, "right, i'll show you," and begins to beat it with a huge tree branch while he tells it all the things that he has always hated about it.

We may not use the tree branch with our loved ones, but verbal lashing out can be even more damaging-we can easily get a new car, but a new friend, partner, child?

As Geshe Kelsang Gyatso says, a patient mind is able to step back from the situation to see how best to deal with it without flying off the handle and causing one to do or say something they will definitely regret. Arguments with loved ones, for example, are supposed to restore harmony and peace, but how often do they really? A whole chapter on reasons not to retaliate is super as well.

This is a very basic book for people interested in learning more about Buddhism, but the ideas for managing anger and cultivating patience in order to keep control of even the most difficult situations is one which any reader can benefit from.