A View from a Lake

A View From A Lake: Buddha, Mind and Future explains how to train our minds to attain lasting contentment. Drawing on the original and most powerful source of mind training – the word of the Buddha – Neil Hayes takes the reader on a journey from ancient India to contemporary Western psychology and the Internet age.

It may be unusual for a non-fiction book to have a villain, but this one does, and it is the thinking mind, or the voice in our heads. This troublesome guest’s ruses are exposed as being the source of our own unhappiness, and, if unmanaged, a threat to our mental health. Although Western education and science encourage a model of mind in which thinking is at the helm, we generally receive no education in how to manage such a powerful resource safely. A compelling and more beneficial alternative view of mind is offered, based on the natural awareness already present in our minds. The central point of the book is that there is a wager we must all make: for the small stake of some rewarding mental training, we can attain perpetual happiness. Indeed, we learn that to do otherwise makes no sense.

This thought-provoking new book gives a detailed practical guide to meditation using the techniques that the Buddha himself used, and explains his psychology clearly and in the context of what psychologists know about the mind today. The beauty of this mind training is that it delivers benefits immediately, so the reader need take nothing on trust. The book is suitable for the popular psychology market, and for more serious students of mind, meditation, and the Buddha’s teaching. A View From A Lake is both a valuable source of mind management techniques and a message of hope for our species.

Dr Neil Hayes has a doctorate in Psychology from the University of Oxford. He has meditated for many years and has learnt from monks in multiple Buddhist traditions. He is a double cancer survivor who has benefited from sufficient suffering to road test the mind training techniques he advocates.