The fifth volume of the Dalai Lama’s definitive Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, which has sold nearly 15,000 copies to date.

In Praise of Great Compassion, the fifth volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, continues the Dalai Lama’s teachings on the path to awakening. While previous volumes focused on our present situation and taking responsibility for creating the causes for the happiness we seek, this volume is about opening our hearts to others and generating the compassion, joy, and fortitude to make our lives meaningful by benefiting them.

We are embedded in a universe with other beings, all of whom have been kind to us in one way or another. More than any other time in human history, we depend on one another to stay alive and flourish. We are sometimes oblivious to their kindness, or take it for granted, which leads to feelings of discontent. But when we look closely, it becomes apparent that we have been the recipient of great kindness and naturally we want to repay it.

To do this, we begin by cultivating a positive attitude toward others by contemplating the four immeasurables—immeasurable love, compassion, empathic joy, and equanimity—and the altruistic intention of bodhicitta. We learn to challenge the deluded logic of the self-centered attitude that leads to misery and replace it with a more realistic perspective that helps us to remain balanced when we experience either happiness or suffering. This enables us to make all circumstances favorable to the path to awakening.

"Volume 5 of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, In Praise of Great Compassion, continues the Dalai Lama's teachings with the first of two volumes on compassion, said to be the essence of the Buddha's teachings. While the emphasis in volumes 3 and 4 is on our situation as an individual and taking responsibility for it, this volume is about opening our hearts to others and generating and strengthening our determination to benefit sentient beings. We begin with cultivating a positive attitude toward others by contemplating the four immeasurables-immeasurable love, compassion, empathic joy, and equanimity-as taught in both the Påali and Sanskrit traditions, and by developing the altruistic intention of bodhicitta. With examples from celebrated Buddhist texts, such as Candrakåirti's Madhyamakåavatåara, as background, we learn to generate the aspiration to attain full awakening for the benefit of all beings and to commit to engage in the path by adopting the bodhisattva ethical code. The volume concludes with a chapter on mind training practices in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which challenge us to reorient the framework through which we view the world, calling out the ridiculous logic of the self-centered attitude and self-grasping that leads to misery and replacing it with a more realistic perspective that helps us to remain balanced when we experience either happiness or suffering, allowing us to make all circumstances favorable to the path. Volume 6 will continue these teachings on compassion by setting forth the ten perfections, as practiced in the Påali and Sanskrit tradition, making known a full-fledged bodhisattva path to supreme awakening"--

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama, together with Bhik?u?i Thubten Chodron, lucidly present the Buddha’s teachings to a wider readership. The inclusion of different Buddhist traditions’ practices on the important topic of great compassion is especially welcome, and I am delighted to see a chapter on Chinese Buddhism and its introduction to the Seven Round Compassion Contemplation, as well as the Four Great Vows. These are powerful practices not only to develop compassion but also to eliminate one’s own karmic obstacles. May all beings benefit from this latest volume of the valuable Dharma series, the Library of Wisdom and Compassion.”