Stop Biting the Tail You're Chasing: Using Buddhist Mind Training to Free Yourself from Painful Emotional Patterns

Are emotions our friends or our enemies? It can seem like they're usually one or the other, depending on whether their content is pleasant or unpleasant. But the Buddhist practice of lojong (mind training) is a way of letting go of attachment to both "positive" and "negative" emotions--and this doesn't lead to a kind of emotional lethargy. On the contrary, it leads to profound insight and to compassion for all, uninhibited by our habitual reactions. The methods of lojong presented here are superbly practical tools that you can use to relieve your own suffering and to extend that relief to others. It's a lifelong process, but with gentle and consistent effort at it, we can experience the joy and happiness that results from liberating ourselves from the torrent of emotional conflict. That newly discovered freedom can then in turn be shared with everyone we encounter in the course of our daily lives.