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Reviews tagged Tibetan Buddhism

Self-Liberation: Through Seeing with Naked Awareness

Self-Liberation is a new translation of a Buddhist text said to have been hidden for generations by its creator, Guru Padmasambhava, in order to ensure that it was not uncovered until such time as Tibetans were mentally prepared for it.

Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship

Wise Teacher, Wise Student by Alexander Berzin explores the intricate and complex relationship between Western students and Eastern teachers. This particular type of relationship has its own unique set of challenges due to language barriers, cultural divides, and occasionally conflicting expectations.

The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy

In The Power and the Pain, Andrew Holecek divides chapters of his teachings by the Three Turnings, or teachings, of the dharma, and associates different cycles of suffering with each.

Heartfelt Advice

Heartfelt Advice is a record of ninety-five conversations between the Lama Dudjom Dorjee and his student Aaron Price. In each section, a small portion of a Tibetan text was read to Mr. Price, who then recorded both the translation and the explanation. The result is not the typical recitation of concepts one finds in most introductory writings on Buddhism.

The Courage to Feel: Buddhist Practices for Opening to Others

As someone who recently developed an interest in Buddhism, I feel like a walking cliché. It seems almost inevitable that one will explore an alternative religion at some point in their life. We have become a society of seekers.

Transcendent Wisdom

This recent translation of a teaching presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a chapter of the same name written by Indian scholar Shantideva in A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life serves as a guide to more thoroughly understanding of this particular work.

2010 Complete Tibetan Calendar

The 2010 Complete Tibetan Calendar is, as calendars go, pretty nifty. It features an astrological forecast for each day of the year, determined by a combination of three factors: element combination, ruling conjunction, and auspicious combination. If you do not know what any of these things are, don’t worry; located at the end of the calendar, in the “About This” section, is a wonderfully constructed chart that explains what each astrological indicator is and how it affects a person’s daily life.

Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyunge Method of Thousand Armed Chenrezig

Starting in high school, I became very interested in Buddhism, which really did not sit well with my Catholic family. The philosophy behind Buddhism intrigued me, as well as the history. That is why I was interested in reading Buddhist Fasting Practice.

Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings & Vajra Songs

Natural Great Perfection is a collection of stories, songs, commentary, and history, mostly as told to Lama Surya Das by Nyoshul Khenpo.

The Dark Red Amulet: Oral Instructions on the Practice of Vajrakilaya

It’s been a while since I read a book that came with a warning label: "As with all Vajrayana practices, Vajrakilaya should not be practiced without receiving an empowerment or reading transmission directly from a qualified lineage master.

Living in the Face of Death

This profound collection of Tibetan Buddhist writing on the subject of death and transcendence is a gorgeous initiation into the thoughts shared by those that follow this religion/set of beliefs. Mullin chose a variety of writings that approach the inevitable by former Dalai Lamas, yogis, mystics and spiritual teachers. As a whole the collected works are easily digestible and clear in their impact.

Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist - One Woman's Spiritual Journey

Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist is a beautifully written memoir in which Jan Willis charts her spiritual life’s journey towards self-love. An exceptionally gifted intellectual and a gentle soul by nature, Willis tells the story of having her self-worth consistently undermined by racism. She grew up in a Southern, Black rural town terrorized by the Klu Klux Klan, where she observed the “crippling effects” of the KKK on her community’s self-esteem.

Compassionate Action

As a new Buddhist practitioner, though in the Nichiren tradition, not the Nyingma tradition of Chatral Rinpoche, I am in a process of reading the works of many revered Buddhist teachers and practitioners. Compassionate Action by Chatral Rinpoche, and edited by Zach Larson, provides wonderful insight into the diversity of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition through a series of essays, interviews, prayers and photographs.

Eight Verses for Training the Mind

Billed as a clear explanation of one of Buddhism’s most basic texts, Eight Verses for Training the Mind opens more as if you have walked in on a conversation well in progress. This is a dialogue with those schooled in Buddhist rhetoric, delivered by a speaker who has no interest in bringing you up to speed. This book explores eight verses to be meditated on from a root text written in the eleventh century.

Mind Beyond Death

"Hey, I'd like to read a book about death!" Perhaps this is not what comes to mind as you browse the "New Books" section at Borders, but if you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism and ideas about the cycle of life and death, I may have a book for you. Somewhere between a conversation and a textbook, Mind Beyond Death, is an expansion upon a series of lectures given by author Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche in 2003 at the Treasury of Knowledge Retreat.
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