The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking: Skilful Thoughts for Successful Living [Paperback]

PRAISE FOR THE TIBETAN ART OF LIVING:

'As life becomes more hectic, it's important to stop and think about the way we are living. Christopher's book is the best possible starting point.' (Kathy Phillips, Vogue )

'Christopher Hansard has written an eloquent yet practical guide to a soulful integration of all aspects of our lives. He contributes a wise and powerful voice to contemporary spiritual thought.' (Marianne Williamson )

'There is a magnificent book that everyone should have by their bedside. It is called THE TIBETAN ART OF LIVING by Christopher Hansard. In my opinion, Christopher is a true genius who can lead us to a new enlightenment as well as a state of vibrant health.' (Normandie Keith, You Magazine )

'The Tibetan Art of Living is an exceptional and essential book for everyone's library. It's absolutely brilliant.' (Carolyn Myss, author of Anatomy of Spirit )

It is common knowledge that the way we think profoundly affects our health and happiness. As Tibetan Bon culture has known for centuries, true, original thought is one of the most powerful energy resources that we each have, and tapping into it can bring us great spiritual, emotional and financial success. But, as Christopher Hansard – leading authority in Tibetan medicine – explains, most of us don’t know how to think effectively. What we imagine to be thoughts are simply reactions to our environment and to other people, and are far removed from ‘original thought’, which has the power to transform lives.

In this enlightening book, Hansard shows us how to take control of our thinking. Using simple meditations and exercises he shows how we can each harness the power of positive thinking to block negativity, transform emotions, and discover the deepest meaning of our lives, to make it the life we truly want to live.

Christopher Hansard was trained in the spiritual and medical traditions of Tibetan medicine from the age of 4 and is now a leading practitioner in the field. He is Director of Clinical Affairs at the Eden Medical Centre, London. He writes a weekly column on herbal medicine in the Sunday Express magazine and a monthly column for the Life section of the Express. He regularly appears on TV and newspapers in Britain, Europe and the US. He is married with a young daughter.

This book is dedicated to those people who have discovered how thoughts create their world, and those people who are on the way to knowing this for themselves. It is also offered to the Northern Treasure School of the Tibetan Bon tradition.

To the ancient Tibetan practitioners of the spiritual and religious discipline known as Bön, positive thinking was a skill to be learned and applied daily, in order to create a prosperous and fulfilled life.

Bön teaches that the skilful use of thought energy is the key to empowerment. To understand and transform the nature of our own thought energy creates what they call a ‘fire in the heart’. This fire is the transformed essence of thought energy waiting for skilful use through our emotions, intentions and actions and with its power we can work daily miracles in our own lives.
The practitioners of Bön believed that its wisdom should be accessible to all. The principles they developed thousands of years ago are as valid and effective today as they were then. That is why I decided to write this book. Having been trained for twenty-seven years to know and understand the guiding wisdom of this great teaching, I wanted to pass on the knowledge which would help others to transform their lives. Much of this knowledge is simple and straightforward. All of us, no matter who we are, where we live or what we do, can take the information in this book and use it in our lives to create positive change. The principles of Bön positive thinking can be applied to all the major areas of your life to bring clarity and insight, success, abundance and happiness.

Throughout the book I offer practical and simple exercises, based on ancient Bön rituals, which will help you to transform any area of your life. Though some of these may seem unusual or unfamiliar to those in the West, all of them are powerful and effective ways of bringing about change, both inside ourselves and in the world around us. As you go through the book you will gain a deeper understanding of your thinking processes, the nature of skilful thought and how to use the ‘fire in the heart’ in your life every day. You will learn the immensity of your own thought energy and how to achieve the balance between gut reactions and intellectual thinking which will support all your actions and deeds. The ancient Tibetans understood that the way you think affects everything you do. This is why by learning how to think skilfully you will be able to create new ways of living and to make your life emotionally and spiritually rich, as well a materially successful.
SO WHAT IS BÖN?
For 1200 years, until the invasion of Tibet by China in 1959, Buddhism was the dominant religion in Tibet. It is still the religion which most of the world associates with Tibet. But long before Buddhism arrived there was another system of cultural and spiritual teaching in Tibet. Bön was a tradition that began 17,000 years ago and was predominant in Central Asia and Tibet for most of that time. The Bön teachings are less well known than the Buddhist teachings, but even in the ravaged Tibet of today there are thousands who practise Bön, and many other followers are spread around the world. Buddhism supplanted Bön during a time of social unrest in Tibet and the two religions coexisted peacefully for some years. After a while, though, some Buddhists began to persecute Bön practitioners and so the Bön community, to prevent further bloodshed, took on some of the trappings of Buddhism. This developed into what is known as Reformed Bön, and its followers are known as Bön -pos.
The search for virtue, compassion and wisdom is the same for both Buddhists and Bön-pos; there is no major clash between them, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama has acknowledged the crucial and unique role of Bön in creating, defining and influencing Tibetan culture. Indeed, the fifth Dalai Lama once said that he was Buddhist by nature but Bön by heart. Despite the emergence of the Bön-pos the original, undiluted Bön teachings remained very much alive and were known as the Bön of the Ngagpas. This is the tradition in which I have been trained. My teacher, Ürgyen Nam Chuk, was a Ngagpa, a person of high spiritual calibre. He was a tantric yoga expert and a lama, or religious teacher, as well as a physician of Bön medicine. He was also a shaman and magician. Not one of the Himalayan shamans who gained their status by being ‘overcome’ by the gods in a trance, but one who was trained in special knowledge and who was able to perform magic as a result. Men like him were the Merlins of Tibet, mystical, magical healers and masters of miracles. The Ngagpas, who were identified by wearing their hair long, often in dreadlocks, looked after their communities. They performed birth rituals, weddings, funerals, divinations and rituals for the protection and benefit of the community, including control of the harvest and the weather. They also dispensed justice. Ürgyen Nam Chuk came from the Nam or ‘Sky’ clan, which came from Lake Baikal in Siberia and settled in Tibet 1,000 years ago. However, long before this they had migrated regularly between Lake Baikal and Tibet and had become part of the Tibetan mythology and social structure. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.