Thursday, October 9, 2008

Three autobiographies


Guru Rinpoche - His Life and Times

Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, was the great Indian tantric master who brought Buddhism to Tibet and is revered as a second Buddha. This book presents four very different accounts of his life story: two Buddhist, one according to the pre-Buddhist Bon religion, and one based on Indian and early Tibetan historical documents. The two Tibetan Buddhist works are a Biography of Guru Rinpoche by Jamgon Kongtrul, and the Immaculate White Lotus by Dorje Tso. Then follows an Indian version of his life story by Taranata, a Bonpo version by Jamyang Kyentse Wongpo, and Supplications to Guru Rinpoche in Seven Chapters, as well as visualizations written to accompany these supplications by Jamgon Kongtrul.

"The presence of Guru Rinpoche, a figure so important to Tibetan Buddhists that he is simply called "the Precious Master", can be felt still in each of the four liberating stories translated here. Read side-by-side, they reveal an even wider picture, of how history and culture interact with the inner spirituality that is beyond time and place." Sarah Harding.


Sky Dancer
The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyal


A lively biography of one of Tibet's celebrated enlightened women, with insight into women's role in the Tibetan tradition. Yeshe Tsogyel was the Tibetan consort of the great Indian tantric master Padmasambhava, and her life story and detailed instructions to her disciples are still an inspiration for today's practitioners.

Keith Dowman supplements this translation with a detailed commentary on the historical background to the text, the tantric tradition, Nyingma lineages and the tantric view of women and the dakini

The Lotus Born The life story of Padmasambhava

"The first complete version of Guru Rinpoche’s life, The Lotus-Born translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, one of the most able and prolific Western translators, comes highly recommended. What a relief to be able to sit down and read a treasure in which we can have full confidence in both the words and the meaning. He has put Guru Rinpoche’s life into meaningful context by including with his translation a foreword by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and a short work by Tsele Natsok Rangdröl, a master of the seventeenth century."
- Ngawang Zangpo, author of Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/20244209/Guru+Rinpoche?tab=summary

7 comments:

  1. The link seems to go to a different file on rapidshare...

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  2. Great post but beyond reach. SOS. If any one find better sites on Buddhism, please share some.

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  3. Great posts! But beyond reach. Please help. If someone out there have better resource sites on Buddhism, please share some.

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  4. Got the link. Thanks a lot for the post. As a Buddhist, i think i shouldn't take them for granted. It is due i owe and somehow i have to pay it back in one way or other. Hope friends out there do the same. Happy New Year to all in this blog. It is a truly great site for those who thirst the know more about Buddhism.

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  5. Could you please fix the link once more?

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