Free Downloads Reflections On Silver River
In this masterful translation and commentary on Tokmé Zongpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, Ken McLeod shines the light of wisdom on the challenges of contemporary life and illuminates a path the modern reader can take to freedom, peace and understanding. Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is one of the most revered and loved texts in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. While this text has been translated many times, Ken McLeod's plain and simple English beautifully reflects the simplicity and directness of the original Tibetan. McLeod's commentary is full of striking images, provocative questions and inspiring descriptions of what it means to be awake and present in your life. Practical instruction, brief and to the point, is found in each of the verse commentaries, providing straightforward responses to the question, "How do I practice this?" McLeod is clearly writing from his own experience. Yet, instead of anecdotes and personal history, he challenges the reader to engage various scenarios, and consider how compassion, clarity, presence and balance could take expression in his or her life. The book is divide into three parts. The first is an introduction to the text and to Tokmé Zongpo. The second is McLeod's translation of Tokmé Zongpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. The third section is the main part of the book, a traditional verse-by-verse commentary. At 184 pages, Reflections on Silver River is a highly accessible introduction to Tibetan Buddhist practice as well as a valuable resource for the experienced practitioner, regardless of his or her tradition of training.
Paperback: 186 pages
Publisher: Unfettered Mind (January 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0989515311
ISBN-13: 978-0989515313
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #55,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #57 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Eastern > Buddhism > Tibetan #12197 in Books > Religion & Spirituality
I am nowadays reluctant to open the pages of traditional Tibetan teachings. They ring with superlatives, and talk too easily of perfection and wonders. Ken McLeod's translation and commentary on the thirty-seven practices of the bodhisattva does none of that. His writing is raw, a plain example of how to negotiate life with dignity rather than pride, with questions rather than answers, with humanity rather than sainthood. He demonstrates the fragility of self-knowledge and the grace of striving in the face of emptiness and death.Many have been drawn to the `esoteric' teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Doctrines and practices are handed down by secret initiation among an exclusive class. There are dire warnings. It's exciting, but intimidating. What happens if you don't get it right?At the other end of the Buddhist scale lie the teachings of a man who walked the roads of North India at about the same time literature was being invented in Greece. He questioned life itself, not as a concept but as a painful experience. His way diverged from the philosophers, soothsayers and religious teachers of his time. Rather than perfecting practices and following rules, the Buddha exemplified the way of self-knowledge.In this book by a lifelong Buddhist practitioner we are not instructed on what is correct. No secret knowledge is revealed. Instead, the author exposes his fears, doubts and qualms. He uses his own disappointments and pain to explore the cryptic, ambiguous verses of the fourteenth century Tibetan monk Tokmé Zongpo.This book offers glimpses of a very human Togmé Zongpo, not the holy Tibetan lama who never made a misstep. I relate to it personally, a little differently each time I pick it up.
Ken McLeod is one of the few western teachers in a position to be able to offer an authentic translation and commentary on this wonderful Tibetan text. His pragmatic approach to traditional teachings and 40+ years of experience as a Buddhist teacher and student are very much in evidence here.Togme Zangpo's '37 Practices of a Bodhisattva' is a less well known text than 'Seven Points for Training the Mind' or 'Eight Verses on Mind Training' but is very much part of the same lojong (mind training) tradition. Beginning with traditional warnings against wasting our precious human life and the dangers of attachment, Togme Zangpo continues by setting out how a bodhisattva ('awakened being') should behave and his advice is no less relevant to today's world than it was in 14th century Tibet.Being a lojong text, '37 Practices' goes on to explain how to deal with anger and criticism from others and transform these into loving kindness and a wish to free all beings from suffering. The final verse summarises this aim:To dispel the suffering of beings without limit,With wisdom freed from the three spheresDirect all the goodness generated by these effortsTo awakening — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.Ken McLeod's commentary goes straight to the heart of the matter with examples that speak to our own lives as they are today, while diluting none of the message from the original text. He offers practice advice on how to use the difficult areas of life as part of the path and the same straightforward and no-nonsense approach to the teachings evident in his earlier work 'Wake Up to Your Life'.
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