The Meaning of Life

The Dalai Lama never shies away from the big questions. The Meaning of Life is a collection of lectures given in London in 1984 on the Buddhist worldview, before he had won the Nobel Peace Prize or become a bestselling author in English. Still, his message is essentially the same: practice nonviolence, cultivate altruism, and transform consciousness. In these lectures, the Dalai Lama begins with a painting of the wheel of cyclic existence, depicting the levels of karmic existence and symbols of the 12 links of dependent-arising. In other words, this painting, presented in seven color plates, is a visual summation of the basic tenets of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama draws on the painting to explain the 12 links of dependent-arising and then the path that leads to liberation from them. A nuts and bolts book, readers will enjoy it for its detail and for the broad range of questions elicited in listeners. --Brian Bruya