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"Do not wish for gratitude.
Never strike at the heart.
Now if you die, you will have no regrets."
—The Seven-Point Thought Transformation

Like wise old friends, two Tibetan masters offer down-to-earth advice for cultivating compassion, wisdom, and happiness in every situation. Based on practical Buddhist verses on "thought training" (lojong), Advice from a Spiritual Friend teaches how to develop the inner skills that lead to contentment by responding to everyday difficulties with patience and joy.

Following Stephen Batchelor's introduction to the Kadamapa tradition that gave rise to these earthy, pithy instructions, part 1 is a commentary by Geshe Dhargyey to Atisha's (982-1054) Jewel Rosary of a Bodhisattva. Part 2 includes a commentary by Geshe Rabten to the famous Seven-Point Thought Transformation

First published in 1977, Advice from a Spiritual Friend is a Wisdom classic, which has enriched readers in many editions over the years. As Batchelor says in his introduction, "These teachings are as applicable today as they were when Atisha first introduced them to Tibet."

ISBN:0-86171-193-9_|_160 pp_|_Our Price: $12.76 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Smith wrote prefaces to these reprinted books to help clarify and contextualize the particular Tibetan texts: the prefaces served as rough orientations to a poorly understood body of foreign literature. Originally produced in print quantities of 20, these prefaces quickly became legendary, and soon photocopied collections were handed from scholar to scholar, achieving an almost cult status.

These essays are collected here for the first time. The impact of Smith's research on the academic study of Tibetan literature has been tremendous, both for his remarkable ability to synthesize diverse materials into coherent accounts of Tibetan literature, history, and religious thought, and for the exemplary critical scholarship he brought to this field.

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ISBN:0-86171-179-3_|_352 pp_|_Our Price: $31.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

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ISBN:0-86171-370-2_|_416 pp_|_Our Price: $23.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Meditation offers, in addition to its many other benefits, a method for achieving previously inconceivable levels of concentration. Author B. Alan Wallace has nearly thirty years' practice in attention-enhancing meditation, including a retreat he performed under the guidance of the Dalai Lama. An active participant in the much-publicized dialogues between Buddhists and scientists, Alan is uniquely qualified to speak intelligently to both camps, and The Attention Revolution is the definitive presentation of his knowledge.

Beginning by pointing out the ill effects that follow from our inability to focus, Wallace moves on to explore a systematic path of meditation to deepen our capacity for deep concentration. The result is an exciting, rewarding "expedition of the mind," tracing everything from the confusion at the bottom of the trail to the extraordinary clarity and power that come with making it to the top. Along the way, Alan also provides interludes and complementary practices for cultivating love, compassion, and clarity in our waking and dreaming lives.

Attention is the key that makes personal change possible, and the good news is that it can be trained. This book shows how.

ISBN:0-86171-276-5_|_224 pp_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Mother Theresa. The Dalai Lama. Nelson Mandela. Gandhi. Some admire such figures from afar and think, How special they are; I could never be like that. But as John Makransky has learned, the power of real and enduring love lies within every one of us. Awakening Through Love is his guide to finding it.

In Awakening Through Love, he pioneers new ways of making Tibetan meditations of compassion and wisdom accessible to people of all backgrounds and faiths. Drawing from Tibetan teachings of compassion and the Dzogchen teachings of innate wisdom, and using plain, practical instruction, he helps readers uncover the unity of wisdom and love in the very nature of their minds. Then Lama John describes how to actualize those qualities in every aspect of family life, work, service and social action.

A 2CD set of guided meditations by Lama John Makransky is also available to accompany his book:

Awakening Through Love 2 CD Set

ISBN:0-86171-537-3_|_280_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness

This set contains meditations guided by Lama John Makransky to enhance the practices of Natural Love, Compassion and Awareness. While these meditations are intended to accompany his book, they can also serve as an invaluable enhancement for those who have been previously introduced to these practices in the many settings at which Lama John teaches nationwide.

ISBN:0-86171-561-6_|_NA_|_Our Price: $14.95 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Since his death in 1984, many of his teachings have been collected and some have been published, but still some of his most important teachings have yet to become readily available. Becoming the Compassion Buddha represents a significant development in that it is the first of a series of books that examine key tantric deity practices in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. What is remarkable is that again, as with his book on Tantra, his teachings make coherent and understandable to the general reader and those just discovering Buddhism practices that once were considered arcane or hidden.

Lama Yeshe strongly believed that practices that helped develop compassion and wisdom should not be limited to advanced practitioners, but that the man in the street could benefit from them as well. In this book he provides a commentary on a short guru yoga practice written by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The practice includes visualizations that inspire the development of compassion and wisdom. The final section of the book goes into detail on the subject of Mahamudra, the true nature of all phenomena, another potentially tricky subject. Here again, Lama Yeshe presents the teachings by drawing on examples from daily life and by introducing meditation practices that all can follow.Becoming the Compassion Buddha is an extraordinary book that opens new doors for countless readers.

ISBN:0-86171-343-5_|_224 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Common to all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the practice of Vajrasattva is used to purify obstacles to spiritual development, negative karma and illness. Lama Yeshe, the inspirational teacher who strongly influenced the development of Buddhism in the West, found that the practice of Vajrasattva brought dramatic results for his Western students. Becoming Vajrasattva, is a complete guide to this purification practice, providing instruction on the method, commentary on the traditional texts, and insight into tantra. Also included is an entire section of complete retreat instructions-required reading for anyone undertaking a meditation retreat in the Tibetan tradition.

Click here to download a large format line drawing of Vajrasattva
Click here to download a color practice image of Vajrasattva

ISBN:0-86171-389-3_|_320 pp_|_Our Price: $14.36 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Sample Images:

Sample Image 1
Sample Image 2

ISBN:0-86171-282-x_|_176 pp_|_Our Price: $23.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Following Je Tsongkhapa's (1357-1419 a.d.) text Having the Three Convictions, Lama Yeshe introduces the renowned Six Yogas of Naropa, focusing mainly on the first of these six, the practice of inner fire (tummo). Mastery of inner fire quickly brings the mind to its most refined and penetrating state-the experience of clear light, an extra-ordinarily powerful state of mind that is unequaled in its ability to directly realize ultimate reality.

Lama Yeshe felt that twentieth-century Westerners could easily grasp the often misunderstood ideas of this esoteric tradition: "We really need tantra these days because there is a tremendous explosion of delusion and distraction.and we need the atomic energy of inner fire to blast us out of our delusion."

Lama Yeshe's aim was for his students to actually taste the experience of inner fire rather than merely gain an intellectual understanding. Lama's own realization of the transformative power of these practices comes through, inspiring his students to discover for themselves their own capacity for inexhaustible bliss.

ISBN:0-86171-136-X_|_256 pp_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Buddhist psychology addresses both the nature of the mind and how we know what we know. Just as scientists observe and catalog the material world, Buddhists for centuries have been observing and cataloging the components of our inner experience. The result is a rich and subtle knowledge that can be harnessed to the goal of increasing human well being.

ISBN:0-86171-272-2_|_176 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Giving and receiving affection is the key to happiness, and compassion is the key that opens our hearts to affection. Illuminating themes touched upon in The Good Heart and The Art of Happiness, this generous and gentle book contains some of the most beloved teachings on compassion that the Dalai Lama has ever offered. Touching and transformative, The Compassionate Life is a personal invitation from one of the world's most gifted teachers to live a life of happiness, joy, true prosperity.

Collected here for the first time are four of the Dalai Lama's most accessible and inspiring teachings on compassion. The purpose of life is to be happy, His Holiness reminds us. To be happy, we should devote ourselves to developing our own peace of mind; the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own peace of mind. Therefore, we must develop compassion for others in order to be truly happy.

In these four teachings—imbued with the gentle humor and extraordinary kindness of this incomparable teacher—His Holiness explores altruism and the need for compassion on an individual as well as a global scale. He offers specific practices for developing loving-kindness and compassion in even the most difficult situations.

ISBN:0-86171-301-X_|_128 pp_|_Our Price: $15.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Giving and receiving affection is the key to happiness, and compassion is the key that opens our hearts to affection. Illuminating themes touched upon in The Good Heart The Art of Happiness, this generous and gentle book contains some of the most beloved teachings on compassion that the Dalai Lama has ever offered. Touching and transformative, The Compassionate Life is a personal invitation from one of the world's most gifted teachers to live a life of happiness, joy, true prosperity.

Collected here for the first time are four of the Dalai Lama's most accessible and inspiring teachings on compassion. The purpose of life is to be happy, His Holiness reminds us. To be happy, we should devote ourselves to developing our own peace of mind; the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own peace of mind. Therefore, we must develop compassion for others in order to be truly happy.

In these four teachings—mbued with the gentle humor and extraordinary kindness of this incomparable teacher—His Holiness explores altruism and the need for compassion on an individual as well as a global scale. He offers specific practices for developing loving-kindness and compassion in even the most difficult situations.

ISBN:0-86171-378-8_|_128 pp_|_Our Price: $9.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Creation and Completion represents some of the most profound teachings of Jamgön Kongtrul (1813-99), one of the true spiritual and literary giants of Tibetan history. Though brief, it offers a lifetime of advice for all who wish to engage in-and deepen-the practice of tantric Buddhist meditation.

The original text, beautifully translated and introduced by Sara Harding, is further brought to life by an in-depth commentary by the contemporary master Thrangu Rinpoche. Key Tibetan Buddhist fundamentals are quickly made clear, so that the reader may confidently enter into tantra's oft-misunderstood "creation" and "completion" stages.

In the creation stage, practitioners visualize themselves in the form of buddhas and other enlightened beings in order to break down their ordinary concepts of themselves and the world around them. This meditation practice prepares the mind for engaging in the completion stage, where one has a direct encounter with the ultimate nature of mind and reality.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a master at explaining Buddhism’s radical but effective methods for transforming suffering into happiness, which have been practiced and taught by Tibetans for a thousand years. It’s a challenging way to think—how can it be that the things that cause us pain are actually blessings?

In Dear Lama Zopa, Rinpoche applies that challenge to our everyday, real-life problems—from the littlest to the biggest. Every year he receives thousands of letters from people around the world asking for advice—on coping with everything from addiction, grief, and depression, to war, terrorism, and death.

In his detailed and deeply caring responses to these letters, reproduced here, Rinpoche shows again and again that the best method for solving our problems is to radically change the way we perceive them; that by emphasizing their inner causes we can even change the resulting outer circumstances.

Even people familiar with notions like karma and reincarnation, which imply that we are the creators of our own experiences, may find the advice difficult. Yet uncountable thousands of people of all backgrounds have put Rinpoche’s loving guidance into practice—and have seen real and positive change in their lives. Now, with Dear Lama Zopa, you can see for yourself..

ISBN:0-86171-289-7_|_224_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Deities of Tibetan Buddhism is also an indispensable reference tool for Tibetologists, students of Mahayana Buddhism, and museum curators. Its extensive supplementary materials include English translations of the basic invocation texts; the associated visualization with descriptions of the deities' postures, attributes, and colors; and the dharanis and mantras used in their invocation.

Sample Tara Plate:

Click here to see the detail

Co-editor Martin Willson spent more than a decade translating and documenting this work. He has provided detailed explanations of technical terms, enlightening explanatory notes, and glossaries documenting the discrepancies in the depictions. The extensive pictorial index, featuring drawings and text by Robert Beer, explains the symbolic meaning behind the deities' implements and adornments. The cross-referenced indices for Tibetan, Sanskrit, Mongolian, and English names and terms provide quick access to vast amounts of information.

Co-editor Martin Brauen and the technical staff of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich have documented the relationship between this and other sets of initiation cards that exist elsewhere, as well as detailing the construction materials and methods involved in producing this set.

Deities of Tibetan Buddhism is a reference book without peer, essential for any serious student of Tibetan and East Asian art and religion.

ISBN:0-86171-098-3_|_626 pp_|_Our Price: $120 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Along with a translation of the insight (vipashyana) section of Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path (Lam rim chen mo), Napper provides an extensive introduction that contrasts the Geluk view of emptiness to that of Western scholars, and a translation of four interwoven commentaries on the text.

ISBN:0-86171-364-8_|_864 pp_|_Our Price: $23.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Lama Zopa Teaches:
‘What is called "I" is the object to be abandoned forever; what is called "others"—even one sentient being—is the object to be cherished forever. This is why living your life for others - dedicating your life to even one sentient being—gives the greatest enjoyment and the most interesting life. Real happiness in life starts when you cherish others. Living your life for others, cherishing them with loving-kindness and compassion, is the door to happiness, the door to enlightenment.’

ISBN:0-86171-310-9_|_192 pp_|_Our Price: $12.76 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

More than any other collection of his stories and songs, Drinking the Mountain Stream reveals Milarepa’s humor and wisdom. Faithfully translated by Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Brian Cutillo, this rare collection -- never before available in any Western language -- cuts across the centuries to bring Milarepa’s most inspiring verses, in all their potency, to today’s reader.

ISBN:0-86171-063-0_|_188 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

More than any other collection of his stories and songs, Drinking the Mountain Stream reveals Milarepa’s humor and wisdom. Faithfully translated by Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Brian Cutillo, this rare collectionnever before available in any Western language—cuts across the centuries to bring Milarepa’s most inspiring verses, in all their potency, to today’s reader.

ISBN:0-86171-063-0_|_188 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

The Tibetan Buddhist teachings on mahamudra are known for their ability to lead to profound realization. Peaceful and infinitely adaptable, these teachings are as useful for today's busy world as they have been for centuries.

Written by the tutor to the seventeenth Karmapa, Essentials of Mahamudra is a commentary on Tashi Namgyal's famous Moonlight of Mahamudra-a text that the sixteenth Karmapa had identified as the most valuable for Westerners. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche recognized that Western meditators don't just need to know how to maintain our meditation practice-we need to know why we should do it. Unmatched in its directness, Essentials of Mahamudra addresses both these needs, rendering one of the most advanced forms of meditation more easily adaptable to our everyday lives.

ISBN:0-86171-371-0_|_288 pp_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Flight of the Garuda conveys the heart advice of one of the most beloved nonsectarian masters of Tibet. Ordained as a Gelug monk, the itinerant yogi Shabkar was renowned for his teachings on Dzogchen, the heart practice of the Nyingma lineage. He wandered the countryside of Tibet and Nepal, turning many minds toward the Dharma through his ability to communicate the essence of the teachings in a poetic and crystal-clear way. Buddhists of all stripes, including practitioners of Zen and Vipassana, will find ample sustenance within the pages of this book, and be thrilled by the lyrical insights conveyed in Shabkar's words.

Along with the song by Shabkar, translator Keith Dowman includes several other seminal Dzogchen texts. Dzogchen practice brings us into direct communion with the subtlemost nature of our experience, the unity of samsara in nirvana as experienced within our own consciousness. Within the Nyingma school, it is held higher than even the practices of tantra for bringing the meditator face to face with the nature of reality.

ISBN:0-86171-367-2_|_240 pp_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

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ISBN:0-86171-184-x_|_496 pp_|_Our Price: $31.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

The Foundation of Buddhist Thought series is an excellent introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. These unique books, based on the curriculum of a popular course of the same name, were developed by Geshe Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan scholar renowned for his ability to render Buddhist teachings accessible and relevant to everyday life.

Geshe Tashi Tsering's Foundation of Buddhist Thought courses are systematic introductions to Buddhist philosophy and practice. With this series of books drawn from his highly successful courses, his insights can now be enjoyed by a wide audience of both specialists and newcomers to the Buddhist tradition. Geshe Tashi's presentations combine rigor and comprehensiveness with lucidity and accessibility, never divorced from the basic humanity and warmth of his personality. In Geshe Tashi, we encounter the new generation of Tibetan monk-scholars teaching in the West who are following in the eminent footsteps of Geshe Wangyal and Geshe Sopa.

This volume, the first of six, provides a complete presentation the Buddha's seminal Four Noble Truths, which summarize the fundamentals of the Buddhist worldview. Indeed, they are an essential framework for understanding all of the other teachings of the Buddha.

ISBN:0-86171-270-6_|_192 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Gorampa’s text is polemical, and his targets are two of Tibet’s greatest thinkers: Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school, and Dölpopa, one of the founding figures of the Jonang school. Distinguishing the Views argues that Dolpopa has fallen into an eternalistic extreme, whereas Tsongkhapa has fallen into nihilism, and that only the mainstream Sakya view—what Gorampa calls “freedom from extremes”—represents the true middle way, the correct view of emptiness. Suppressed for years in Tibet, this seminal work today is widely regarded and is studied in some of Tibet’s greatest academic institutions.

Gorampa’s treatise has been masterfully translated and annotated here by two leading scholars of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, and a critical edition of the Tibetan text on facing pages gives students and scholars direct access to Gorampa’s own words. José Cabezón’s extended introduction provides a thorough overview of Tibetan polemical literature and contextualizes the life and work of Gorampa both historically and intellectually. Freedom from Extremes will be indispensable for serious students of Madhyamaka thought.

Related Downloads:

The Tibetan Script of Gorampa’s Text

ISBN:0-86171-523-3_|_432_|_Our Price: $26.36 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Devoting oneself to a spiritual teacher is a practice much misunderstood in the West, yet fundamental to the tantric Buddhism of Tibet. The Fulfillment of All Hopes is an explanation of this core practice by Tsongkhapa, one of Tibet’s most revered scholar-practitioners.

Presented here is a complete translation of Tsongkhapa's commentary on the well-known Fifty Stanzas on the Guru accompanied by the original Tibetan text.

ISBN:0-86171-153-X_|_160 pp_|_Our Price: $12.76 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Gesture of Awareness involves a fascinating philosophical exploration of time, space, and movement but at the same time is a manual for an embodied 'practice of exploration.'

Genoud is very well known to the leading lights of Buddhism today. He and his work are continuingly praised for their invention and importance. Well-versed in French and continental philosophies, as well as Eastern thought, he has produced a work that will be welcomed as a Buddhist book and a noteworthy contribution to the larger philosophical community.

ISBN:0-86171-506-3_|_184 pp_|_Our Price: $13.56 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Like the songs of Tibet's great saint Milarepa, Godrakpa's songs are uniquely beautiful and accessible: sometimes stern and sharp, sometimes lyrical and filled with allusions to the natural world. These songs express what Godrakpa emphasized in his life-a no-nonsense approach to the practice of meditation.

ISBN:0-86171-164-5_|_224 pp_|_Our Price: $15.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Covered are a wide spectrum of topics—;political, social, personal and spiritual—;including the media and education, marriage and sex, and disarmament and compassion. Blessed by His Holiness' buoyant and insightful thoughts, Imagine All the People allows readers to glimpse the spontaneous workings of an extraordinary mind at once of—;and above—;this world.

Includes the full text of The Global Community and the Need for Universal Responsibility.

ISBN:0-86171-150-5_|_192 pp_|_Our Price: $11.96 (20% OFF)_|_More Info

Imagining Tibet is a collection of essays that reveal these Western conceptions. Providing an historical background to the West's ever-changing relationship with Tibet, Donald Lopez, Jeffrey Hopkins, Jamyang Norbu, and other noted scholars explore a variety of topics—from Western perceptions of Tibetan approaches to violence, monastic life, and life as a nation in exile, to representations of Tibet in Western literature, art, environmentalism, and the New Age movement.

ISBN:0-86171-191-2_|_512 pp_|_Our Price: $23.16 (20% OFF)_|_More Info