Book Picks: Heart of Meditation — Discovering Innermost Awareness by H.H. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama & Jeffrey Hopkins

"One of the greatest living teachers of Dzogchen, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, explains one of the most profound texts of this tradition (Patrul Rinpoche’s Three Keys), and the teaching is translated by one of America’s leading scholars, Jeffrey Hopkins. Does it get any better than this? "

~José I. Cabezón, author ofThe Buddha’s Doctrine and the Nine Vehicles

July 6th will be the Dalai Lama's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than practicing some thoughtful meditation from his newest book now available at Paradise Found?

The heart of meditation—the thing that brings it alive—is compassion. Without that essential foundation, other practices are pointless. Fortunately, the mind can be trained in compassion, and the mind thus trained with the qualities of love, empathy, kindness, and respect for others is ready for the practice of the Great Completeness (Dzogchen), which is considered the pinnacle of spiritual practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His Holiness the Dalai Lama here teaches the Great Completeness simply but thoroughly, using as his reference a visionary poem by the nineteenth-century master Patrul Rinpoche to show that insight can never be separated from compassion. Through practice of the Great Completeness, we can access our innermost awareness and live our lives in a way that acknowledges it and manifests it. The wisdom and compassion that arise from such insight are critical, His Holiness teaches, not only to individual progress in meditation but to our collective progress toward peace in the world.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India. He is the author of numerous best-selling Buddhist books. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal in 2007.

Jeffrey Hopkins (born 1940) is an American Tibetologist. He is Emeritus of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught for more than three decades since 1973. He has authored more than twenty-five books about Tibetan Buddhism, among them the highly influential Meditation on Emptiness, which appeared in 1983, offering a pioneering exposition of Prasangika-Madyamika thought in the Geluk tradition. From 1979 to 1989 he was the Dalai Lama's chief interpreter into English and he played a significant role in the development of the Free Tibet Movement.

Hardcover: 24.95

SaveSaveSaveSave