Book Review: Ethics for the New Millennium by The Dalai Lama.

Used by permission, Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.itThis is a living book review, I'll be adding to it as I go.  If you'd like to follow along, you can buy the crap out of this book.  Currently I am three pages into the preface, and have already come across this gem of a laugh-line:

(His Holiness is reminding readers that he has devoted his life to religious and spiritual learning, chiefly Buddhist philosophy and psychology.)

"In particular, I have studied the works of religious philosophers of the Geluk tradition to which, by tradition, the Dalai Lamas have belonged. (Drumroll!)  Being a firm believer in religious pluralism, I have also studied the principal works of other Buddhist traditions." (Rimshot!  Cymbal crash!)

What a joker!  I love it.  I hope the rest of the book is this funny!  Bring it on, Your Hilariousness!

Chapter 1: More Gold!

First off, this book is great and everybody should read it -- this self-proclaimed "ordinary man" gets right to the roots without delay.  On page 7 he casually provides an exemplary example of his "ordinariness."  Ok so he's staying with some opulent Westerners, they've got servants, a giant house -- they appear to have succeeded in using material wealth to achieve happiness, as they

definitely had an air of relaxed confidence.  But when I saw in the bathroom, through a cupboard door which was slightly open, an array of tranquillizers and sleeping pills, I was reminded forcefully that there is often a big gap between outward apppearances and inner reality.

How much more ordinary can you get than poking through your host's medicine cabinet?  I love it!  I especially love his use of the phrase "through a cupboard door that was slightly open..."  I mean, that is exactly the kind of gossip-qualifier any good bathroom investigator would use while divulging their discoveries.  I am hooked!  Lead on you diamond!

Chapter 7, The Ethic of Virtue:  JOKE ALERT!  This is it!  The very first straight up clearly and purposefully inserted JOKE in the whole book!  The D.L. is making the very wise point that while you are on the road to learning true patience, 

it is [also] very helpful to think of adversity not so much as a threat to our peace of mind but rather as the very means by which patience is attained.  From this perspective, we see that those who would harm us are, in a sense, teachers of patience.

That wasn't the joke yet, but so true!  There's only so much classroom learning you can do about the concepts of patience and adversity -- the real learning comes in the real world from real assholes.  Apparently, a secondary and holy function of the asshole is to teach up and coming holy folks practical lessons in patience.  Love it!  So here's his self-reflexive mountain-top zinger:

No more can the reader hope to learn virtue merely by reading this book -- unless, of course, it is so boring as to demand perseverance!

BOOM!  "Unless you think my book is so full of shit it's teaching you a lesson in patience right now!"  BOOM!