The First Fifteen Days of a New Life The Secret of Youth and Long Life **WAR AND WARFARE** The Seven Strategies of War The Nine Ways to Win **MEDITATION** The Three Levels of Mindfulness The Four Methods of Meditation The Six Ways of Meditation The Four Dhyānas The Ten Bodhisattva Stages of Enlightenment **THE ETHICS OF LIFE** The Five Wisdoms The Six Paramitas and the Ten Powers of a Bodhisattva The Thirty-seven Conducts of Bodhisattvas _Appendixes_ _Notes_ _Glossary_ _Bibliography_ _Index_ Acknowledgments and Credits I first read an English version of the _Bhagavad Gītā_ in my twenties while a philosophy student at Oxford University and have returned to it many times since then. The teaching of the _Gītā_ is central to Vipassana meditation, which we teach in the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and it has had an influence on the way I work with all of our students. Thanks to Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Bhante Henepola Gunaratna, Thich Nhat Hanh, and my father, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, for opening the gates of the _Gītā_ to me and to the many students who are now practicing its principles. The translations here are inspired by the profound translation by Guy Newland, which I have long admired for its clarity and precision. I am also grateful for John Pettit's careful translation in a similar register. My debt to the earlier English versions of the _Gītā_ is great. I particularly wish to thank Thomas Cleary, who has contributed immensely to the study of the _Gītā_ in English, and the Tibetan scholars who first made accessible to me the beautiful commentary tradition associated with this sacred text. I appreciate the assistance I have received from some of the translators of the _Gītā_ in various Indian languages, and the commentaries and discussions with those who have studied them. Some people have directly contributed to this book, notably Bhante Vimalaramsi, who has supported me for many years as a student and colleague and has taught me so much about understanding suffering. Mark Dorsey, whose contribution to the _Gītā_ is as yet not generally recognized, has given me so much support and guidance over the years, and made a significant addition to my understanding of the _Gītā._ Bhante Matthieu, who works tirelessly to provide translations of Buddhism for a Western audience, gave me the wonderful gift of meeting the great meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh and I am extremely grateful for his encouragement. Bhante Matthieu has also been instrumental in the publication of translations of our teachings and other new material that we have had to make more accessible to a wider public, particularly with the books by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, which has been a real blessing for many people. The book began its journey as _The Wisdom of Life,_ a book that my father was writing in the months following his passing. We know he would have been proud of the work he accomplished, and now it has been completed by his dear friend Dennis Kloppenburg. I am very grateful to Dennis for seeing its potential and undertaking the long and challenging project of editing it so that it would finally come to fruition. His dedication to the project gave me renewed confidence and has served to make this project a reality. I would also like to thank the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition for its partnership and help with the editing. This book is dedicated to them both. Our publishing advisor Robert and our friends at Harmony Books, John Bargh and Paul Williams, both of whom have supported us and the important work we do, have been instrumental in making this book a reality. In the spring of 2007, our agent Gail Hochman introduced us to Paul, whose enthusiasm for the _Gītā_ matched ours. We have been very fortunate to have had his assistance, advice, and support. I have had the great good fortune to work with many gifted editors, and this book has benefited immensely from the contributions of Paul Bepko, my long-term collaborator. My special thanks go to Gail Hochman, Robert McMahon, and Paul Bepko for their hard work and wisdom in making this book as it is. R. was the main translator for this project, but she would not have been able to do it without the contributions of several students who have been a great support to her in all her endeavors over the years, including Lama Alan Malhi and Mette Kronberg. My thanks go to everyone who generously contributed to the process of making this book better and to all the friends, colleagues, and students who have practiced and understood the _Gītā_ over the years. Introduction Our book, _The Wisdom of Life: Meeting the Great Challenges of the Twenty-First Century,_ is a meditation on fearlessness in everyday life. It focuses on wisdom as the quality of intelligence that meets the challenges of our present era with courage and kindness. What is that kind of wisdom? It is the understanding that no matter what happens in our lives, no matter what we face and regardless of where we are, we can face life with fearlessness, because we have a sense of solidity and confidence in our human nature. We all have fear in our lives, and our response to it can create great suffering. For example, fear of failure causes us to avoid risks that are vital to our growth as individuals. A life in fear often produces an obsessive need to control people and situations around us, out of fear that what we love most will disappear. There is another side to fear as well—fear of giving up, of not surviving what has happened in our lives. Fear of not surviving makes us cling to the situation that is the cause of our suffering. For many people, this prevents them from moving on in life and taking responsibility for themselves and their lives. Many fears are based in a belief that we are helpless, that we have no ability to change or change our environment, that we are a victim of circumstances beyond our control. These ideas lead us to be passive. Fear often causes us to be overwhelmed, anxious, and unable to respond to circumstances appropriately. If fear is our response to a situation, we experience fear as a quality of a larger system: our life situation, our work situation, and even our inner world. In that case, everything becomes fearful—even our emotions are fear-based. If we understand the nature of fear and are able to overcome fearfulness in our life, we realize that we have a natural ability to rise to the occasion. At this time, the world is undergoing profound change. There is the threat of global warming and ecological destruction, terrorism, and mass destruction of human life, and all around us a rising tide of violence and suffering. Even so, each one of us can create happiness in our lives. When we feel joy and love, we begin to see life as a source of positive potentiality, beyond the world's suffering. Our understanding of the potential of human beings and our relationships with others and with nature can grow and bring us great joy and inspiration. We can even see the world in terms of a healing relationship, if we relate to each other with love and a deep understanding of our common humanity. Our positive response to what is happening in the world can be guided by wisdom, and this book is meant to help you do that. A key quality of the wisdom of life is that you can rise to the occasion and overcome your fear. Fear can destroy us in our daily life or make us overly cautious. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of competition, fear of scarcity, and fear of abandonment are also part of our lives. Our culture places a great deal of emphasis on having these fears overcome, and we have many practices, like mindfulness and psychotherapy, that attempt to help us do so. Many of these practices are rooted in the wisdom teachings of Buddhism. This book, in addition to being about wisdom, is also about fear, which often runs very deep in us. In many ways, the word _fear_ is misleading, because fear is a state of mind that is so deeply ingrained that we do not even recognize it as fear. Yet many people live in a state of fear all their lives. In Buddhism, _fear_ means _suffering._ The first step in overcoming our fear is to understand what fear is, and the best way to understand it is to study a text called _The Wisdom of Life,_ which was written by a teacher who lived a very long time ago and who is known as Buddha Shakyamuni, which means "the enlightened one of the Shakya clan." This text was preserved by monks who were practicing Vipassana meditation and was then translated by Dr. Kloppenburg. We are proud and honored to have our publication sponsored by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, which has worked diligently for years to bring the wisdom of this text to a larger audience. We hope