An American. A baby. The Chinese Government. And the Race to Save Tibet. The eldest son of a wealthy San Francisco family, Samuel Falk Simms, Jr. has just graduated from college with a life of privilege and power ahead of him. On a whim, he books a flight to Kathmandu that will leave him changed forever. Barely off the airplane, he is fighting for his life while following an obscure map slipped to him by a Buddhist monk. Samuel must find his way in foreign lands and escape from the Chinese Colonel intent on stopping him, as he struggles to forge an authentic path for himself in order to help Tibetans reclaim theirs. "You know 'Dharma'? Dharma means 'The Way.' Each man will have his own way. Each man is ruler of his own way. Each man is his own Dharma King."

The ancient Indian Sanskrit tradition produced no text more intriguing, or more persistently misunderstood or underappreciated, than the Mahabharata. Its intricacies have waylaid generations of scholars and ignited dozens of unresolved debates. In Rethinking the Mahabharata, Alf Hiltebeitel offers a unique model for understanding the great epic. Employing a wide range of literary and narrative theory, Hiltebeitel draws on historical and comparative research in an attempt to discern the spirit and techniques behind the epic's composition. He focuses on the education of Yudhisthira, also known as the Dharma King, and shows how the relationship of this figure to others-especially his author-grandfather Vyasa and his wife Draupadi-provides a thread through the bewildering array of frames and stories embedded within stories. Hiltebeitel also offers a revisionist theory regarding the dating and production of the original text and its relation to the Veda. No ordinary reader's guide, this volume will illuminate many mysteries of this enigmatic masterpiece. This work is the fourth volume in Hiltebeitel's study of the Draupadi cult. Other volumes include Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra (Volume One), On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess (Volume Two), and Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics (Volume Three).

Renowned as a peerless teacher, practitioner, and scholar, Longchenpa thoroughly studied and mastered every one of the many Buddhist vehicles and lineages of teachings existing in Tibet at his time. Through his radiant intellect and meditative accomplishment, in both his teachings and written works, he was able to reconcile the seeming discrepancies and contradictions between the various presentations of the view and the path within the many lineages of transmission. His written works are also famous for being able to transfer true blessings just by reading or hearing his enlightened words. Compiled from numerous Tibetan and Bhutanese sources, including Longchenpa’s autobiography, and stories of his previous lives and subsequent rebirths, The Life of Longchenpa weaves an inspiring tale of wonder and magic, of extraordinary visions and spiritual insight, set in the kingdoms of fourteenth-century Tibet and Bhutan. It also reveals for the first time fascinating details of his ten years of self-exile in Bhutan, stories that were unknown to his Tibetan biographers.

March 10, 1959. Artillery shells smash into the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, home of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. Fleeing Tibet for their lives, the family of His Holiness took what they could carry, including a set of 15 scroll paintings called the Tsongkapa Eighty. As an art form, the scrolls are magnificent. As the retelling of the life's work of Je Tsongkapa, the scroll paintings are irreplaceable. After reaching safety, the paintings were donated to a Kalmyk Buddhist Temple in New Jersey. Based on these paintings, the authors have researched and written an amazing work; it is the story told through the scrolls, and the history of how the paintings developed over the centuries. The book includes: - All 200 scenes from the original 15 paintings with captions, creating an account of Je Tsongkapa's life, in text and paintings, nearly 1,000 color images! - A history of the Kalmyk Temple and how the paintings arrived there - A photographic journey that retraces Je Tsongkapa's steps across Tibet - A definitive list of Je Tsongkapa's writings, and the biographies of his life - Maps, produced with the help of the map maker for the Lord of the Rings books, which trace Je Tsongkapa's constant travels to teach and to learn. - Contemporary painter Ori Carin's, modern interpretations of several scenes. - A detailed review of Je Tsongkapa's many roles: monk, philosopher, writer, meditator, yoga practitioner, poet, spiritual partner and diplomat, all depicted in the paintings.

Featuring the renowned seventh-century gilt-bronze Śākyamuni (Shaka) triad at the Hōryūji, Constructing the Dharma King reveals how the impression of a Buddhist image evolved in Yamato, Japan, from the indistinct sense of divine otherness at the early stage of the transmission to more concrete ideals and values concerning families, authority, and kingship. According to the accompanying inscription, the Kashiwade, a low-ranking bureaucratic clan, commissioned the triad to commemorate the deaths of its family members. Considering the triad as an endpoint of a dynamic political re-envisioning spearheaded by Soga no Umako (d. 626) and the members of the Yamato sovereignty, Akiko Walley argues that the Kashiwade constructed the Shaka triad not simply as a private act of devotion, but a pivotal political act that demonstrated their allegiance and loyalty. This publication contends that the appearance of the Shaka triad was chosen to echo the new vision of a "Dharma King" that was manifested in Prince Umayato as the political persona orchestrated by Umako, and in the preceding Shaka triad statue at Asukadera produced by Umako and his closest allies. In the course of discussion, this book also reexamines the key points of debate surrounding this statue, including the reliability of the accompanying inscription, identity of its makers, and the statue's ties to the sculptural trends on the Asian continent.

In the first book to reflect the voices of Buddhist nuns from every major tradition, 14 contributors describe their experiences, explain their order's history, and discuss their lives. 14 photos.

Norma Levine has travelled to Tibet, India, Europe and North America to record the stories of this memorable man and the impact he had on the people who met him. This book gives us a rare and intimate insight into the personality of the man who was the 16th Karmapa.

A translation of a popular Buddhist work on worldly ethics by Tibet's most famous philosopher. Leadership. Power. Responsibility. From Sun Tzu to Plato to Machiavelli, sages east and west have advised kings and rulers on how to lead. Their motivations and techniques have varied, but one thing they all have had in common is that their advice has been as relevant to the millions who have read their works as it has been to the few kings and princes they were, on the surface, addressed to. The nineteenth-century Buddhist monk and luminary Jamgön Mipham’s letter to the king of Dergé, whose small kingdom straddled China and Tibet during a particularly turbulent period, is similar in the universality of its message. This work, however, is unique in that it stresses compassion, impartiality, self-control, and virtue as essential for long-lasting success—whether as a leader or an individual trying to live a meaningful life. Mipham’s historic contribution to ethics and governance, until now little studied outside of Buddhist circles, teaches us the importance of protecting life, fair taxation, environmental sustainability, aiding the poor, and freedom of religion. Both present day leaders and those they lead will find this classic work, finally available in English, profoundly illuminating on political, societal, and personal levels.

Mahamudra is the basic meditation practice for many Tibetan Buddhists, particularly of the Kagyu tradition. It is particularly adaptable for modern people, since it involves no rituals and can be incorporated into all daily activities. Saraha's "Song for the King" is a short verse text from classical India that is a basis for the tradition and is widely known in Tibetan Buddhist circles. It is often the basis for teachings given in the West, but there is only one outdated translation of it in print, first published in 1969. Michele Martin has produced a stellar new translation, which is accompanied by a commentary from the well-known teacher Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, who is uniquely skilled and concerned with making this method of meditation available to Westerners. While pithy and accessible, the book easily stands up to academic scrutiny, and includes the original Tibetan as well - making it ideal for the popular, scholarly, and Tibetan audiences all at once.