Ruling without sufficient understanding has led to enormous difficulties in human history.

If we truly understood our world, and wanted to help it and the people in it -- then developing intelligent networks would make more sense than creating authoritarian hierarchies.

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.