In the Shadow of the Buddha

In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet, by Matteo Pistono. For nearly a decade, Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government, showing it to the U.S. government, human rights organizations, and anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet-he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim.

Disillusioned by a career in American politics, he had gone to the Himalayas looking for a simpler way of life. After encountering Buddhism in Nepal, Pistono's quest led him to Tibet and to a meditation master whose spiritual brother is Sogyal Rinpoche, bestselling author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Pistono not only became the master's student but also couriered messages to him in Tibet from the Dalai Lama in India. This began an extraordinary, and ultimately vital, adventure.

In the Shadow of the Buddha is a book about Tibet through the eyes of a devotee-a stranger hiding in plain sight. It's about how a culture's rich spiritual past is slipping away against the force of a tyrannical future. It's about how Tibetans live today, and the tenacity of their faith in the future in spite of dire repression and abuse. It's also about Pistono's own journey from being a frustrated political activist to becoming a practicing Buddhist mystic, a man who traveled thousands of miles and risked his own life to pursue freedom and peace.

Matteo Pistono is a writer, photographer, political activist and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. He lived and traveled throughout the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West first-hand accounts and photos of China's human rights abuses in Tibet. He is the founder of Nekorpa, a foundation working to protect sacred pilgrimage sites around the world. Pistono and his wife, Monica, divide their time between Colorado, Washington D.C., and Asia. Click here for more information or to order.

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Yoga Tantra: Paths to Magical Feats

Yoga Tantra: Paths to Magical Feats, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Students of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who have advanced beyond introductory levels will appreciate this challenging, more advanced teaching. Based on the third book in a series of Vajrayana teachings developed by a Tibetan scholar in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, this book explores "paths to magical feats" through a dedicated practice of Yoga Tantra. (Readers will probably want to begin with Tantra in Tibet, which Snow Lion published in 1987.) This volume builds upon the practice of deity yoga, which was introduced in the series' second book, in which a person "joins one's own body, speech, mind, and activities with the exalted body, speech, mind, and activities of a supramundane being." The introduction lays out the features of Yoga Tantra, drawn from lectures the Dalai Lama gave in India in 1979 and 2002, and is followed by more detailed expositions of the teachings. Readers who have minimal background in esoteric Buddhism will undoubtedly be confused by how the four mandalas correspond to the four seals and lineages, though even neophytes should be able to use the book to deepen their practice of "calm abiding" and mental focus. Highly advanced practitioners who have mastered yogic union can eventually attempt magical feats such as revealing treasure and mineral wealth in the ground, walking on water, walking in space, finding lost articles and controlling the mind of another.

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, by Pico Iyer. One of the most acclaimed and perceptive observers of globalism and Buddhism now gives us the first serious consideration—for Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike—of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s work and ideas as a politician, scientist, and philosopher. Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his father’s) for the last three decades—an ongoing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Now, in this insightful, impassioned book, Iyer captures the paradoxes of the Dalai Lama’s position: though he has brought the ideas of Tibet to world attention, Tibet itself is being remade as a Chinese province; though he was born in one of the remotest, least developed places on earth, he has become a champion of globalism and technology. He is a religious leader who warns against being needlessly distracted by religion; a Tibetan head of state who suggests that exile from Tibet can be an opportunity; an incarnation of a Tibetan god who stresses his everyday humanity.

Moving from Dharamsala, India—the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile—to Lhasa, Tibet, to venues in the West, where the Dalai Lama’s pragmatism, rigor, and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, The Open Road illuminates the hidden life, the transforming ideas, and the daily challenges of a global icon.

Pet Shambhala

Mantras & Misdemeanours: An Accidental Love Story

Mantras & Misdemeanours: An Accidental Love Story, by Vanessa Walker with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Vanessa Walker went to the home of the Dalai Lama to explore her religion through the eyes of its people. She wasn't there looking for love, let alone a husband, and she certainly didn't plan on falling pregnant to a disrobed Tibetan monk. But sometimes karma works in mysterious ways ... Nestled in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, McLeod Ganj is a place of quiet beauty and surprising violence, where reality has the wide-open sense of a dream. It is a place where a government consults an ancient oracle for matters of importance, where monasteries flourish and people believe wholeheartedly in the truth of miracles. Full of contradictions, McLeod Ganj is also a place where monks wear the latest Nike trainers, where the Dalai Lama's brother struggles with his own inner demons, and where a divided town must choose between protesting the death sentence of a much-loved monk or joining a pelvis-thrusting gangsta-rapping Tibetan and his bevy of beauties at the Miss Tibet beauty pageant. Tumultuous and funny, insightful and poignant, Mantras and Misdemeanors is a compelling and lyrical journey to the heart of Tibetan Buddhism. A practicing Buddhist, Vanessa Walker is the former Religious Affairs Writer on The Australian newspaper and today lives in Auckland with her beautiful new baby boy, Tsering.

How to See Yourself As You Really Are

How to See Yourself As You Really Are, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins. Like the two wings of a bird, love and insight work cooperatively to bring about enlightenment, says a fundamental Buddhist teaching. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to realizing that goal is self-knowledge. In How to See Yourself As You Really Are, the world's foremost Buddhist leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shows readers how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective.

Step-by-step exercises help readers shatter their false assumptions and ideas and see the world as it actually exists. By directing our attention to the false veneer that so bedazzles our senses and our thoughts, His Holiness sets the stage for discovering the reality behind appearances. But getting past one's misconceptions is only a prelude to right action, and the book's final section describes how to harness the power of meditative concentration to the service of love, and vice versa, so that true altruistic enlightenment is attained. Enlivened by personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's own life experiences, How to See Yourself As You Really Are is an inspirational and empowering guide to achieving self-awareness that can be read and enjoyed by spiritual seekers of all faiths.