“Without tsewa, is there any other source of happiness?” This is the question posed by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in Training in Tenderness (Shambhala 2018). Always circling back to this Tibetan word meaning love, tenderness, or warmth, Kongtrul pushes us to honestly examine what fulfills us and what doesn’t. Is physical comfort enough? What about the ideal job? Financial [...]
About Rory Lindsay
Buddhadharma Book Briefs for Fall 2017
The Japanese Zen master Yamada Koun Roshi (1907–89), fearing that Zen was dying out in Japan, held out hope that it might live on as a tradition within the Catholic Church. Yes, you read that right. But why the Catholic Church? Richard Bryan McDaniel’s Catholicism and Zen (Sumeru 2017) traces the connections, looking to early Catholic encounters with Zen and contemporary [...]
Buddhadharma Book Briefs for Summer 2017
Vicki Mackenzie’s The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi (Shambhala 2017) tells the story of the first Western woman to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun. An Oxford-educated author (her publications included an account of her time spent as a political prisoner in Lahore and a children’s book with Indian political themes), Bedi was a close disciple of the Sixteenth Karmapa and a [...]
Buddhadharma Book Briefs for Spring 2017
One of the oldest examples of Buddhist writing is the Book of Eights, or Atthakavagga, a short collection of poems preserved in the Pali Canon. In The Buddha Before Buddhism: Wisdom from the Early Teachings (Shambhala 2016), Gil Fronsdal explores this ancient anthology, arguing that it is remarkable in that it presents “the Buddha’s teachings pared down to their most essential [...]
Book Briefs for Winter 2016
Burmese meditation teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya combines teachings on mindfulness with stories of his early struggles with depression, drug use, and marital problems in When Awareness Becomes Natural (Shambhala 2016). He describes being taken out of school during his first experience of depression and spending two years at the monastery of Burmese master Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw. [...]
Book Briefs for Fall 2016
So much of our life is spent asleep—“dead to the outer world, but potentially alive to an exciting inner world,” as author Andrew Holecek puts it. In Dream Yoga (Sounds True 2016), Holecek draws on decades of experience navigating this inner world to give us detailed instructions on how to induce lucid dreaming and develop it into a transformative practice. Skillfully combining [...]
Book Briefs for Spring 2016
David M. DiValerio’s The Holy Madmen of Tibet (Oxford 2015) examines some of Tibetan history’s most fascinating figures. Diving straight into the grotesque for which these fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Kagyu “madmen” became known, DiValerio begins by describing Tsangnyon Heruka’s use of human remains as clothing and Drukpa Kunle’s verse about paying homage “not to the [...]
Book Briefs for Winter, 2015
The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat, by Ra Yeshe Senge Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia, by Christopher Beckwith A Historical Atlas of Tibet, by Karl E. Ryavec Buddhisms: An Introduction, by John S. Strong The Buddha on Wall Street, by Vaddhaka Linn Strand of Jewels, by Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche The Chan Whip Anthology, by Jeffrey [...]
Major changes for Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism announced
In December His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin announced major changes for the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism's approach to leadership. Traditionally, the tenure of the Sakya Trizin or "Sakya Throne-Holder" has lasted for a long period, often till the end of one's life, having been given to a candidate from a household belonging to the Khön family line. Now the post of Sakya [...]
Book Briefs Fall 2014
Zen Master Sengai (Scheidegger & Spiess 2014) showcases the paintings of Sengai Gibon (1750–1837), the famous abbot of Shofukuji, Japan's first Zen temple. A man of many talents, Sengai became especially well known for his ink paintings. But as contributor Hirokazu Yatsunami tells us, at age eighty Sengai decided to give up painting altogether, saying he was deeply ashamed [...]
