A Book Review of Everyday Enlightenment
(By Vimal Kodai)
His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa's Everyday Enlightenment
His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, has hereby successfully attempted to display most of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha in this very masterpiece of his—Everyday Enlightenment. He brings upon many disciplines from Buddhist literature while he applies them to circumstances which put a halt to the true causes of turmoil in human beings’ lives. His Holiness has thoroughly and concisely combed through many notions of life’s problematic events as per those faced daily by human beings. There are many elements of truth and particles of spiritual knowledge which are well presented by this spiritual leader in order to deal with such matters. Gyalwang Drukpa instructs mere basic principles which are of great relevance to us, humans. These are spiritual evidence which handle happiness, harmony, and peace of mind, compassion, self-growth, motivation and spiritual enlightenment in the lives of human beings. His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa is very cautiously emphasizing on the happiness which comes from within ourselves versus external influences that lead to personal satisfaction. Gyalwang Drukpa carefully portrays a holistic approach to the idea of seeking for the Buddha within, the spiritual friend within, and, the teacher within. His Holiness gives solutions which restore states of unrest in the daily lives of humans: common sources of nuisances to the lives of humans are well depicted and solutions to such matters are clearly indicated in his book. Gyalwang Drukpa attaches a firm relationship to what the developed mind is really about. He gives many likable amazing examples on how compassion is truly created in the lives of humans. Also, he indicates that the latter should adopt such a characteristic for the sake of enhancing life’s minute treasures and wonders by using the spiritual principles taught by the Buddha. Gyalwang Drukpa indicates that fear, ego, anger, anguish and the feeling of being controlled by others always impact on either man’s peace of mind or on his state of tranquility.
His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa
His Holiness also reveals that karma is nothing but our "actions" (physical, mental and spoken) and that its causes and effects (good and/or bad) depend on the motives which reside behind of our deeds. Gyalwang Drukpa stresses on the idea of gaining true wisdom within the self by our thorough acceptance of spiritual enlightenment in our everyday life. Everyday Enlightenment is a book which replenishes and fulfills all the spiritual knowledge attached to human beings’ daily lives. It creates a deep impact in the lives of those who read it by its complete acknowledgment of compassion as being the most persistent and most definitive requirement which better the lives of human beings. His Holiness has brought a real life spiritual journey, all of it in this very monumental book of his. Everyday Enlightenment is a book which has profound teachings to us all: it has high moral values, high spiritual values, high social values and insightful inspirations which shed light on our pathway to spiritual enlightenment.
